Not quite – we don’t fly home until Saturday but we have made it to the end of Route 66. This morning we visited the pier to have the obligatory photo taken by a passerby. It was quite cool so we did a bit of shopping downtown and had a leisurely coffee watching the world go by. Santa Monica has lots of ‘Shop Local’ signs up and I did find a silver jewellery stall which had one of the biggest displays of charms that I have seen. I have a silver charm bracelet given to me by my grandmother when I was ten. It was made from my great grandmother’s silver watch chain and has some of the silver sixpences and threepences she had on her watch chain.  Other charms added over the years are very mixed and James suggested I should have the lighthouse one so that will be added when I get home. We then headed to the beach. I had to dip my toes into the Pacific but that was all as it was so cold – only two guys were brave enough to actually swim in it. Flocks of brown pelicans flew overhead and we had one brave gull who sat and watched us (even before we got the picnic out), ever hopeful that we might feed him. As I don’t feed wildlife other than the birds in my own garden, he was out of luck unless we left any crumbs afterwards. After lunch, the onshore winds increased and got much colder so we moved back into town. I popped into Barnes and Noble and had to limit myself to one book as I don’t want the embarrassment of having to turn out my case at check in again (I bought so many books on a previous trip to the Pacific NW my case was too heavy). We returned to the hotel to relax before dinner at a local Indian restaurant. This was a welcome change from American Diner and Mexican food.