Day 5 - Staying put

After a rather a large evening with Rhos and Andrea, we were happy to hang in Santa Monica for the day and not drive more miles down the highway. We slept in and had a full-on breakfast in the hotel rather than our usual granola, yogurt and coffee. The cappuccinos were yummy, and we meandered up to the room waiting for things to open up here in Santa Monica. Since we had already discovered some of the Route 66 sites, we headed over to Santa Monica's 3rd Avenue Promenade. I remember going to a funky little bookstore here with Faye Allen years ago. We had a great time ransacking the shelves. It is also where the Peace Through Music phenomenon started over 20 years ago. The Promenade is much more upscale these days, but a great place to people-watch.

An absolute highlight of the day was visiting the famous McCabe's Guitar Shop. It is known for selling all kinds of guitars to people who really know how to play. Rumor has it that George Harrison bought all of his ukulele's here. We sauntered in with the goal of buying some guitar straps for my new guitar. Did that. However, one of the store clerks was very gracious and spent a lot of time with us. We played expensive guitars, old guitars, twelve string guitars all the time being serenaded by someone who was just sitting on a chair and creating magnificent sound. We told him how good he sounded, and he quietly just said 'thank you'. 

        

After McCabe's, live music seemed like a good plan, but after some research we realized that Sunday is not the day for it. Our dogs were barking, so we snoozed and read and eventually went down to the hotel bar to order some bigtime drinks. Surprise, surprise, the new Seattle hockey team, the Kraken, were playing in the 7th game of the playoffs. Excellent. We watched, we sipped, we wondered, AND WE WON!

And so, after another enchanting day, we are ready to put our heads on the pillow. Humming tunes in our head, thinking of tomorrow's excursions and realizing that we are only one quarter of the way on our journey. Have we the stamina to see this all through?

Stand by me (Peace Through Music) Playing For Change | Stand By Me | Song Around The World