To be honest, sounds pretty incoherent to me.

The one highlight of Placerville was the hangman, who hangs no more.

You haven't explained beans about why you want to go to these places. Try that first.

Rasta is trying to be humorous - and yes, the hanging man is no longer there, but actually - there are a number of cute/interesting things to do/see around Placerville. See below for some ideas, and more info further on.

http://www.seecalifornia.com/things-to-do/placerville.html

http://attractions.uptake.com/california/placerville/29075440.html

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g32898-Activities-Placerville_California.html

It's really where the foothills of the Sierras start to become greener/more scenic than just Oak - and we used to stop there on the way back from a ski weekend sometimes to have brunch/lunch, especially if we were beating a storm out of Heavenly Valley/South Shore and took off without having much of a breakfast.

From there - you can just bullet down 50 to I - 5 and North - to say Redding - or you could drive the back way across Sacramento to Auburn - and up 80 to Reno - and take a route from there up toward Mt. Lassen, etc.

However - I would recommend getting to Redding and then perhaps over to the Coast if you have the time, or maybe kicking around Mt. Shasta town and/or Shasta Lake a bit.

You could visit a Coastal Redwood park by Eureka if that is of interest.

And if you went up the Coast - along the coast hi way - across the border at Gold Beach - you could take a jet boat up the fabled Rogue River - made famous by western writer Zane Gray. Here is one company and there are others. http://www.roguejets.com/

If you didn't head over to the Cal Coast at say Redding - once you get into Oregon - along I 5 anyway - Ashland is a cute little college town (over the hill from where I grew up in also scenic Klamath Falls) - and you could also see Crater Lake - http://tinyurl.com/ccv76ax and then, again, if you have time, take very scenic 138 past Roseburg and over to the Coast and up on into Cannon Beach or Astoria and back over to Portland.

Or - from Crater Lake - you could also head up old 97 - past Bend and the 3 Sisters and Mt. Jefferson - all 10,000 foot high -cinder cone/snow covered peaks - and then come into Mt. Hood - and stay at one of our all time favorite places - Timerline Lodge. http://timberlinelodge8-px.trvlclick.com/visit/

Lots of pretty/scenic ways to get to Portland from California.

Here is some info on the Three Sisters - by Bend, Oregon - and just north of there - very scenic Mt. Jefferson - which many visitors to Oregon don't even know about.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Sisters_(Oregon) and http://tinyurl.com/bwcblda

Easiest way to get to Sonoma from Placerville is to take Hwy 50 to I-80 (on Hwy 50 stay in left lanes, it becomes I-80). Just past Fairfield take Hwy 12 to Sonoma.

Your route to Portland depends on if you want to take the more coastal route or the fast route up I-5. I have done both several times. I love the coast route. Hwy 101 all the way to Tillamook,OR then Hwy 6 to Portland. There is a lot to see on the route. What are your interests?

If you enjoy wine, visit the Nello Olivo Wines tasting room in Placerville (http://www.nelloolivo.com/). Wonderful wines in a great atmosphere and free tasting.

Please note that leaving San Francisco in early evening will put you into rush hour traffic on I-80. What should take you about 2 hours will turn into 5 hours. Either leave San Francisco prior to 2PM or wait until 8PM. On Fridays, everyone is trying to get out of town. Sunday late afternoons are busy on I-80 going back into The City.

Have a wonderful visit.

Ditto on the post from Tomad re traffic A nightmare if you plan to head out for Placerville on Friday evening you will be in heavy traffic the whole way, That is the main route for the bay area to Lake Tahoe,

The post re traffic was by BarbAnn. Tomsd thinks the Bay Area has no traffic to speak of (Tom, I promise this was said in jest )

Thanks for the replies , reason I'm headed to Placerville is because I will be attending a dog show. Actually the main reason I am going to Cali ., following weekend I have another dog show in Oregon so I thought of making it a scenic vacation from point A B and C ., A day or so in SanFrancisco head towards Placeville then head over to Napa and hit the road towards Oregon .....

Sounds like you have a nice trip planned. We live in Napa Valley, so I'd recommend driving North on Highway 29 in Napa through Calistoga to Highway 128 which will take you through the beautiful Alexander Valley and connects to Hwy 101 North. Highway 101 takes you through some of my favorite areas including Avenue of the Giants (Redwoods), Humboldt State Park (Redwoods) and Redwood National Park (even more Redwoods). At Crescent City I would take Highway 199 over to Grants Pass and I-5 to get to Portland in time. But you have many other options also.

Touche sf7. I know there is traffic around SF but I guess I am so familiar with it over the years that I pretty much know how to avoid it and almost do so without thinking about it.

