Okay for all of you responding to the 2 weeks in California message. If you had only 1 week in California where would you go? San Francisco is where our condo is and it's free so we won't feel guilty if we aren't there every night.
THanks!

Hard to answer unless we know what sorts of things interest you. But basically, if I had 7 days centered on SF (And assuming you are flying into/out of SFO) here are 3 itineraies. Arrive in SF - do not get a car driving and parking in SF can be a nightmare for newbies - and spend the first 4 nights there. That will give you time to see much of SF, the Bay and Marin County.

Then pick up a car and tour the last 3 days either a loop up the Marin/Sonoma coast and into the Napa Wine country and back to SFO. Or, Loop east via Sacramento through the foothills of the goldrush country and up to Lake Tahoe and back through Alpine and Mariposa counties and across to SFO. Or 3rd loop south along the San Mateo coast/Half Moon bay vis santa Cruz and possibly as far south as Monterrey/Carmel and back up through Salinas/Gilroy to SFO.

Janis has a good idea for seeing SF and n. california. But a word about the gold country: On Sunday we drove through Alpine and Calaveras co over Ebbetts pass into S. Lake Tahoe. While it was beautiful and big trees is very nice, I would not recommend this drive for a short visit. Long, slow drive. Ebbetts pass doesn't even have a line down the middle. Poor back seat kids were feeling barfy and I couldn't turn around to help them as I was feeling the same. Having a condo in SF gives the flexibility of taking some nice day or two trips. I like Janis's ideas about Sonoma and northward and Monterey .

A good way to do the Tahoe/Gold country loop w/o the "erpy" Hwy 88 leg is to go up I80 to Truckee, cut over to the northshore of Tahoe, drive around the Nevada (east) side of the lake to southshore (the main casino area). Then west on Hwy50 and at Placerville take Hwy49 (this is the main goldrush route) south through all the 1850's towns and cut over via Stockton to SF.

If you were to take this route I'd stay at North shore Tahoe one night, Southshore one night (or stay 2 nights at southshore). and in a B&B in Sutter Creek or Amador City the last night.

agree you should spend 4 day in Sf and nearby.

another option would be to head south and go to Monterey, Carmel, Big Sur etc.