Hot coffee and cool cars: Cloudbreak Café’s 3rd annual car show

Kennydale car enthusiasts show up.

By Annika Hauer,

For the Reporter

Cloudbreak Café was buzzing with people, cars and, yes, coffee, on July 29 for their annual classic car show.

The café-hosted car show was the third of its kind. A dozen or so “classic” cars of a variety of colors, years, brands and models filled the parking lot. Renton residents of all ages walked around admiring them, talking with the owners.

Carol McGraw lives in Kennydale — and ordered a caramel macchiato that day. She bought her 1956 Ford Thunderbird at the age of 19.

“I got it back in 1969,” she said. “The first car I owned. My dad helped me find it.”

The car is close to the heart and has stayed in the family since she got it.

“I enjoyed driving around Seward Park,” she said. “We could go all the way around it. That was a long time ago, but those are good memories. Driving with the top off, and just being able to look up at the beautiful sky.”

Priscilla McGraw Boyer is Carol’s daughter. All grown up, she gets to drive it now. Though her mother is scared of scratches, Priscilla isn’t quite so much.

“I would rather have the car, of course, but I don’t have as much fear about it,” she said. “There’s insurance, and I think people get out of my way when I drive it too, because they’re like, ‘Oh we don’t want to mess that up.’”

“I love the story,” Priscilla said. “My mom bought this when she was 19, my grandad rebuilt that engine in ‘85, my dad did the electrical, so it’s really a family car. I think that’s my favorite thing about driving it, that it’s a piece of my heritage.”

The youngest generation of the McGraw family was there, too — Serena McGraw Boyer is Priscilla’s daughter. She is four years old.

“I want a popsicle,” she said.

“It’s been a lot of fun, there’s a lot of interest,” Carol said about the event. “It’s been nice to be able to meet my neighbors. This has been a big show for Kennydale car enthusiasts!”