Dan Rice had been looking for moving his 66-to-Cali souvenir shack into something more permanent on the Santa Monica Pier.
This week, the mayor of Santa Monica and other local dignitaries attended a ribbon-cutting Tuesday at the new, improved 66-to-Cali on the pier.
Rice wrote in an email:
The support we got from Santa Monica for finally putting a permanent shop on the pier for Route 66 after nearly 85 years was really great. We had people from all sorts of great organizations in the city show up and it was really a wonderful, collaborative spirit during the shoot. They’ve been really supportive of all we’ve started here in the last two years, and it’ll be fun to see what can come from this and all these relationships as they develop into the future.
In the photo, left to right, you’ll see:
- Lynne Miller, Treasurer of the California Historic Route 66 Association,
- Mat Blaine, new Sales Manager for us at 66-to-Cali,
- Misti Kerns, the President & CEO of the Santa Monica Convention & Visitors Bureau,
- myself, Jessica & our new little guy (one month old that morning!),
- Mayor Richard Bloom,
- Executive Director of the California Route 66 Preservation Foundation Glen Duncan,
- Carol Lemlein, President, Board of Directors at Santa Monica Conservancy
- John Madigan, Membership Director at Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce
- Jim Harris, Author, Community Venue Liason, and Santa Monica Pier Historian
- Steve Gibson, Interim Director of the Pier Restoration Corporation
- Tom Miller, Parliamentarian of the California Historic Route 66 Association
(Photo courtesy of Brandon Wise / Santa Monica Daily Press)
Nice photo, but someone should tell Tom Miller (in photo-far right) that wearing white socks with sandals is a huge faux-pas (or maybe it’s just a “California” thing) 😉
Congratulations to Dan & Jessica! We are blessed to have such excellent Route 66 Ambassadors at such a key point of interest!
Finally – a little respect on the Pier! Nice job Dan & Jessica, and what a good lookin little man. Now it’s time for those associated with the Pier, to list you on their site as a “shop”, and have a little more respect for the thousands of Route 66 tourists you help bring to them and the rest of their businesses. Hopefully one day soon, they’ll realize it’s not just a shirt, it’s you and everything you’ve put into the community and I have a feeling one day, you’ll be writing a book called: My Time on the Pier! LOL
That’s the spot I would have picked for an awesome Route 66 gift shop. ;D
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THESE PEOPLE WHO WITH THEIR EFFORTS COULD FINALLY FULFIL THEIR DREAM ALICIA FROM ARGENTINA