Route 66

We did not ride on Route 66, but we were on the Santa Monica Pier, the trail's end.

We left Costa Mesa and drove up the coast. Huntington Beach is a large, beautiful community with beaches that looked very inviting. Went through lots of towns and saw several oil drilling platforms which I hope never come to South Carolina.

Finally got to Venice and found a cute town and lots of young people walking, riding scooters, rollerblading and more near the beach on a concrete path.

I did not see a boardwalk like in the movie The Jazz Singer. We decided to keep going a short distance to Santa Monica and passed by LAX where planes fly right overhead when landing.

The pier has a huge, welcome sign on the road and we turned onto the wooden road that takes you out over the water.

At the intersection were two guys dressed like 45 and Kim Jung Un. They had on masks and were chatting up anyone who walked by.

We easily found a parking space in a lot and strolled on the boards. There is an aquarium, amusement park with rides and lots of restaurants and places to buy food. We walked out to the end and had lunch on a deck at a Mexican cantina called Marisol. Our waiter was so great and spoke Spanish with us. Saw a Zoltar fortune teller machine just like in the movie Big.

We never pass up a chance to play Skee Ball!

Later we walked back passing a guitar player dressed like 45. I got a cup of banana cream pie ice cream and thought it pretty good.

Back in the car we headed to our hotel. Saw some fancy cars and crazy signs.

Lots of Tesla's

and Maserati's

The route to Studio City took us through fancy Westwood and Beverly Hills where we saw magnificent homes. Then we rode on Mulholland Drive, way up in the hills with more interesting homes and views of the San Fernando Valley.

Finally we got to The Garland Hotel. I checked in while Jeff returned our rental car. Our room is comfy and has lots of electric plugs and charging stations. We are happy.

For dinner we took the hotel trolley over to Universal Studios. Their City Walk has restaurants and entertainment. We ate Chinese and then went to the movies. We saw Oceans 8 and it was entertaining. We had been to the movies here about 40 years ago and saw No Way Out with Kevin Costner. Since then they had torn down the theatre and built this new one about two years ago. We had reclining seats and popcorn and all is good. We took the trolley home and ready for bed.