Janis: 100% correct. It's kinda funny, actually.

Shea: Your final itinerary should be just fine. Focus on coastal destinations-- compared to all the natural beauty you'll see, the inland areas of the Silicon Valley will just be like suburban Generica and corporate office parks you see everywhere else.

Chilin, you're still wrong. I'm just me. Janis is another person. Jason888 is yet another. We don't repeat each other's posts verbatim, down to the sloppy typing and consistent mispellings (every time I see "Union Sqaure", it's still funny!!). If Shea's been following this little catfight, the persistent postings of odd advice, URLs, etc. will be familiar.

"Chilin" (Lamda/Watsen/RSebastian/Watson/whatever/etc., etc., etc.), I've been to SJ on business enough to know that I wouldn't make it a point on a tour of beautiful places with lots to do.

And funny thing-- Fodors doesn't delete my posts. Click on my name-- they go back for months. Click on Chilin's name-- they started a few hours ago after Lamda's posts were nuked by the editors on this board.

Lastly: The vast majority of my advice is for where I live and work: SOUTHERN California. But as someone who's visited the San Francisco Bay Area many times and been to Silicon Valley on business several times (with a few weekends thrown in), I can say unequivocally that a visitor to CA on a trip like this needs to focus on the beautiful places. Shea's not going to SF, which is fine. Doesn't bug me at all!

Shea -- to get back to your subject, by going to Sonoma by using 680 to 12 you will be bypassing Mission Dolores in San Francisco as well as Mission San Rafael in San Rafael. If you have already been to those missions then I will butt out.

IMO the ride on 101 north of SF is considerably nicer visually than that through the East Bay.
Whatever route you take, I'm sure that you will have a great time.

Thanks again. To mmr41, we have spent wonderful times in San Francisco & have visited both the mission in San Francisco & San Rafael- also Sonoma. We haven't seen the missions from Los Angeles up to Carmel. We do plan to stick pretty much to the coast of California on this trip seeing things we haven't seen before. We have seen the Sonoma coast & it's beautiful so we are really looking forward to Big Sur. We enjoy California. There is so much variety & it's the place we go to get out of the cold. We love San Francisco & San Diego & I am sure other cities like San Jose have their share of things to see & do - someday, the good Lord willing, we will see it all. Thanks to all of you we have , I think, a good itinerary now. I will give a trip report upon our return.

Shea: Have a great trip! Looking forward very much to your trip report!

rjw and janis: Bravo! Bravissimo!

Shea - I am sure you will have a great trip and I am looking forward to your report. I've actually never been to Sequoia NP, so I am esspecially looking forward to reading about that.

jaredson REALLY wants to send you over hwy 17, etc because this is his fourth identical post (all of the others have been deleted by Fodors). This time he added a personal attack on some of us (he has done this before too). Do a search on each of the posters he accuses and you will find he is blowing smoke (or maybe that is inhaling)

The sad thing is he has tried to mislead so many posters who have legitimate questions - and end up ruining entire threads. Fodors really should post a disclaimer that any thread about the general SF Bay Area may at any time be hijacked by this sociopath.

There, jaredson was that mean enough for you???????

I hope you have a wonderful trip. Bakersfield and Fresno are not cold and FOGGY in oct. We are still close to 100degress right now! It's fun to read about people comming for vacations in your own "neck of the woods". I just did a day trip to Kings Canyon last Sat. It is so wonderfu. Go to the caves if you can. Do you have reservations to stay anywhere? I love Cedar Grove at the "end of the Road". Hike to Roaring Falls! (short hike!) Hope you have a wonderful trip!

Uh, sorry, "Tobin", "Jarenson", "Dawsen", etc. You're still WAY off-base. And you're busted. You must think everyone on this board is an idiot.... Fodors, time to fry "Tobin's" posts for today!!

I noticed Tobin late last night - he posted to 15 threads in 15+ minutes and was obviously trying to "cover" his normal MO. But he blew it on one thread where he went into his regular "jason888 is the same person as rjw...." schtick.

Fodors is getting a lot better about this garbage. But it sure makes some threads sound funny with warnings about posts that are no longer there.

Maybe we all should just e-mail Fodors when we notice him back on board. The editors obviously have a better handle on the situation and will delete him.

Janis: You're right! Unless, of course, you have whiskers, which I do! LOL! At least, I do before my morning shave!

This guy gives out pretty straight forward information on east coast cities such as New York and Philadelphia, but he goes way off the chart when it comes to the Bay Area. Wonder therefore if he isn't some kind of East Coast nut who has nothing better to do????

After all, the nuts in California are too busy going to the beach, hiking in the great and numerous parks, or eating at gourmet restaurants and secret little hideaways . In other words, we're too busy enjoying this God-given wonderful life and beautiful weather to bother giving out fake information. (Burp!)

Jason -

Sorry, the was supposed to be a

and the was supposed to be a