In the first week in May, my new husband and I will be taking our honeymoon, and my idea was to start in San Francisco, see a couple things (Alcatraz, Winchester Mystery House, then we’re heading to Great America so I can get my amusement park fix), then I’d like to take a leisurely drive up along the coast for a few days and see any interesting or silly touristy things that may exist. Jake claims there’s very little, but I thought I’d ask you guys. So what is there to see, if anything?
Trees. More trees. Logging trucks. Ocean that looks just like ocean. Trees. Another logging truck. A good restaurant or three in Eureka. Another logging trucks. Some hippies. More trees.
“Touristy” is a bit thin, but scenic spots are in abundance.
Stop by the Point Reyes lighthouse … should be good whale watching around then.
Odds are the rhodies will be in bloom at the Kruse Rhododendron Reserve; interesting history at Fort Ross.
Mendocino is worth a stop; check out the fern canyon in Van Damme SP and the
The coast itself is worth the drive, but there are plenty of other things to see and do just inland of the coast. Say 20 to 30 minutes. And it’s nice driving too.
Here in Santa Rosa there are a few museums, including the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Luther Burbank Home and Gardens.
Guerneville is a funky litte town along the Russian River, and of course you’ve got the Redwoods out that way.
Point Reyes Lighthouse is a nice day trip. Make sure to stop in Cowgirl Creamery for some amazing cheese. And if you like oysters don’t miss Hog Island Oyster Co. in Tomales.
Occidental is an adorably tiny town, and since it’s your honeymoon, you might be interested in a stop at Osmosis right nearby for a Japanese enzyme bath and what I can just about guarantee you will be the most amazing massage you’ve ever had. Love that place (although I don’t know if I’ll ever do the enzyme bath again, too hot!)
Bodega Bay was the filming location of Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” and has a few decent seafood restaurants including The Inn at the Tides.
Jenner is a cute little coastal resort area where the Russian River meets the Pacific.
There’s Fort Ross with lots of history. Very interesting place.
Gualala is another cute coastal town with a few nice shops and restaurants.
There are obviously plenty of wineries to visit for tours and tastings.
There’s an awesome little candy and soda shop in Windsor on the town green that is not to be missed.
There’s Calistoga, going a little more inland, in the Napa Valley, with mud baths, a petrified forest, and a geyser.
Healdsburg’s square has a ton of great shops for antique lovers, foodies, wine lovers, and more.
I can suggest restaurants in just about every town up here up until about Mendocino for just about every cuisine and budget if you need them, as well as a few hotels/B&B’s and lots of campsites. My husband and I often do weekend getaways all around the area.
Jeez! Let someone from SoCal to belittle the beauty of NoCal! Google ‘northern california coast’ and enjoy!
Examples:
Cape Mendocino
Mattole Coast
Punta Gorde
Fort Bragg
Mendocino City
Jenner and Fort Ross
Bodega Bay
Sonoma Coast State Park
Damn pesky redwood forests get in the way. What you really want to see is more concrete.
Take it lazy. Wander along the sideroads off Highway 1.
Enjoy.
It’s all magic.
That made me laugh out loud. 
I thought that the trip south from San Francisco was a more interesting drive, with more to see, though I did have a, uh, religious experience just outside of Inverness, but I’m pretty sure I’m the exception to the rule.
South, there’s Monterey, Big Sur, Hearst Castle, and Pismo Beach.
You could drive inland for 3 1/2 hours and visit wine country, or go a little further and check out some old mining towns east of Sacramento, too.
Have fun!
No kidding. If you are looking for touristy type stuff, drive south, not north.
FWIW, I went to school at HSU, so I am very familiar with the drive from SF to Arcata. I stand by my first post. 
I go to a workshop every year in Bodega Bay. There is beautiful coastline all the way up there. We stayed in Fort Bragg, which we enjoyed. We stayed at an Inn with rooms overlooking a marsh, with birds. For weather fans, the Wind and Weather store is in Fort Bragg. Some good restaurants also. I echo the suggestion to stop in at Fort Ross. Interesting place.
We finished up at Arcata, which didn’t do it for me. Spend some time driving through the redwoods.
Definitely take 1, not 101 when you can. 101 is boring!
Well, the Winchester MH is over-rated and over-priced. But there’s TON’s of things.
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Monterey: The Monterey Bay Aquarium is a MUST. Best damn aquarium in the world- educational & fun. 17 Mile drive- SUPER scenic. Cannery Row- if you’re goiung to the Aquarium, it’s on Cannery row, so you might as well walk along it a bit and shop. There’s some good eats, and a little mini-beach too. Fishermans wharf- like many others. At the other end of the 17 mile Drive is Carmel- very very nice shopping. South of Carmel is Big Sur. There’s also a Mission at Carmel.
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Santa Cruz- between San Jose & Monterey: Beach Board walk, shopping, and in the mountains nearby you have Henry Cowell state park and the Redwood railroad ride
http://www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=546
Do the little 2 mile nature walk and then take the old lumber train and you’ll get all the Redwoods you need. Educational & fun.
