Road Trip! Los Angeles to Seattle: Advice?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Hi Everyone;

Mrs Gale and I moved to Los Angeles from Chicago two years ago and while there is a lot to love about the area, we’re feeling the itch to move on, especially before we start a family. So, partially as a research trip, and partially as a vacation/adventure, we are planning to drive up the coast to Seattle. The idea is to take in as much beautiful scenery as possible, and check out potential places to settle down for good before we try for kids. We’re thinking September-October for timing for the trip.

A couple questions for those of you who have knowledge of the area.

1.) The Trip: We want to stick to awesome scenery as much as possible, without adding drive time unless that added drive time leads to added awesomeness. We know we’ll want to stick to the 1/101 all the way through California. Does it make sense to switch to the 5 when we hit Oregon (do Oregoneans use “the” like we do in SoCal?), or perhaps when we hit Washington, or somewhere in the middle? We’d love to see as much beautiful coastline as possible, but perhaps a little further inland would be a cool change in scenery? Pros and Cons to both routes?

2.) The Sightseeing: We know we want to hit San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle. Thanks to previous threads, I have tons of awesome ideas for how to spend our time in the three cities. I’m looking for ideas for stops in-between. Redwood National Forest is a must-see, but what else do we not want to miss on our trip up the Pacific Coast? We like food, music, sightseeing, light hiking (if it leads to a photo op, even better), nature, giant-ball-of-twine style roadside attractions, beer, wine, history. Probably not so big on any extreme sporting, bungee, 4x4ing, that sort of stuff.

3.) The Living Situation Research: Besides the fun, we’ll be looking for a place to settle down on or near the Pacific. San Fran will probably be too expensive for us, but we’ll check it out. Very interested in what we’ve read about Portland and Seattle. Are there other areas we should consider? We’d like to be in or near a metro area, but would be willing to deal with a bit of a drive to the city if there are awesome places a little further out. As far as our tastes, we like all the things listed above, as well as theatre, museums, art, pub-hopping. Ideally, we’d like a place we can buy a bigger-than-a-shoebox house for 300k or less, good schools, great neighborhoods for kids, etc.

I know that’s a lot. Please feel free to tackle a tiny subset of any one of the three topics here. I’m doing tons of research right now, but I’m guessing a little Doper wisdom will kick Google’s ass in this department. :slight_smile: TYVM in advance.

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I think it’s better to take this trip from north to south. That way, it’s soooo much easier to stop at the pull-outs to admire the view and take pictures.

This weekend I drove from Point Arena to Bodega Bay(if you like clam chowder, you MUST stop at Spud Point Crab Company) for --the weather was perfect and the wildflowers are starting to bloom everywhere–fantastic!

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Take Pacific Coast Highway as much as possible. Overall, it is worth it.

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I only know California so I can’t offer too too much help on the other stuff, but I have been up the California coast a lot. My favorite way to do this sort of trip up the coast is to just stop when I get tired of driving and poke around a beach town for a few hours, and then head off again. I love the coastal cities of Monterey, Carmel, Morro Bay,Half Moon Bay and Pismo Beach. I think you could easily do an afternoon in each if you want to let your trip be long. I have stayed in and around both Monterey, Carmel, and Half Moon Bay a number of times and highly recommend any of those three as an overnight stopping point outside of San Francico. Oh, and make sure to do the Carmel scenic drive.

On your way up be sure to take some time to see Hearst Castle. If only for a single tour. You can easily spend a whole day there, but you only need 3 or 4 hours to get the general feel of the place and its awesomeness. If you dig Aquariums the Aquarium in Monterey is a must see. It can easily take a whole day, but is also worth it.

Also, you would be *really *missing out if you didn’t take some time to do Napa valley.

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Stop using “The” as soon as you get past Santa Barbara.

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Take a side trip to Crater Lake. Get up super early and get in line for boat tickets to Wizard Island and try to get on the first boat when the lake is still glassy.

The Rogue River canyon is beautiful and actually goes underground through a spectacular lava tube. It is accessible from this campground. Don’t fall in or you will die, although one person has actually survived the trip.

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Drive up the 395. Plenty of hiking and sight seeing along Bishop, Mammoth and Yosemite.

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Now we’re talking something I have a lot of experience with. I’ve made the trip from north of Seattle to SoCal by car more times than I can remember.

