After we left the Grand Canyon we drove until we got to Seligman, AZ. It was a huge influence for the movie Cars. We saw A LOT of Cars stuff on Route 66. We stayed the night there in a super cute little Route 66 kitschy motel that was actually really nice compared to some of the really old run down ones we'd seen. We got up early the next day and headed out for LA! We were pretty stoked about getting to California and hitting up the beach.
I didn't get to take too many photos in Seligman because it was raining. It was a super neat little town thought with a lot of old Route 66 signs and places that had been well kept up.
From Seligman to Barstow, CA it was all desert. Nothing but sand and cacti. It seemed like a really long drive but that could have been because we were so excited to get to the beach plus we were waiting to eat until we found an In-N-Out. Fletcher had been so excited to eat there. We've had it before in Texas but he wanted an actual California In-N-Out burger so we waited. We stopped in Barstow to eat but it being the first town you come to after a ton of desert it was extremely packed. So, we headed to the next town, Victorville, and it was so much less crowded and we finally got to eat. It was well worth the wait. So delicious!
Our first stop in LA was the Manhattan Beach Creamery. We'd heard about them because my best friend and her husband had visited and brought us back a cupcake from there. That's true friendship. Carrying back a delicious chocolate cupcake on an airplane for your best friend. I love her. Anyway, we stopped in and got a caramel macaron (best macaron I've ever had) and ice cream. I got Heath Bar Coffee and Fletcher got Maple Bacon Crunch. We enjoyed our treats on the beach rather quickly because it was freezing and it started raining! Yeah! Drive all day to go to the beach and get there and it's freezing and raining! I had to go buy a hoodie it was that chilly! Needless to say, Fletcher was not pleased. So we left Manhattan Beach and hoped that by the time we got to Santa Monica Pier it would stop raining.
On our way to Santa Monica we drove down Ocean Avenue. We are both HUGE fans of Yellowcard. Especially the album Ocean Avenue. So that was a pretty fun little excursion for us. Plus this awesome succulent covered Ocean Avenue sign was pretty amazing.
The sun was setting by the time we got to the beach so we skipped the pier and just walked down to the water and hung out for a bit. I thought Oklahoma had nice sunsets...oh man! They got nothin' on beach sunsets. So magical. Next time we go to the coast we are definitely staying put in one place for more than a day so we can relax and enjoy each sunset. Most days we were in a rush to get to the next place so we'd have to leave the beach early. This day we were rushing to get back to Fletcher's cousins house which was about 45 minutes inland and she was waiting on us to eat dinner. We had In-N-Out again. Fletcher was a very happy fella.
