Planning a West Coast US Holiday. Travel Ideas?

[Mojo Fandangle]

I am planning a West Coast L.A to Seattle holiday with my wife.
Was wondering if anyone had any ideas about interesting places to visit, food spots, nice beaches, music, history, interesting tours, etc.
Hopefully going in August, but maybe September.
Any suggestions?

[lars]

1) The Redwood National Forest in northern California
2) Multnomah Falls in northern Oregon (second tallest waterfall in North America)
3) Basically the entire Oregon coast along Highway 101 (lots of great scenic views)
4) "The Trading Musician" guitar shop in Seattle (vintage stuff and oddball parts)

[Drew Hallenbeck]

I used to love taking trips out to Mt. Rainier in the summer. Lots of great trails to hike and you can drive up and have a snowball fight in short sleeves!
I was stationed at Ft. Lewis back in the mid-late 90's. Haven't been there in years but I always loved hanging out in Seattle on the weekends. Go watch em throw fish at the Pike Place Market on the waterfront.

[alanp]

Fiordland is nice, I expect, but holidaying in Westport?

Ohhh, you mean the USA West Coast... (I'll stop trolling.)

[Mojo Fandangle]

Fiordland is nice

Will check it out. Thanks for the tip.

I used to love taking trips out to Mt. Rainier in the summer. Lots of great trails to hike and you can drive up and have a snowball fight in short sleeves!

Sounds nice. A large reason of why I want to do California is because of the variety of climates and sights.

1) The Redwood National Forest in northern California
2) Multnomah Falls in northern Oregon (second tallest waterfall in North America)
3) Basically the entire Oregon coast along Highway 101 (lots of great scenic views)
4) "The Trading Musician" guitar shop in Seattle (vintage stuff and oddball parts)

The Forest and Falls sounds like a definite go-er. I'm also keen to buy myself a guitar over there so Trading Musician sounds like a good place to get something unique.
I've heard that US airlines allow guitars as onboard luggage nowadays. I'd be hoping I could do this for my trip back to Australia but not sure if Qantas or whoever I travel home with will cater for it.

[HamSandwich]

No airlines I have been on have taken kindly to carry on guitars. I think it's a real gamble.

There's Hollywood and whatnot hear in LA, but having lived in both north and south CA, I'd suggest heading north sooner rather than later. Assuming your taking highway 1, Big Sur is a must stop! Even for just a quick afternoon. Take a trolley ride in SF, see the bridge, then definitely get up to the Redwoods as Lars suggested.

Crater lake in Oregon is super cool too. Take a boat to Wizard Island!

[m-Kresol]

I've just returned today from an extensive US vacation. Started in San Francisco, drove around 3250 miles!! ending in Vegas and flew over to NYC for a few days. Great times.

I very, very, very much recommend the Sequoia national park. That one was probably my favorite one. Very impressive. If you decide to go there, we took the "alta trail", which will take you about 2h to get to the general Sherman Tree and you can take a shuttle back from there to the parking lot/museum. Taking the trail (or others) is really rewarding as you can get to all the trees (general sherman is sourrunded by a fence...) and you're pretty much alone out there. Very relaxing.

Also, the pacific coast highway. I just drove the small part between Monterey and SF, but that was beautiful. San Diego is a beautiful city if you care to drive down there. and probably most important for this forum: The FENDER factory is in Corona, 1 hour drive from LA. They offer factory tours twice a day Monday-Friday for 10$. I got unlucky and had a huge crowd of people so we didn't see that much and it all seemed a little rushed. Nevertheless, it was pretty cool to see how these things are knocked out on a large scale. It's ridiculous, what they got in storage there. Like containers full of bridge saddles and stuff..

[Morgan]

5th generation Californian here. Make sure you get inland a little bit too. The Sierra Nevada mountains are nice, but are 4 hours from the coast. I live in Lake Tahoe and it's amazing in September. The stratovolcanoes further north in the Cascades are all breathtaking (Shasta, Jefferson, Hood, Rainer, etc).