Sometimes though - people decide to just slug through it as they want to get somewhere that day/evening - such as the couple from the UK who were landing early on a friday afternoon - yet still wanted to put their head on their pillow at Tahoe so they could ski early the next day.

In those cases - you just pick up some cold beverages and snacks, play some tunes and try to chill out as you worm your way along.

Hey - hope you have a great time on Maui. With a week in your pocket - you can do so much. We always like to try and make it a 10 dayer/2 weekend trip- spending the first few days on Oahu seeing friends, paying homage to the North Shore, snorkeling (early) at Hanauma Bay, whatnot.

Will you have a dog with you? Do you need dog friendly towns to visit? If you need recommendations for restaurants in Placerville, let us know. I live near-by, my son is a reporter for Placerville's newspaper, the Mountain Democrat. My son's girlfriend's grandmother even owns a bar in Placerville. The town is fun and funky, although a little redneck!

Welcome to NorCal (most natives do not say Cali...dead giveway to your age or that you are a tourist).

Today (Friday) leaving from Millbrae (just south of SFO) @ 12:30PM, it took my friend (who actually lives here and knows every road/highway/freeway) four and a half hours just to get to Rancho Cordova. It was stopped/bumper to bumper in Emeryville, then in Berkeley, then in Richmond, and Vallejo, REALLY bad in Fairfield, and Vacaville, and Dixon, and Davis, and West Sacramento, and Sacramento and Rancho . . .

tom's ideas about Bay Area, Solano County and Sacramento traffic are several decades out of date.

So true, janisj, so true.

Never said you can't hit traffic. You can - but I seem to work around it pretty good every year that I return to the beloved Bay Area, some years several times a year.

And hey BarbAnn: What do you think about Rastaguy's opening copmments about Placerville?

BTW - I visit Sacto about as often - and ditto for knowing how to get around our Capitol.

As far as Solano County- rarely stop there - usually just jetting through. Dos

Tomsd: Placerville is like an onion. It has a lot of layers. Unlike an onion, the more you reveal, the better it gets. Old timers still call it Hangtown. As for the traffic, I was born & raised in San Diego/Orange County. I know what traffic is. That is why we moved up here 18 years ago. Since then the traffic has gotten worse by 2000%. Doesn't matter if you know the back roads...all the locals know those too.

When you leave Portland are you coming back to California to turn in the rental car?
I would consider flying to Sacramento instead of SFO.
If you want to see the wilder side of California and Oregon take US 395 north from Reno through Susanville and Lakeview OR.
North of Lakeview take OR 31 to hit US 97 just south of La Pine. Stay in Bend or Sunriver. Take 97 north to Madras and US 26 to Portland.
Visit Sonoma/Napa on the way back from Oregon.

Normally, at night and maybe Saturday mornings you can sometimes breeze up or down I-80. But the rest of the time the whole corridor is one snake pit after another. Parts of hwy 50 are as bad. Why you think you know more about this than those of us who live it baffles me . . .

Wow some great recommendations and tips. Thanks so much , I truly am looking forward to the trip, I've never been to California nor Oregon . I will be traveling with my dog , I would need to find pet friendly accommodations and places to eat . I have heard California is very pet friendly . I would love to fly to Sacramento but no direct flights which I prefer ., though I really would like to visit San Fransisco . I would have to rent the car in San Fransisco and return it in Portland where I'm flying out of .
i truly appreciate the info envy one has posted , thanks !!!

Janis, we're in Tahoe - thank goodness we came up Thursday, although with the BART outage just getting on the bridge in downtown SF took a half hour.

Angelmia--have you reserved a room in Placerville yet? If not, the best dog friendly motel in Placerville is the Best Western Placerville Inn. I believe that they charge $25 extra for a dog in the room. You will find most cities/towns in California are dog friendly. I travel (in the car) with my Golden Retriever and have never had a problem. One website you can check for pet friendly accommodations is: http://hotels.petswelcome.com/california/.

Why is it the women always complain so much?

Oops - I mean some women.

Thanks BarbAnn , I haven't checked a hotel yet in Placerville , thanks for the tip on the Best Western I will definitely check it out !

Angel: Have you roughed out the rest of your trip yet, or mainly concentrating on the dog show in Palcerville?

I've had so much on my plate lately that I haven't had time to think about the trip . I will definitely fly into S.F. Thurs morning heading to Placerville Friday early afternoon .Following weekend I have to be in Portalnd for another dog show ., at the moment I have nothing planned in between heading out from Placerville to Portalnd . I will definitely need a pet friendly hotel in S.F. For the night , i did find a couple in Placerville that I am considering at the moment .