Check another one from the bucket list. We made it to the famous Santa Monica Pier.Carousels have been popular seaside park attractions for many years. This is one over 100 years old. Originally built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company, a company famous for crafting incredibly detailed carousels, the Santa Monica Pier Carousel features 44 hand-carved horses, 2 sleighs, 1 rabbit, and 1 goat lit up by 1100 electric lights. Festive band music makes riders feel like they’ve been transported to another time.This is the west terminus for Route 66, the historic highway built in the 1920s as the main highway between Chicago and Los Angeles. Interstate highways made Route 66 obsolete in the 1960s, but the highway still has nostalgic charm all along the route, with many cool retro sites to see. We were here early Monday morning, so Pacific Park was not open yet, but you can still see the rides and the Pacific Wheel.The Pacific WheelLooking back toward Santa Monica.The fishing pierSanta MonicaSanta Monica BeachBeautiful morning sky and the Pacific OceanFishing off the pierSanta Monica palm tree lined street