All the kool kids got kicked out of San Fransisco by the tech wizards and now live in Oakland, and they're sort of making Oakland into a west coast Brooklyn. Lots of great eats and music there right now (Brick & Mortar and The Independent). I loves me some Doug Fir Lounge in Portland - great stage!

[Leevibe]

1) The Redwood National Forest in northern California
2) Multnomah Falls in northern Oregon (second tallest waterfall in North America)
3) Basically the entire Oregon coast along Highway 101 (lots of great scenic views)
4) "The Trading Musician" guitar shop in Seattle (vintage stuff and oddball parts)

Agree with the redwoods and Multnomah Falls. Let me know when you're rolling through the Portland area and I'll show you the falls. It's pretty sweet as is the whole Columbia River Gorge. It's my stomping grounds.

[disorder]

Mr. Fandangle I'd recommend checking out San Francisco. It's cliche to say but there's no other city like it. If you plan a stop there, even for a day, let me know and I can send you some good spots (some touristy but worth going to and others far off the popular paths).

[disorder]

All the kool kids got kicked out of San Fransisco by the tech wizards and now live in Oakland, and they're sort of making Oakland into a west coast Brooklyn. Lots of great eats and music there right now (Brick & Mortar and The Independent). I loves me some Doug Fir Lounge in Portland - great stage!

My roommates and I got priced out around six years ago, we aren't cool though. The whole techie circle of life cycle thing that is going on in the bay is both so interesting and infuriating at the same time. Oakland isn't much cheaper these days.

[blearyeyes]

I've just returned today from an extensive US vacation. Started in San Francisco, drove around 3250 miles!! ending in Vegas and flew over to NYC for a few days. Great times.

I very, very, very much recommend the Sequoia national park. That one was probably my favorite one. Very impressive. If you decide to go there, we took the "alta trail", which will take you about 2h to get to the general Sherman Tree and you can take a shuttle back from there to the parking lot/museum. Taking the trail (or others) is really rewarding as you can get to all the trees (general sherman is sourrunded by a fence...) and you're pretty much alone out there. Very relaxing.

Also, the pacific coast highway. I just drove the small part between Monterey and SF, but that was beautiful. San Diego is a beautiful city if you care to drive down there. and probably most important for this forum: The FENDER factory is in Corona, 1 hour drive from LA. They offer factory tours twice a day Monday-Friday for 10$. I got unlucky and had a huge crowd of people so we didn't see that much and it all seemed a little rushed. Nevertheless, it was pretty cool to see how these things are knocked out on a large scale. It's ridiculous, what they got in storage there. Like containers full of bridge saddles and stuff..

HA! I live in Corona, never taken the tour.
Funny what you take for granted.

[m-Kresol]

the thing I've learned over the last couple of years is that you learn to know your city best when you've got someone visiting. That will always bring you to places you didn't know about or that you've never visited before.

[culturejam]

Definitely stop by and see Morgan. I did, and it was great fun! 

Tahoe is just awesome. My wife and I have pretty much decided that when our parents all kick the bucket, we're moving to Northern Cali. It's just too fantastic.

[icecycle66]

Drive Hwy 1 north from LA to the Monterey Peninsula. It's fuckin' magestic.
Climb down a cliff in Big Sur to some private beach for an hour or so. 

Hang out in Monterey itself, it's one of my favorite cities in the world and only one of two California place I like.
Caffe Trieste on Alvarado street has good coffee and breakfasts.  Pretty cheap for the area too.
If you want to check out some F basses there is a little music shop a few blocks down from Caffe Trieste.
Eat at the Fish Hopper on Cannery Row.  Have the cioppino. Sit at a table where you can overlook the bay.

You'll probably end up in San Fransisco. Home Plate on Lombard street has really good chorizo. Go look at the bay.  Reminisce on how much better the Monterey Bay is and regret not staying in Monterey longer. 

The Disney Family Museum on the Presidio of San Francisco is neat if you are into Disney.
The Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center north of San Francisco is abetter museum whether or not you like Snoopy.

If you go near Napa I know a girl who'll get freaky with you and the wife if you're into that sort of thing.

I like Tacoma better than Seattle, but haven't spent time there. If you like outdoorsy stuff I can get a tone of information about the area.