Located downtown, the Andaz San Diego is a trendy boutique hotel situated in the Gaslamp Quarter. Surrounded by unique restaurants, pubs and shops, the Andaz is especially great if you're looking to stay in a historic district of San Diego, California. All of this, by the way, was something that I discovered during my stay. It proved to be a really great spot.
The real gem of the Andaz is the rooftop. The pool, bar, fire pit, and lounge areas are only further heightened by the surrounding views of downtown San Diego. At the end of each day it was the perfect spot to catch up on messages, grab a drink, and generally just chill out. It was the ideal hub for another round of travel photography on my recent California trip.
Elmer Long's Bottle Tree Ranch is exactly the kind of roadside attraction that makes the California stretch of Route 66 such a fun drive. Featuring practically every color of glass, old hubcaps and rusting tin signs, this quirky art project, in the same vein as Salvation Mountain, has made an attraction out of the seemingly ordinary.
This folk art forest of glass and metal is a fascinating place to explore. The colors, textures, and novelty of the display pull you in to investigate. Hummingbird feeders hang all over the Bottle Tree Ranch, and I must have seen about twenty hummingbirds during my brief visit. It's a memorable place to "get your kicks" and it was a lot of fun to photograph.
From Barstow, California to Elmer's Bottle Tree Ranch I continued my journey heading south. My next stop along "the Mother Road" was at the Wigwam Motel in San Bernadino.
