Day 8 - Santa Monica

On our last day, we had a beautiful morning wakeup in Malibu (sleeping with the waves as a natural lullaby was the best!). After a quick breakfast and packing and cleaning sessions, the ladies were dropped off (along with all the luggage) at our hotel - the Embassy Suites LAX South. Here we stayed put and caught up on reading and Facebook while the guys went to return the RV. We'd miss it, but man, doesn't a real bed sound like a dream right now? After a few hours of bugging for a room to put our luggage in, we all relaxed RV-less and planned our afternoon and evening.

To get to Santa Monica Pier, we needed to take a local LA bus called the Big Blue Bus from the airport to Santa Monica. This was probably the most productive people-watching I've done in a long time. First, we headed out on a shuttle from the Embassy Suites to LAX and found the bus bay we needed. The eventual bus ride (with its rotating cast of characters as passengers) took about 35 minutes. Once we headed to the pier, we found the "ceremonial" end of the Route in Palisades Park, just a block from the Pier itself.

A plaque commemorates Will Rogers as the father of Route 66 and along with the many things along the Route in his name, this is the final stop. While the "real" end is somewhere at Santa Monica Blvd/Freeway and Ocean Avenue, this area is MUCH less gratifying and so we enjoyed taking pictures in the park and celebrating the end of our journey.

After photographing the end of the Route, we headed to the Pier and walked along to see the restaurants, carousel, and feel the ocean air for the last time.

After a quick walk and some last-minute souvenir purchases, we headed to dinner a bit early at a GREAT tapas place INSIDE a Nordstrom called Blue Stove. For a cheaper-than-typical-California price but at the same gorgeous quality, we had a wonderful early dinner and end to our adventure. I found it a great time for a champagne (ok, it's really prosecco!) toast:

We walked back to our Big Blue Bus and headed back to the Embassy Suites for a relaxing night of hot tubbing, packing, and getting ready for the flight home the next day!

Added: Day 9 - Heading Home! We had a famous Embassy Suites omelette/made-to-order breakfast and then headed to LAX for our trip back to Philadelphia through Phoenix. All flights were uneventful and smooth and we made it back (with all 12 pieces of our luggage, too!) in one piece. I already miss the California air, but it's nice to be home with all our memories. Now, to go through the pictures!!

A note from Siobhan: Thanks to all for reading about our adventure - it's been a ton of fun (even with our Internet issues!) keeping up with everything and making our trip into a story. I feel so blessed and happy that I can travel like this with Chris and his family and I am so glad I have been so welcomed to be included on the trip! We had such a wonderful time and would rent another RV in a second! Any ideas where we should go next?!