Once again, by popular choice, GoF West will be held in the heart of California’s spectacular Central Coast June 18-22. This will be our 40th event, and the beautiful Santa Ynez Valley, only 3 hours from the Los Angeles area and 5 hours from San Francisco, is an ideal choice for GoF West 2012. In addition to its natural beauty, the Central Coast and the Santa Ynez Valley offer many major tourist attractions and have come into their own as one of the finest wine producing regions in the country.

Our host hotel will be the Santa Ynez Valley Marriott Hotel in Buellton, just off Highway 101. The hotel offers first class accommodations for the GoF West. This is the same hotel where GoF West 2005 was held.

Ninety-three rooms are available at $139 per night; additional rooms may be available, depending on the registrations. This price includes a full American breakfast—ordered from the menu—for two! That is an outstanding value! Each room offers individual climate control, speaker-phones with data ports, hair dryers, irons and more. The hotel has an outdoor pool with Jacuzzi, tennis, racquetball and squash courts (with equipment), and a complimentary health club with steam room. Pool, table tennis, and bumper pool are available in the game room. In the event that the hotel is filled, there are several other hotels in the immediate area that offer similar accommodations.

We will have our routine GoF West functions starting with orientation and the first timers’ car display on Monday evening, and the car display on Tuesday. The park we will use for the car display is only 0.7 miles from the hotel, and offers shade, picnic tables, and a nice grassy area for the display. The hotel will provide us with a fantastic picnic BBQ lunch, just as they did in 2005. In the evening we will hold our annual auction dinner and auction of MG related parts and memorabilia. This event will be held at the hotel.

The back roads of the Santa Ynez Valley are unsurpassed for driving pleasure in an open-top vintage MG, and we plan to take full advantage of that again for our rally/ tour on Wednesday, perhaps taking you through some areas that you may not have seen in the past. Part of the rally/tour may follow the Foxen Canyon Wine Trail which covers 30 miles of scenic travel through some of the most beautiful scenery on the Central Coast, and passes many of the 60 wineries in the region. There will be stops at some of the wineries, and the printed tour guide will mention some of the historic facts for your entertainment as you travel on the tour. The rally/tour will take place on Wednesday morning, and the remainder of the day, from around noon, will be free of GoF activities, so you can plan on seeing more of the valley attractions on your own.

One of the major attractions of the valley is the Pacific Coast Performing Arts Theater in Solvang, just 3 miles from the hotel. The PCPA theater offers first class Broadway productions in an open air theater. You may recall that we saw “Guys and Dolls” at our last outing here. During our GoF West week, the PCPA will be offering “Hello! My Baby”, a “riotous new-fashioned musical comedy that reboots Berlin, Gershwin, Kern and a score of others, smartly weaving their updated hits into a timely romantic farce.” You can be assured that it will once again be first class, and we are offering an option of your attendance at this event for the 50%-off ticket price of only $18.00. We are also working on having dinner at the theater for around $15.00 per person.

The other events of the GoF West will follow our normal activity flow: autojumble and funkhana on Thursday morning, committee meetings in early afternoon, and the awards banquet in the evening. The winners' circle will be held Friday morning.

There should be plenty of time to see the local attractions of the Santa Ynez Valley. The unique Danish city of Solvang is only 3 miles from the hotel, and a brief side trip and short hike to Nojoqui Falls is a good way to enjoy a quiet afternoon. Two of California’s historic missions are within a short distance of Buellton, and everybody will enjoy a visit to some of the local horse ranches, especially to see the miniature horses. You might also enjoy a short trip to Lake Cachuma, or consider playing golf on one of the area’s championship courses.

We do hope that you will consider coming to this GoF West. This promises to be a good one, filled with a lot of fun throughout the week, and you will have to look hard to find a better venue that offers first-class accommodations, great driving roads, and a beautiful setting for the car display. We hope to see you here.

The Gof West 2012 Registration Form and Hotel Information
form is found at this link: 2012 Registration Form

The Reservations for Meals, PCPA Theater and Regalia purchases
forms for the event, are found at this link: GoF West 2012 Forms.

The Agenda for the GoF West 2012 Event.

Questions about the GoF West 2012 Event can be addressed to Larry Long at emgeeguy@aol.com.