The last leg of our road trip with a spur of the moment visit to Vegas for a couple of days before reaching the end of Route 66 on Santa Monica pier

Vegas:

After leaving the Grand Canyon behind we headed towards the Hoover Dam. We didn’t stop as the sun was close to setting and we wanted to get to Vegas. We drove through Boulder City which has stunning views looking back over Lake Mead. We stopped to get some photos of the sun setting over the lake and the desert. As we made our way towards Vegas we turned a corner on the highway to see the night lights of Vegas up ahead which was really impressive. We made it to Vegas and got checked in at the Flamingo where we had a room overlooking the strip. Once we got showered we headed off along the strip for my first time in Vegas (and Sean’s fourth). We walked through the strip and got a bus to Freemont Street where we got some dinner in a sports bar. Sadly, I was wearing a dress so didn’t get to go on the zipline down Freemont Street. We saw the Heart Attack Grill, which was in no way appetising. As we made our way back to the strip we decided to walk through the Venetian, which is something else. We had walked for hours and were totally lost. When we eventually left we some how were further away from our hotel. We walked back through the Caesars Palace before calling it a night.

The following morning we went for breakfast at the Paris hotel and did some shopping to get some swim gear for me and then we hit the pool in the hotel. The weather was amazing so we spent most of the afternoon in the pool drinking. In the evening we went for some dinner close to the New York New York hotel. Vegas was amazing, but I was a bit sick of walking up and down the strip drinking. We went into some really cool hotels and checked out all the sights. On our last morning in Vegas we stayed by the pool for as long as possible before heading off to the final stop on Route 66, Santa Monica Pier.

We decided to make a quick detour first, and went back to the Dam for some photos. We didn’t hang around very long but it was great to spend some time there. We headed towards Barstow through the Mojave Desert, which gave some awesome photo opportunities. We pretty much gave up on Route 66 after Vegas and didn’t stick to the old road or stop off much along the way.

California

We made it to Santa Monica pier in the afternoon and got some photos of the end of Route 66 and went on the little roller-coaster. We were spending two nights in Redondo Beach, so we headed to our hotel. Redondo Beach was very quiet but we found a great place for dinner by the water. The following morning we got up and went back to Santa Monica beach to chill out for a while, we also did some driving through LA and Hollywood. We took it pretty easy before heading to the Cheesecake Factory that evening (I’d never been so decided to check it out), after a huge dinner we were so full neither of us have got any cheesecake (after 4 times in the states I still haven’t had cheesecake from there).

We decided to spend our last two days in Santa Barbara so we headed for there. When we arrived we found a hotel and got checked in. The hotel was nothing major but the town was amazing. The streets were lined with beautiful buildings, leading down onto the water. After a quick swim we decided to head out towards the Los Padres National Forest towards a little town called Solvang, a random Danish village. We spend some time strolling through the streets here before driving back towards Santa Barbara. There were three shark attacks around Santa Barbara that closed some of the beaches, so I was happy to sit out of the water for a while.

I have kept this post in my drafts for quite a while and sadly have forgotten some specific places we went to – lesson learnt!