Every third week of August, these is a car show in the area I live in NorCal. This annual event is called Pebble Beach Tour D’Elegance, and although I’ve lived here for the last 9 years of my life, this year was the first time I decided to actually check it out. My cousin came over to visit me and she’s going to be here for a couple of weeks and I thought, why not try something new? After all, this car show has apparently been called the World Series, Super Bowl, or Olympics of automotive universe.

The traffic was horrible. We drove to a neighboring town called Carmel-by-the-sea, which usually takes me about 10 minutes to drive to, and it took us well over 30 minutes. We thought, well this car show must be something.

When we finally got there, all of the street parking spaces were filled (no surprise there), and we barely managed to find  parking at market&deli. We picked up some creme sodas, perfect for the sunny weather, and we were off to the car show.

This annual car show presented by Rolex features vintage cars from all over the world. Every year, about 200 cars and motorcycles are chosen to compete at the competition called Concours, where automobiles are judged for originality, engine condition, design/style, and age. It’s not about speed, but about excellence. It’s about who was able to keep the car the closest to its original state.

This years Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance featured cars of various marques and classes, such as Lincoln Custom Coachwork, Vanvooren Coachwork, Simplex, Aston Martin Centennial, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Porsche 911, BMW 507, and etc. I saw the years on these antique cars and some of these cars are really old! How they are still rolling puzzles me.

It was such a fun day for me and my cousin to spend a sunny day outside to see all of these luxurious cars. It made me feel like I had been missing out for the past 9 years I’ve lived here. But at least now I know to come out here to Carmel every year during the third week of August! Definitely going back next year.