And we’re not talking about some Red Sox batter’s day at the plate — we’re talking about the third running of the AONE South Shore Beach & Waterfront Tour that took place on April 26th. April showers? What April Showers? We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day — sunny, with just an occasional passing cloud, and temps pushing 80 degrees. More like late July than late April!

Days like this do magical things for event attendance, of course, and this was no exception. No less than 16 Alfas and 25 Alfisti gathered on the warm Sunday morning in a scenic park alongside Hingham Harbor. These numbers mean that a lot of Significant Others came along too — a welcome occurrence! Seemed like they all had a good time and got to know what a congenial bunch of people comprise our club — hope to see lots more of you at future events!

Event organizer (and AONE President) Tom Lesko and his wife Kathi were in the park to greet us with a table on which coffee, muffins, bagels, and donuts were set up. The Alfas rolled in one by one and arranged themselves in a picturesque row. It was noted that five decades of Alfa Romeo production were represented — we had cars spanning the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s, ranging from Garry & Tereza Prime’s ‘57 Giulietta to Mark Ziburis’s ‘92 Spider.

Having partaken of coffee and crumpets (as well as much jawboning and tire-kicking), we held a brief drivers meeting and Tom gave us maps of the anticipated route. We were then on the road, with Tom and his Giulia Spider "Grumpy" in the lead. All of the soft tops were dropped, of course, leaving the lovely GTVs of Greg & Andrea Stidsen and Phil & Jean Bostwick as the only two Alfas with fixed roofs. Our scenic itinerary was essentially the same as that of previous years, and took us past Nantasket and Hull beaches (where scantily-clad sun worshipers were already in evidence), Cohasset’s gold coast (where the extravagant homes of wealth worshipers were also in evidence), Cohasset and Back Harbors, and on to Minot Beach and the Minot lighthouse. We then motored into Scituate Harbor, and took a swing by the Scituate lighthouse. We carried on to Peggoty Beach, and then looped back around to Scituate Harbor.

This was where our destination for lunch was — namely the Mill Wharf Restaurant, the same spot we dined the last two years, on the water overlooking the harbor, with fishing boats, lobster traps, buoys, piers, and seagulls painting us a pretty picture. We occupied two large tables and had ourselves a leisurely and enjoyable brunch/lunch, this time accompanied by a live jazz trio.

Afterward, Tom had a little more touring planned, so we fired up our Alfas and hit the road. It’s a little difficult to keep 16 cars together, but we didn’t do too badly in the morning leg, thanks in part to Garry & Tereza (Hingham residents like Tom & Kathi) hanging back and making sure that not too many wrong turns were taken by the cars ahead. After lunch, though, people got lazy, and Alfas were spotted going in random paths — passing each other in opposite directions, and taking roads that turned out to be dead-end peninsulas. No complaints, however, since it was just such a fabulous day to be out in our Alfas!

Thanks again to Tom & Kathi Lesko for getting our AONE driving season off to such a great start! Dare we try to make it 4-for-4? Come on down to the South Shore next year and find out!

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