Day 5--Santa Monica to Upland, Ca.: Thanks Lightning!

CHICAGO, HERE WE COME!!

So, today we began our journey. Although Santa Monica Pier isn't the official start of Route 66, it's where we officially began and will carry on for more than 2,000 miles. I tried to get a great family picture with the pier sign, but this is what you get when you have to turn your camera over to others who are busy on their way...a quick shot and call it good. Oh well, you can see the ocean in the background; we were there, I promise. Dang, now I sound like a camera snob. What do you do?!!

Jake enjoying a free ride while catching some tunes--

and this guy was a great singer!

We finally made it to the pier when the rides were open--we started off with the yellow roller coaster ride, but to Will's disappointment (after we were already sitting down waiting for the ride to start) he was less than an inch too short to ride it, so I had to take him away from the ride in tears. He rebounded though, and all the boys had a great time on the bumper cars. By this time we needed to get going so we headed out on our journey of Route 66, which officially began at the corner of Ocean and Santa Monica Blvd at 2:10pm. We had stayed at the pier longer than expected and the boys were getting hungry, but how long can it take to go 10 miles or so to the place we wanted to eat?! Plenty long when you have stop lights at every other corner--seriously! On our way we saw a fire engine stopped at a corner with its lights on, so I pointed it out to the boys, "Look guys, there's a fire engine." To which Will replied, "What's that fire engine doing in California?!" Daren and I laughed so hard, it took me a minute to explain that there are fire engines everywhere, not just in Utah at Dad's fire station.

This is where we went for "lunch" at 3:00 (ya, it took an hour to go 10 miles), and this only shows a part of the line at Pinks, a famous hot dog place which has been around for almost 70 years. The line continued around the corner and took AN HOUR to get through to order. Let me tell you how fun that was trying to entertain 3 hungry boys at that point. Pink's is open until 2am each night, and someone in line told Daren that the line is just as long at that time of night. It was good food, but dang!

After our lunch/dinner at almost 4:30pm, we were on the road again. It was fun to see parts of California which we were somewhat familiar with, mostly by driving by them on the freeway, but we got to see them from a different view because we weren't on the freeway. You know, the movie "Cars" really is true!! Daren and I were talking about whether there was a "heyday" for Route 66, and figured that if there was one, it must have been just before the interstate was finished and took so many people off the roads and put them on the highway. I can just hear James Taylor singing now, "Main street isn't main street anymore, No one seems to need us like they did before." That movie really was the catalyst that got us thinking about this trip. Thanks Lightning, Mater, Doc, Sally, etc. (I really can name them all if you want me to keep going--I love that movie as much as the boys...maybe more! Who can forget Guido and Luigi?!). In driving through parts of L.A., Hollywood, etc. you see old, abandoned buildings or old strip malls everywhere. We drove by my beloved Dodger Stadium, but you can't see it from the freeway--most of the freeways in Southern California are gorgeous, by the way. The foliage growing alongside is amazing. My favorite part of the drive was from Pasadena and Arcadia, through Monrovia or so. The old architecture of a few standing churches and buildings are incredible, and all the huge trees around are beautiful...which leads me to the fun park we found while driving through Arcadia. It was a huge park, with a golf course next to it that I think Daren was salivating at--he's turned into a golf junkie lately and I think he is really missing it already. The park had a great play area for kids, and although I didn't take pictures, it was just way cool equipment, different than I have ever seen before. Ben called it "the park of the future."


We have a great Route 66 book that is like "Driving Route 66 for Dummies" which gives us step-by-step instructions how to get from point A to point B. It has a lot of information about old buildings along the way and other interesting historical tidbits, but it doesn't include this building. The book pretty much breezes through the city of Upland, with just a blurb of a mention, but just so you all know, at 1453 W. Foothill (Foothill is Route 66), sits an office which Grandpa Waterwheel built over 25 years ago. He owned a bookkeeping and tax service and built his own unique building which really reflects his taste and love for the mountains and the outdoors. He had an old red '56 Ford pickup which he used to park outside the office every day, and so many people were familiar with him because of that truck. He worked there until 2 weeks before he passed away--he was a great example of a hard worker, and Daren reminds me so much of my grandpa.

And that is where we ended our journey for today--we left Foothill Blvd. at Euclid and headed back up to my parents house for the night. By the time we got home the boys were tuckered out, and this is what their sleeping situation looks like in the "rock room." They sleep all over each other, but they don't care. It was another successful day, and we will carry on with our journey on Monday. Bye!!

Total mileage to date: 1,056.4
Weather: 81 degrees at Santa Monica Pier, sunny, a perfect day (sorry to those of you in Utah--we heard it's been quite rainy up there)
Regular gas price: $4.59 in Upland, but we saw $4.69 along the way. It's funny how already we are used to seeing gas prices over $4.00, but get excited if we find gas for around $4.25-4.30!!