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Saturday, August 15, 2009

Santa Monica Blvd (Part I: in Santa Monica)


This summer our work to us to Chicago for six weeks (topic for another post), the starting point of historic "Route 66". Back in Los Angeles, I decided it'd be interesting to walk along the last final section of Route 66 that goes through Los Angeles and Santa Monica.


I got started about 6:30am and parked on the corner of Ocean Avenue and Santa Monica Blvd. Free parking on the street until 9am: great. I walked across the street to the cliffs, and got this early morning photo of the Santa Monica Pier (above).


Another nice shot looking north towards Pacific Palisades and Malibu.


Looking across Ocean Avenue up Santa Monica Blvd. This is the official end of Route 66, and the beginning of my walk.


Crossing the street, Santa Monica Blvd street sign with the palm trees of Palisades Park in the background.


A final look at Palisades Park and the Pacific Ocean. It was a great time of the day to be there.


Some of office buildings in the business district of Santa Monica.


Third Street Promenade, normally very busy and lively with both tourists and locals, was quiet.


The tall buildings office buildings near the Third Street Promenade drop off quickly. Santa Monica Blvd has lots of older, interesting one story commercial buildings.


This is one of several new condo developments popping up along Santa Monica Blvd.


Staring around 10th Street, or so, are a dozen small car dealerships on Santa Monica Blvd, a couple of which are in beautiful, historic buildings (above). Years ago, my dad helped me negotiate the price for a used car in one of these places (man, he was good).


This old brick building on the corner of Santa Monica Blvd and 15th Street really caught my eye. I really like the mixture of architecture styles found up and down the street.


You won't find any "big box" stores (Home Depot, Target, WalMart, etc) anywhere in Santa Monica. Here's the local Busy Bee hardware store. Looks like it's been around since the early days of Route 66.


Another interesting building: classic art deco architecture alongside some beautiful palms.


Looking west from Santa Monica Blvd around 20th Street, or so. Mostly two and three story apartment buildings and condos ... with the Santa Monica Mountains in the background.


Nothing special about this shot - except that it seems so "typical" of Santa Monica and the westside of Los Angeles.


Here's a map of the first leg of my walk.

Santa Monica Blvd (which parallels Wilshire Blvd. through the city of Santa Monica) also has the designation of "California State Highway 2" - although no one calls it that.

More in Part II.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

get rid of the traffic and L.A.'s pretty nice