Donkeys, shrimps and the stars

Well today wasn't as eventful as the day before but still a good day. We stayed in Laughlin for breakfast and headed out for a buffet breakfast at the hotel next door. It was slightly smaller than what we will get in Vegas but it was still nice. I love the american Omlette stations and enjoyed a sausage and cheese omelette for my breakfast and some fruit to try to have a balanced diet ;)

We hit the road headed for Oatman one of my favourite places on route 66. It literally looks like a film set for a western movie. There are donkeys just wondering the streets and lots of small quirky shops. We visited the million dollar bar where the walls are lined with 1 dollar bills that people have left behind and stapled to the walls. I left one here in 2009 when i visited but didn't know where to start in looking for it, so i left another one this time in a more iconic place hoping that if i return i will be able to find it next time.

Back down onto main roads we headed for the bit of Route 66 that has the best historical road markings for Route 66 a small town called Amboy which apparently only has a population of 18 people, we didn't see one of them while we were there taking our pictures on the road. That pretty much marked the end of Route 66 for the day, next stop the Joshua Tree national park.

We had bought the annual ticket for the parks so we were straight in amongst these bizarre trees. Not what i was expecting at all but they were very cool. Best of all we could stand at the view point and enjoy views of the san adreas fault in the distance. Back on the road and now the race was on to get to LA.

We briefly visited Palm springs just to see what it was like and pin the meantime Ben was in heaven as we went through the biggest wind farm any of us had ever seen. It literally went for miles. We raced to try to get to LA before the sun went down but unfortunately we were unsuccessful and arrived to 8 lanes of traffic in the dark. Oh well we found or hotel and unloaded the bags. We were then straight back in the car and off into the centre of LA. We headed for Santa Monica pier and after finding a parking space in a nice car park (defined by mum as lit and attended) we went into my favourite Bubba Gump Shrimps. Dinner was lovely and afterwards we headed to the pier to soak up the atmosphere. We were all tired but knew that tonight was the only real time that we had in LA before moving on tomorrow, so we drove down Hollywood Boulevard to see the stars and also to Rodeo Drive to see things that we couldn't afford.

When we got back to the room it was nearly 12pm and after a long day we were all tired so that was it heads on pillows and asleep.

Donkeys at Oatman

Us in the million dollar bar

The sign at Amboy 

The joshua trees 

Bubbas