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South Seattle to Sacrememto via San Fran! Help!

South Seattle to Sacrememto via San Fran! Help!

Old Jul 20th, 2016, 07:09 PM
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South Seattle to Sacrememto via San Fran! Help!

Our family of five are road tripping from South of Seattle to Sacrememto and need a stop in San Fran!

Kids are 12, 9 & 3!! All good travelers!

We are leaving Sunday and need to get to San Fran for dinner on Tuesday and end up at family's in Sacrememto Tues night!

We would like to visit Tillamook and the Sea Lions on day one but have no idea where to stay or what else to do?

All suggestions welcome especially for food and lodging!! Thank you for your help!!
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Old Jul 20th, 2016, 07:55 PM
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>>We are leaving Sunday and need to get to San Fran for dinner on Tuesday and end up at family's in Sacrememto Tues night! >We would like to visit Tillamook and the Sea Lions on day one but have no idea where to stay or what else to do?
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Old Jul 20th, 2016, 08:49 PM
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San FranCISCO is some 90 miles west of Sacramento. That means at least a two-hour drive after your dinner in SF. won't work. Tillamook?
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Old Jul 20th, 2016, 08:50 PM
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Oops--EAST of San Francisco, toward the Sierra Nevada mountains.
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Old Jul 21st, 2016, 06:14 AM
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In my view you don't have enough time for Tillamook (which is a meh experience anyway) and the sea lion caves are a horrific tourist ripoff; it will take days for your noses to recover.

Instead, push hard on Sunday to Bandon via I-5 and OR 38. Look for elk next to the (OR 38) highway just before Reedsport.

The next day, travel through the redwoods to Eureka. Have dinner at the Samoa Cookhouse, a fun place for the kids. http://samoacookhouse.net/ If you find yourselves ahead of schedule, a stop at the Trees of Mystery between Crescent City and Eureka might compensate for the sea lions; it's hokey but it's been packing them in forever.

The drive from Eureka/Arcata to SF is around 5 hours, call it 6+ via the Avenue of the Giants. Traveling to Sacramento after dinner in SF will make this a VERY long day. Have dinner at Pier 39 and you'll see all the sea lions you ever wanted to see. More, even.
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Old Jul 21st, 2016, 08:24 AM
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Of course it will work to drive to Sacramento after dinner if that's what they want to do. How would a 2 hr drive be impossible? Besides, with kids, I suspect they will be eating early, but 2 hrs hardly makes something impossible.

it's the rest of the trip I don't get. Driving from Seattle to San Francisco takes about 12-13 hours, so most of Sunday and Monday. Sure, I guess there is maybe a half day in there to stop and do something since don't need to be in San Francisco till dinnertime. Just a very arduous trip. Given there isn't much free time, though, I don't see how you can visit Tillamook as that takes you 2 hours off the main route going south (and 2 hrs drive back, I guess). Have no idea what the Sea Lions is as a place, but suspect it's just looking at sea lions in the ocean. So I'd forget that whole idea and try to find something to do more on the route.

The drive is odd as you kind of go past Sacramento on the way down to San Francisco, only then to drive back to it. Hope there is a good reason for that. Of course that's only if you go the fastest way by I5. With some extra time, you can visit Point Reyes National Seashore instead of the Oregon stuff, perhaps, although it's kind of out of the way, also, depending on driving route. Why not stay overnight around Ashland OR, it's about half way.
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Old Jul 21st, 2016, 08:39 AM
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With some extra time, you can visit Point Reyes National Seashore instead of the Oregon stuff, perhaps, although it's kind of out of the way, also, depending on driving route.

It is out of the way regardless the driving route unless it is CA1 down the coast from Mendocino, for which they do not have the time. We go to Point Reyes on a fairly regular basis from SF, and it takes two hours to get to Drake's Beach, more to the lighthouse. Granted that it would take less time from US101 at Petaluma, but the continuation to SF would add considerable time; I would give three hours of just travel time from Petaluma to Point Reyes to SF.
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Old Jul 21st, 2016, 09:06 AM
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With three kids US 101 down the coast is a much nicer drive than I-5, and to SF it's only around three or four hours longer wheels turning if you follow my suggested route.

The OP doesn't say when this is planned, but if it's anytime during the summer I'd absolutely avoid I-5 through southern Oregon and the Sacramento Valley; the Rogue Valley (Grants Pass to Ashland) can be hot as hell with minimal places to break the trip. Accommodations in Ashland are crazy expensive due to the Shakespeare crowd, and those in Medford are roadside chains where the only thing going for them is air conditioning set to freeze and maybe a pool.
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Old Jul 21st, 2016, 09:16 AM
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You don't have time to do what you want to do.

Reviews for the Sea Lion Caves north of Florence receive mixed reviews. The time I paid admission, the cave was home to two dozen or more sea lions, and the experience of seeing them in the cave setting thrilled me as much as when I took a cruise to a rock in the Strait of Magellan that is home to sea lions.

On a recent day cruise out of Seward, the folks on the ship oohed and aahed over the three sea lions we saw hanging out on a rock.

I treasure primordial experiences such as these.

HTtY

PS The person selling tickets at the Sea Lion Caves will give you an honest estimate of how many sea lions are in the cave.
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Old Jul 22nd, 2016, 02:57 PM
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Thank you all very much for your honest and helpful answers!

Yes we are traveling this summer. If it makes anyone feel any better we will be leaving from Puyallup, which is about 2 hours south of Seattle. Just not a lot of people know Puyallup so I put Seattle.

Yes I realize this is an ambitious trip but my kids are GREAT travelers. We have moved cross country 4 times!

Sounds like it is a good idea to skip Sea Lions but Tillamook is a must!

I would like to take 101 and just maybe dream by the ocean during the drive, since we may not have time to stop. (is this crazy??)

San FranCISCO is a much needed, although long diversion. Some people I love very much live there and I haven't' seen them in 15 years.

Any more suggestions on where to stay and eat? Hopefully along th 101?

Thank you again for all the responses!
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Old Jul 22nd, 2016, 04:48 PM
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Can you stop in San Francisco on your way back to Puyallup instead of on the way down? BTW, I know Puyallup - they have that great fair every year!!!

If you skip San Francisco on the way down, then the several hour detour out to Tillamook is doable and still able to get you to Sacramento on Tuesday night.

OR, you could do Tillamook on the way back, too. What's your timing for the return trip?

I live in Sacramento. The drive on I-5 from Oregon border to Sacramento is boring. The drive down I-5 through Oregon is pretty, IMHO. But nothing beats the coastal route, given enough time to enjoy it.
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