  1. Follow the 101 as much as possible until you get to Crescent City. Then move inland to the 5.

  2. The North Coast has some of the best brewpubs and restaurants in the US. Eat your way to Oregon.

  3. I hate Oregon and Oregonians.

  4. Head north of Seattle. Snohomish and Skagit counties are beautiful, and the prices are much cheaper than around Seattle.

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Why the Oregonian hate? I spent one day in Portland and it didn’t seem that bad.

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Go via Yosemite, then all the way up 49 through the gold country, then to Crater Lake and then to Seattle. Stay off the interstate.

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They can’t drive worth shit and you can’t pump your own gas. That’s reason enough. :smiley:

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You might like Santa Rosa. It sounds like my husband and I have similar tastes in interests, and we just love it here.

It’s wine country (with about a dozen killer breweries/brewpubs in a 50 mile radius), about an hour north of San Francisco, about 30 minutes from Bodega Bay.

It’s got some great neighborhoods, a decent arts scene, great nightlife, and some fabulous restaurants.

Might be worth a stop to check out.

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Since you like wine I’d make sure you stop and do the Foxen Canyon Wine trail it has a convenient entrance off of the 101 on the south side and puts you back very close to it on the North. I’d second visiting Pismo Beach and Morro Bay for good scenery. Nearby Los Osos has reasonable property values for the area.

After that I’d agree that the Monterey Bay aquarium is fantastic. Once you get to the East side of the Bay I’d suggest spending a night in Napa and visiting some wineries while you’re there.

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Stay on the PCH through Oregon, where the coastline is still beautiful; don’t get on I-5 until Olympia.

Washington and Oregon’s wines are less well known than California’s, but there are some good ones. We’ve enjoyed wine tourism in the Willamette Valley (OR) and Hood River (OR/WA) areas.

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Seconded on Crater Lake. You can also drive around the lake, allow several hours.

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Kind of a quirky side-trip: just north of the Oregon/Washington border, follow the minor highway out to Long Beach, Washington. The middle of the town is kind of kitschy tourist trap, but it’s small, and surrounded by scenic. The beach is definitely north coast, wild and - the times I’ve been there - pretty cold.

It looks like it gets pretty busy during the weekends / summer. Anyhow, I’ve enjoyed the place.

The San Juan islands just north of Seattle are also pretty nice.

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They’re very good at driving below the speed limit, and staying in the left lane to prevent passing.

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I recommend checking out Point Reyes National Seashore just north of San Francisco. Definitely worth spending a night in a bed and breakfast in the areas (or camping in the park if you like). Nice little area.

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Hi–

Doesn’t seem like anyone told you anything beyond California. From US-101, there’s a bunch of great places to stop at listed in The Oregon Coast | Explore Oregon.

Once your in Astoria, I’d recommend following the Columbia River via the WA-14 (described here Columbia River Mouth and Long Beach Peninsula | Explore Washington ) and from there, it all depends on how much time you have and when you are coming; Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier are always interesting.

HTH.

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We’re currently living in the Seattle area after spending the last 10 years outside Sacramento. We’ve made the drive to Northern California more times than I can remember, and the drive all the way up to Seattle from Sacramento three times now.

For the best driving views, take 101north through California (not a meager drive, by the way). Be sure to stop by the Chandelier Drive-Through Tree in Leggett. Since it’s an older highway, it winds through small towns. Be careful not to miss your turns and plan your gas so you don’t need to fill up in the middle of the night because many of the stations will be closed.

Ignore the people telling you to follow the interior mountain ranges for Yosemite and Gold Country. Unless you main goal is hiking or snow, there is no reason to go this route.

Once you get to Crescent City, you might as well cut across to I-5 on CA-199. If you keep on 101 through Oregon, you’ll miss Portland. I-5 through Ashland and Medford in Oregon is cute enough to spend a lunch or dinner. Ashland has a pretty famous Shakespeare festival around the time of year you mention. Besides, by the time you’re north of Redding, California, the scenery around I-5 improves markedly, so there’s less point avoiding it.

As far as Places to Live:

Portland is very cool but don’t forget that it is a river port, not on the Pacific coast, if that is your criteria for settling down. Although I haven’t spent a lot of time there, the metro area seems cute and the suburbs are acceptable.

Seattle is my current favorite. The metro area is more dense than Portland but not as crazy as San Fran. The suburbs are close by and adorable because they are hilly and clustered around little water inlets of the sound. There’s a broad mix of different nationalities, so you get good variety.
You do have to be a bit careful about planning your commute. I-5 is basically the only highway, so it jams like a fax machine. We solved this by finding a place down the street from work.