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San Jose: The Tech Museum. Santana Row Shopping center with Valley Fair Shopping Center across the street. There’s a Mission in Santa Clara.
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SF: Fishermans wharf with the Liberty Ship a WWII Sub, a second rate but-you-might-as-well-since-its-there- aquarium, Pier 39, Ghirardelli Square, and much tourist crap. Also in SF there’s- Good eats, Union Square, the Embaradero, Chinatown, Cable cars, Exploratorium,and so much else. But there’s a zillion guidebooks- I suggest the “San Francisco Inside Out” mini-guidebook with cool maps and even a little compass. Do note- parking is pricy, driving is scary, walking can be tough (steep hills), and right off the beaten tourist track there are some VERY bad neighborhoods. My suggestion is to get to the Fisherman’s wharf area, stay the nite and walk from Ghirardelli Squre to Pier 39 seeing all there is to see including a boat trip to Alcatraz. Remeber what Mark Twain was supposed to have said “The coldest Winter I even spent was a summer in SF”. Right around evening, a COLD fricken wind comes off the ocean and even tho the thermometer sez the high 40’sF, you’ll feel like Nanook of the North.
Oh, wait- you said “up”. As in North from SF. Oh. Sorry. Then Silenus is more or less right. 
But the coastal views *are * pretty damn good in places- however you get better views in a shorter drive in Monterey.
To describe the coast redwoods as “trees” and “more trees” is like calling the Grand Canyon a “hole in the ground”. There are lots of places to see the redwoods – my favorite is Humboldt Redwoods State Park. But any place you can go to see them would be worth the trip.
These are moderately touristy, but still great to do.
Visit the Marin Headlands: http://www.nps.gov/goga/mahe/index.htm
Great views of SF and the coast. Closer to your date, check them for a wildflower hike/walk.
Drive to the top of Mt. Tamalpais for more great views.
Last September I nearly drove a rented Corvette right off the side of the highway leading to Muir. The unprotected shoulder-cliffs are not to be believed.
Let’s see.
Where to start.
silenus: how is this the first I’ve heard that you went to Humboldt State?
Or is my memory just for sh*t… When were you there? I graduated in 1997.
Driving up Highway 1 north of SF is nice. Mendocino is nice. But then so is Napa and the ever-expanding wine country. In the countless drives I’ve made in my life back and forth to the Bay Area and spending the ages of 3 thru 22 living in Humboldt, only a handfull have been on Hwy 1. Hwy 1 will only take you so far north too. Eventually you will have to cut inland and hit 101.
There’s LOADS of natural beauty on the Northern California Coast, and plenty of quaint little touristy things to do if you know where to look, like Confusion Hill and The Victorian Village of Ferndale, where I went to high school.
Pretty much anywhere you can stop in the Avenue of the Giants is well worth it, but if you really like driving and have a few hours to kill, you should drive north on 101 to this general area.
In about 3-4 hours, depending how much time you want to spend outside of the car looking around, you’ll be able to drive through Humboldt Redwoods State Park, out to my hometown, Honeydew (the “downtown” of which consists of a tiny general store and 2 gas pumps sitting at a crossroads) through the Mattole Valley along the Mattole River (one of the last remaining undamed rivers in N. California) past Petrolia (the first place oil was struck in California, a thriving metropolis compared to Honeydew, with a slightly larger tiny general store and two gas pumps), along The Lost Coast (named thusly because the country is so remote and rugged, that stretch of road you’ll be driving on is the only public coastal road for a looooooong time), and then back inland to the aforementioned Ferndale.
It is a really beautiful drive. But be careful, people have been known to drive through on vacation and suddenly find themselves afflicted with the need to quit their jobs in the city, sell their homes, buy 30 acres of previously logged Mattole mountainside, and take up organic vegetable farming, ceramics, and felony horticultural practices.
I somehow missed that this was your honeymoon, so I’m obligated to comment further.
Case in point with respect to people just deciding to pick up and move to Southern Humboldt…
My parents met when they were both living in Southern California, near Cypress. They decided to spend their honeymoon on a similar trip, and ended up in the small coastal hamlet of Shelter Cove, which is located on the little coastal bump at the very bottom of the map linked in my previous post.
They returned to Southern California and had me, but always in the backs of their minds lingered the Humboldt Urge. They bought a 30 acre piece of property (with nothing on it but trees) that had been logged in the 1950s, in the mountains south of Honeydew, sight unseen. We moved up there when I was 3, to live in a small trailer while my parents spent all of their savings designing and building our house from scratch. My parents decided to opt out of the ceramics and felonies, but certainly supported the…local creative endeavors…of the folks who opted in.
When I was in high school, we were able to expand the homestead and buy an adjoining piece of property and the house that occupied it, thanks to my great aunt leaving my dad a small inheritance. With views like this, it is hard to imagine anyone not wanting to move there.
Someday, I’ll figure out a way to live there and still be able to (legally) pay off my student loans…