Day 14 - San Bernardino, CA to Santa Monica Pier, CA

And so, dear friends, one last time onto the breach. Or something like that anyway. After our night in the wigwam, our final day greeted us with typical California sunshine as we set off on the final leg of our drive.

Old 66 took down through several LA suburbs between San Bernardino and Pasadena (Pasadena looks like a nice town), then onto the Pasadena Freeway. This is another Route 66 legacy, as the first freeway west of the Mississippi, which was very picturesque but alarming at times. Think Lake Shore Drive with extremely short off ramps and narrow lanes, etc, but also with sharper and blinder corners, faster speed limits, and LA drivers (another uninteresting point I have noticed is that LA has freeways whereas Chicago has expressways).


From there we drove along Sunset Boulevard, giving us a view of the famous Hollywood sign, onto Santa Monica Boulevard, past Rodeo Drive and Beverly Hills, and through (what felt like) several hundred stop lights to the official end of the route at Lincoln and Olympic in Santa Monica.

Sunset Boulevard

The Hollywood sign - perhaps the last over sized gimmick of Route 66?

Lincoln and Olympic, right of Santa Monica Blvd. The formal end to US Highway 66

Although this is where US 66 technically ended, this rather benign intersection is somewhat anticlimactic after over 2,400 miles, so we then proceeded a few blocks onwards to the unofficial and ceremonial end of the route for most drivers: the Santa Monica Pier on the Pacific Ocean.

Santa Monica and Ocean, right beside the beach and Santa Monica Pier

Santa Monica Pier, the ceremonial end of all Route 66 adventures

The pier, which was bigger than we expected, was covered in the usual seaside gimmickry, including some restaurants, a small roller coaster and ferris wheel, except you don't usually hear people name dropping about golfing with Charlie Sheen at the table next to you (I guess Charlie has more time for golf these days).

Fun on the pier

LA couldn't have provided a bigger contrast to so much of our drive over the last few days. We very rapidly segued from being practically the only car on the road, to being surrounded by thousands of crazy LA drivers. (They really are crazy, it's not just a myth.)

Finishing something like Route 66 is never quite what you expect, especially somewhere so busy, where you feel your achievement is lost under the bustle of other people enjoying their Sunday afternoon at the beach. Like Chicago at the start, LA has mostly moved on from Route 66. Thankful there were still a couple of public indications that this was the western terminus of main street USA.

Done

The Pacific Ocean. This is about as far west as one gets by car.

And a visit to the sea would be incomplete without getting you feet wet.

This little guy has come a long way too

Saying goodbye to the route we had grown to know, we hopped on the expressway, err freeway, and headed down to Long Beach to see the Queen Mary, the namesake and grandmother of the ship we will be taking home to the UK. She is now permanently moored as a hotel and museum. Owing to limited time, we took a quick tour around the decks, before indulging in a celebratory drink in the bar. Live music of dubious quality was provided, but the stars were obviously in alignment, and the fates smiling upon us, because after about 10 minutes of random medley of tunes, they played the one song which we haven't heard once on our entire trip. '(Get you kicks) On Route 66'. We raised our glasses and toasted one another. The perfect ending.

The QM

She even has a submarine museum moored up alongside

Bridge Alert! (see what we did there)

Enjoying the bar

Taking a stroll along the promenade deck. Shuffle board anyone?

Bonus Giant! We spotted this genuine-looking muffler-man along the freeway to Long Beach. He ahs obviously moved to LA to become a golf pro.

Except, of course, that isn't the end. We headed north out of LA through the Antelope Valley to Lancaster, CA, to stay with our friends Sean and Sarah, who moved here from Chicago last year. They make good pork chops.