Day 7- Hollywood and Big Sur

Being the classic movie lovers we are, it was fun to see some of our favorite stars' stars.    Gene Kelly is the top of my list and it was fate that we parked the car right by his star!

Humphrey Bogart!

Clint Eastwood

Gene Kelly's hands and feet!

Elizabeth Taylor

Gene Kelly compared to Sabrina's feet.

The front of the Chinese Theater where the feet and hand prints were located.

Frank Sinatra

Clark Gable

Judy Garland

Jack Lemmon and Shirley Maclaine

Humphrey Bogart

Debbie Reynolds

After driving down Sunset Blvd., we started the winding Highway 1 up the Pacific Coast.   One missed turn and we would have been swimming!

After we drove to Santa Cruz, we decided to work our way back to I-5 for a quicker drive home.    To our amazement,  all the hotels were booked in Silicon Valley as people come during the week for work.   Our destination ended up being Grass Valley which made our last drive to Oregon almost a straight shot.

Surprise--Day off from driving

We drove into Anneheim in the dark and Sabrina was watching a video so she had no clue we slept right next to Disneyland.   For her early birthday gift, we gave her a day at the park.   But before we left we recorded what she was wearing on our camera so we could remember.

Princess Tiana from the Frog Prince was outside New Orlean.

Huck Finn Island was fun for running around and climbing.

When we entered the park, Pluto was there for a big hug and...

picture!

In Future Land we rode the rock twirly ride which did not help my vertigo issues.

Waiting to get in the park!  

King Arthur Carousel

Jessie from Toy Story!

At the Grand Canyon the day before.

Needless to say in the last thirty years since we have been to the park, it has changed.   The only ride I remembered from my childhood was the teacup ride.   Now it is surrounded by many more and changing attractions.   No wonder people go often!

Day 5- Winslow, AZ to Anneheim,CA via the Grand Canyon

There is an old Eagle's song "Takin' it Easy" that has a line about standing on the corner in Winslow, Az    The town has actually put up a statue of a guitar player standing on the corner.   The old route was on RT.66.   Eagles music blared from the corner market.

With the statue and the red Ford truck painted in window behind them.

An actual red Ford truck was parked on the corner!  Funny!

From Winslow, we drove along the south side of the Grand Canyon.

To stretch our legs we went to eastern view point.   Randy and Sabrina were bounding out to see.   Julie had a touch of vertigo or something and hung back from the edges.

From the tower

From the tower another direction.

Inside a tower view point, the windows gave a great perspective without the fear of falling over the edge.

Sabrina loved looking through the view finders.

From here we drove down RT.66 to California where we spent the night.

Day 4-(Mother's Day) Carlesbad Cavern to Winslow, Arizona

Mother's Day started with a tray of breakfast brought in from the hotel and then a hike into the caves at Carlsbad Cavern.

Originally, these New Mexican caves were discovered when a man noted bats flying out of it by the thousands.   Now there is seating for the crowds who gather to watch the exodus of bats from the cave.   We discovered bats are migratory and had not returned in time for our visit.

Across the street from our hotel was a little "old west" mall with a model stage coach.

My card!  :-) 

Switch backing into the cave....down

down,

down.   At the midpoint, we took the elevator back up and we were already 300-400 below the surface.

The bat stadium

The gift shop by the elevator.   Sabrina filled out the booklet for her Junior Ranger badge here.

From Carlesbad Caverns we drove most of the day to Winslow.   On our way we made one last stop to the Petrified Forest.   We almost didn't turn off as we had heard it closed at 5 and it was after that when we arrived.   Blessings were with us and we were allowed to go in and drive until 7:30 when the park closed!   This was one of my favorite parks of the trip!

Rt. 66 used to go right through the Petrified Forest.   A nice section was left to show where the route was.

An old car like the ones who would have traveled the route.

A huge petrified log.

Inside the car.

Standing on Rt. 66!

Look at the rings!

Old ruins

Petrified log in the background.

Petroglyphs in the rock!

The sun is setting as we entered the park.