Roadtrip in California!

[scandinavianchic]

We're planning a road trip in California in September 2006. We'll have 13 days, landing in SF on September 21st and leaving back to Norway from SF on October 3rd. We did take a road trip in California last year when we visited the following places:
1. SF
2. Pismo Beach
3. San Luis Obispo (Madonna Inn, Hearst Castle aso)
4. Los Angeles
5. San Diego
6. Los Angeles
7. Oakland
8. San Francisco

We want to try something new this time, and are open to suggestions. We're a Norwegian couple in our mid-twenties and we love warm weather and trendy/beautiful environments.

Any ideas or tips on what we missed out on the last time we visited?

Thanks!

Scandi!

[Mark Sedenquist]

We're planning a road trip in California in September 2006. We'll have 13 days, landing in SF on September 21st and leaving back to Norway from SF on October 3rd. We want to try something new this time, and are open to suggestions. We're a Norwegian couple in our mid-twenties and we love warm weather and trendy/beautiful environments.

Welcome to the Great American RoadTrip Forum! Do you like beer and wine? I would suggest making a loop this time to the north counties. I like the wineries in the Healdsburg and Russian River Valley area and follow that by a visit the Anderson Valley Brewing company in Boonville before heading over to the coast and going to Mendocino. The Big River in Mendocino is quite fun to canoe -- if you time it right you can ride the tidal surge up river 3-4 hours and then turn around and ride the current back to sea (just make sure you execute a good eddy cut at the take-out, those waves can be a little scary...) Fort Bragg has some awesome breweries too.

Then I would take SR-20 back to the east, past Willits, and Clear Lake to I-80 to Lake Tahoe and explore this area -- be sure to go to Virginia City and then follow US-395 to SR-108 over Sonora Pass and check out the gold rush country. The over to Yosemite National Park and then choose your route back to San Francisco. This will fill your trip schedule to the brim.

Mark