The original "Cars & Coffee" gathering is reportedly the one that, for years, has been held informally every Saturday year-round in Irvine on the parking lot shared by the Ford Motor Company's California design center and Mazda's U.S. headquarters. Similar events are now held in many parts of the country, though some have more limited schedules, such as from spring through fall only. In early July, I went to the one held every Saturday (7-9 a.m.) in Great Falls, VA -- which is a suburb of Washington, D.C. And then on Aug. 4, I made my third visit to the Cars & Coffee (7:30-9:30 a.m. every Saturday) in the Baltimore suburb of Hunt Valley, MD. During my earlier whirlwind visits there, I took no pictures; this time I did. And I am happy to share my photos here.

The car guy who appears to have started the weekly Hunt Valley gathering, Rich Williams, oversees Facebook and flickr pages devoted to this event. For your convenience, here are those pages' URLs: https://www.facebook.com/HuntValleyHorsepower and http://www.flickr.com/groups/hunt_valley_cars__coffee/ . This gathering is as informal and as laid back as Rich's definition of a show car: "If you love it, bring it."

Though some cars and attendees show up repeatedly or several times in the course of a Cars & Coffee season, many more do so only once in a while. This means that there are always "new" samples, even rare ones, to see each time. So if you are car crazy and there's a Cars & Coffee in your area, going several times or often could be worth your while. And, as you'll note in my pictures here, cars come and go throughout each two-hour gathering. So showing up early is advisable for those who want to miss as few interesting cars as possible.

I shot all the photos in this gallery with a handheld Nikon Coolpix P7100. All have been resized for online viewing. Note that the images and other content here are protected by copyright laws. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized use, copying, printing or direct linking is prohibited.

>>> CLICK ON A THUMBNAIL PHOTO TO ENLARGE IT, AFTER WHICH YOU CAN MANUALLY GO FORWARD OR BACKWARD TO THE OTHER IMAGES IN THIS GALLERY. THE PICTURES HERE CAN ALSO BE VIEWED AS A SELF-ADVANCING SLIDESHOW, BUT MINUS THE TECHNICAL AND OTHER DETAILS. SEE THE UPPER RIGHT CORNER OF THIS WINDOW. HAPPY VIEWING! <<<