A beach setting was considered the last time we planned the BBQ, but there were a few things that came up that made us choose Cerritos Regional over a beach:
1. From Newport all the way up to Dockweiler, its very hard to find a large chunk of parking to accommodate everyone coming.
2. Typically the parking location and the BBQ location are not close to each other at the beach.
3. The beach is a very open / public place and when combined with #2, concerns of security regarding people's rides came into question. Its hard to enjoy the bbq, and people's rides at the same time in the same area.
4. A few people weren't interested in tracking sand into their cars or having them coated with sea salt - especially when they had spent the previous day cleaning it inside/out.
The nice things about Cerritos Regional were:
1. We were able to reserve a spot to BBQ that was only about 10 feet away from the parking lot where we were able to fit 20 alltracs, and several other cars.
2. Because of #1, people were easily able to walk over to grab some food, and walk back to chit-chat with anyone about cars without making it a hike..
2. It's a very large park (also dog friendly) in a nice area with very light traffic.
3. It's located in between Orange County and LA County which makes it easy for a lot of owners to come out - We've had guys come from as far south as SD (Robert) and guys come from as far north as SB (Adrian)..
A few of us even went out afterward to grab a few brews and just recount the day.
The great weather is nice, but we tried to focus on the people and the cars, and a location that would be easy for everyone rather than putting a priority on sand & sun.. I can't comment on Fiesta Island since I've never been there, but I just wanted to give you a clue as to why we had picked the park over other locations in the past..
The main thing here is to hold the event - tell everyone, and hopefully most (if not all) can show up and you guys can have a great time..