Hi all,

I am taking a road trip June 28-July 12, and am hitting Seattle, California, and Las Vegas. I wanted to get some ideas for places to visit or things to do in these areas, as I've never been to any of them. Thanks.

- Lake Tahoe can't be missed.

- The volcanic mountains on I-5 between Oregon and California are gorgeous, so make sure you drive through there during the day.

- San Francisco in general. Hit Cobb's Comedy Club on the waterfront on a Saturday night.

Yosemite if you can swing by. That's God's country right there that is.

Well it's vacation season, so be prepared for Winnebagos and crowds. What to recommend depends a lot on what kind of stuff you like.

If you are starting or ending in Vegas and driving all the way, a trip through Death Valley would be an easy hit; I like deserts. Agree w Tony that the volcanoes of Cal-Or-Wa are great if if you've never seen then, but I am also hugely partial to the coastal route, especially the less developed section between Crescent City, CA and Coos Bay, OR.

Whether you are up for day hikes or just want to take in the view from the parking lot, it's pretty easy to make a loop around Mt. St Helens or the Olympics (you can score some pretty fantastic scenery by driving up to trailheads like Deer Park or the popular Hurricane Ridge)

Lastly, FWIW, I've heard mixed reports on the Dairy Queen at Donner Pass....

Jim

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O Civile, si ergo, fortibus es in ero.
O Nobile, deus trux. Vadis enim, causen dux.
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Just curious as to what that means...

You don't really say what you're really interested in, so here are some random thoughts...

Big Sur has some of the most amazing scenery you'll ever drive through. The highway goes right along the cliff for miles. It also has some great camp grounds and beaches. Don't miss Pfieffer beach or Andrew Molera. There's a lighthouse that's interesting to take a tour of if you time it right, if "ancient" technology interests you.

Santa Cruz - A beach front town still firmly stuck in the 60's. If that sounds interesting to you, you should stop.

San Francisco - Definitly. If you like citys san franciso will have something for you. It's all a matter of personal taste what you do... http://www.grin.net/~mirthles/web/sanfrancisco_latest.html can be a good intro.

If you're camping while road tripping, the marin headlands is nice. I havn't been in years, but it's close to san francisco. Around there somewhere is the russian river, where I had a great time canoeing last summer with friends. The company hauls you up the river, give you a canoe and picks you up a day's ride down the river. B(lots of)YOB.

Portland is known for having the highest ratio of bookstores to people, so if you like that kind of thing...

If you're going to las vegas, you've almost made it to the grand canyon, so you might want to check it out.

In general, Highway 1 ("The PCH" if you're in southern california, but be warned that causes us nor. cal people to burst out laughing) is the senic route that goes right along the coast. You should plan your trip so that you spend some time on it, but not all of your trip, because it's very slow going.

Hope this helps,
Mathew

In Reply to:
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You don't really say what you're really interested in, so here are some random thoughts...
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Thanks for the info Matthew.

Well we would like to hit the beach of course, some nightclubs, casinos. I would like our route to have some nice scenery or be dotted with some cool roadside attractions. I'm from Calgary, Alberta, Canada...so I'd like to try to hit places that are particular to their city due to geography, climate, or something like going to see a live show taped, like Dennis Miller. I'm pretty much open to anything if you can convince me that it'll be fun.

Looking at websites they list plenty of places to visit, but I'd like your opinions on what we absolutely have to see.

I did the trip from Calgary down through to San Francisco last spring. Two of us drove non-stop and looking back I kinda regret that. We missed some of the good stuff while driving at night. One thing I would recommend from my experience is to take 101 along the coast for one direction of your trip. Not as fast as the interstate, but much better scenery.
Also, I am not sure if you are to interested in tech stuff, but I had friends who work in Silicon Valley, and getting a tour of some of the facilities was pretty interesting. We also did some of the tourist things like Alcatraz.

Just curious as to what that means...

Well, I added this sig for Tony's benefit, because I know he's such a fan of Latin quotations. There are some longer versions of this around, but they wouldn't fit in a sig. I'm sort of surprised that some of our resident Latin scholars didn't jump in there as this bit of doggerel has been used for years (with some variations) as a translation stumper. There are some variations such as a version that ends in "Civates inem", but the tranlation goes like this:

Oh, see, Willy! See 'er go! 40 busses in a row!
On, no, Billy! Dey is trucks! Vat is in 'em? Cows and Ducks!

Hope that helps,

Jim