13 Days in the US: What To Do?

In My Humble Opinion
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I thought I ran into a stumbling block today when I realised most car companies won’t hire cars to people under 25 years of age (I’m a baby at a mere 23).

However, I was relieved to find a few companies that WILL hire to us young 'uns – and they’re very CHEAP compared to Australia! (Even after taking the exchange rate into account.) I imagine we’ll hire a car for the two weeks… so watch out for an forgetful Aussie driving on the wrong side of the road! :smiley:

A trip by car up the coast from L.A. is definitely on the cards now – I love road trips! It sounds like a great experience, from your descriptions. I imagine we’ll do the loop across to Vegas and back down south again. We’ll have to carefully plot out the places to stop at and see: there seems to be a lot to take in!

South of L.A. also sounds like great fun, but it will be a matter of finding the time to get there.

I’m also going to aim to visit the wine-producing regions. My home state has a big wine industry (if you’ve heard of Margeret River, it’s 3 hours south of me), so it’ll be interesting to see (or taste ;)) the regional differences.

LolaCocaCola: definitely next trip! :slight_smile:

Johnny L.A.: I had a look for “Let’s Go” series last night, but only found “Let’s Go: USA” (which didn’t have detail much on the region – probably no more than I can dig up on the web). I’ll try a bigger bookshop.

Thanks everyone for the information!

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If you’re going up the coast you might want to check out Point Lobos State Reserve. It’s got a lot of cool scenery and you might see Sea Lions or even Sea Otters. I don’t know if you’ve read anything by Steinbeck but Monterey is where Cannery Row is. It’s somewhat gentrified now–lots of fancy shops and restaurants. About the only building that still looks the way it did in 1940 is Doc’s lab. (Yes, Doc was a real person.) There’s a wharf where a variety of gulls, guillemots, and seals hang out hoping tourists will toss them bread crumbs or fish guts or whatever, and a jetty where people fish and Sea Lions haul out on the rocks and yell at each other. There’s also an aquarium there, although I haven’t visited it. And there’s an old fort you can tour and a house where Robert Louis Stevenson once lived, IIRC.

If you head inwards from the coast to visit the wine country be aware that the weather gets a lot hotter inland. You might want to check out Placerville, formerly known as Hangtown because of the numerous lynchings that took place back in the 19th century. The old “hanging tree” is still there, although a bar has been built around it. Sutter’s Mill, where the California gold rush was launched, is nearby.

http://pt-lobos.parks.state.ca.us/