We stopped yesterday in Glendora, CA which is about 50 miles from Santa Monica via historic Route 66.  After getting up early and planning our exit strategy after we got to Santa Monica (we had made no plans for our return trip) we left about 8 AM to finish the rest of the Mother Road.

We drove along Foothill Boulevard through the following towns/cities:

Azusa
Irwindale
Duarte
Monrovia
Arcadia
Pasadena
Los Angeles
Sunset
West Hollywood
Beverly Hills
West Los Angeles
Santa Monica

and maybe a few other named locales.  This included driving along the famous Sunset Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard.

It was really, really great that we arrived to do this on a holiday!!  And, leaving early in the morning!  As a result, the traffic on the way into Santa Monica was very light until we arrived at the part where we were on Sunset Boulevard.  Traffic began to pick up and was moderately heavy all the way into the Santa Monica pier.  Based on this experience, I would not recommend arriving in Santa Monica except on a Sunday or holiday!

We arrived in Santa Monica around 11:00 AM after stopping to photograph a number of historical buildings along the way.  We found parking at a metered spot just a few blocks away and for only $4 got two hours to find a cache, visit the Santa Monica pier and complete our journey to the End of the Road!

 

We had a light lunch (cheese dogs, fries and lemonade) on the pier to celebrate before starting our journey to return to Wilmington, DE.  We had initially decided that we would stop in Barstow, CA (where we’d already passed through) figuring that would be as far as we could reasonably get.

However, we reconsidered our destination and first decided on Las Vegas (a place we don’t really care to visit again).  As we were looking at the map, we ultimately decided on Henderson, NV a few miles past Las Vegas and our Garmin nuvi said we’d arrive between 5:30 and 6:00 PM.  We did!  Drove 375 miles today including the 50 into and out of Santa Monica.

 

It was interesting to see how many people were fleeing Las Vegas for points SW in California.  All the lanes on the southbound side of I-15 were full and for many miles barely moving!  Glad we were headed north.

We had a great drive today.  Tomorrow we plan to get as far as Zion National Park and take in some more scenery.  Then on to Salt Lake City by Thursday.