After a fun trip to Palm Springs Patricia and I were ready to stay in one place for a few days and enjoy time with our family. We were not half way finished with our epic adventure. This was our 5th Parade and we have enjoyed them all. This was special because our family was all there.
We had an Airbnb to stay in with our own swimming pool. When in Palm Springs…..it was a great 3 bedroom mid-century modern that was very well kept and about 20 minutes from the resort in La Quinta.
On Friday before Parade we all got to the house by mid evening. We enjoyed catching up and I let the gang know the different activities we had planned.
Our fun began early on Saturday morning with a trip to and up the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. The tram is really cool, it ascends Mt. San Jacinto which summits at 10,000 ft. While the tram is going up it’s route it rotates 360 degrees, giving everyone a great view. We hiked and had a great lunch at the restaurant at the top of the tramway. Then we hit the pool and had a great dinner.
Sunday we went to La Quinta and registered for Parade and got all of our tour tickets etc. While there we hit the parking lot and had a fun time seeing all the cool cars as they were pulling in. The venue was very nice and the event, as usual was run very well. We then returned to the Airbnb for some more swimming and relaxing. For dinner we joined David Clardy and Lori Schutz for dinner at the La Quinta Resort. What a great Fathers Day!
Monday I was up early to help with staging cars and shuffling folks around for the Historics Display which is part of the Concours. Lori puts this together and had asked us to bring our 2022 718 Boxster S to be in the Top Down Category as an example of the latest Boxster. After staging and helping out I did a little detailing on the car as it had just been driven over 2200 miles. The concours was great with many special cars. We were parked next to a 959, Carrera GT and other cool cars. Clardy had his Bahama Yellow 912 in the early 911, 912 Bahama Yellow category. Then there was the judged Concours on the other side of the lake. So many great cars. I think all of our favorites were on the first row with mostly air cooled models. Also Niklas loves the 918 Spyder and I had my eyes on a special 997 Turbo. My favorite was a Meisen Blue 356 Cabriolet, it was stunning to me. Later in the afternoon Niklas and Delaney drove the Boxster up to Idyllwild on a self guided tour as they had to leave later that evening. Before they left we all attended a dinner at the Palm Springs Aviation Museum. It was a great time with 7 hangars of planes on display.
Parade has more things to do than you have time for. Lots of competitive events, autocross, TSD Rally, Gimmick Rally, historical quiz etc. Also every year there is SimRacing, all four of the young adults in our group participated but did not Win, Place or Show. There are lots of informative seminars and not to forget some neat stuff for the Parade Juniors like Concours Judging, Ice Cream Social and RC Car Racing to name a few.
Tuesday and Wednesday we participated in tours. Tuesday Tyler and I toured to Idyllwild. It was a short but very fun route, it was Tyler’s first time driving the Boxster at speed and he did great. I really enjoyed our time together that day. Wednesday was our last day and Patricia and I drove the tour to Lake Arrowhead. It was a good route but lots of road construction really slowed it down. The resort and lunch at the destination were really nice. From Lake Arrowhead we headed to Virgin, UT for the rest of the story……..
Article written by David Patrick
