Planning a week long trip the last week in August. Any suggestions appreciated. Been to Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, San Franciso,Yosemite,LA,Hearst Castle, Wine Country and all along the Coast Hwy. on down to Mexico. I want to fly in to SF and then drive to Reno.What else should we do? Does anyone know if the car museum there is worth the trip? We are not real gamblers. The drive from LA to Las Vegas was pretty dull. We aren't the type to sit and relax. We like to stay on the go.

Why go to Reno? Drive north. See the northern California coast, the redwoods. Go up into Oregon. See the beautiful Oregon coast and perhaps Crater Lake.

There is nothing in Reno worth driving 4 hours for if you do not like to gamble. Either pick another destination airport to start your trip or repeat something on your list. Try Mendocino and north coast including Ferndale, Eureka and Humboldt area. There is plenty to see and do.

Michael,

I really liked The National Automobile Museum in Reno (www.automuseum.org) They have cars on display from the 1800's to the present. There is actually more to Reno than just gambling (www.reno.com)such as golf, Lake Tahoe, and Virginia City. I go to Reno about twice a year and stay at the Harrahs which is centrally located downtown and walking distance to the Auto Museum. If you just plan to see the Reno/Lake Tahoe area, you might want to fly directly into Reno Tahoe International Airport. If you do plan on spending time in Northern California, you can get good prices on flights to Reno from San Jose International Airport on Southwest. Southwest no longer flies out of San Francisco, so you may want to consider flying into San Jose instead. There is also plenty to see and do in the San Jose/Silicon Valley region as well(www.sanjose.org) There are great restaurants, performing arts, museums(most notable are the Tech Museum(www.thetech.org), Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum(www.rosicrucian.org),San Jose Museum of Art(www.sjmusart.org, and the History Museums(www.historysanjose.org) The strange but interesting Winchester Mystery House is also worth a visit(www.winchestermysteryhouse.com) especially if you like Victorian mansions. I also would recommend a drive south of San Jose to the town of San Juan Bautista which is off of the 101 freeway (www.sanjuanbautista.com) for a visit to the Mission. San Juan Bautista is a small town with lots of history. Further south in the city of Salinas the National Steinbeck Center (www.steinbeck.org) is also quite interesting.

Stay in Lake Tahoe and visit Reno if you want to see the Auto Museum. Here are some things to do in Tahoe:

Make Reservations to see the Thunderbird Lodge. Cost $22 for adults $12 for kids. The Lodge will be open for public tours on Wednesdays and Thursdays, tentatively May 1st to October 31th, between the hours of 9 am until 3 pm, for docent led public tours (last admission is 1:30 pm). Tours are by reservation only and take approximately 1 hour. Call the Incline Village/Crystal Bay Visitor's Center at 1-800-GO-TAHOE to make arrangements for a tour.

Gondola at South Shore. Picnic at the stop near the top. Get back on and go to the top and hike around.

Raft down the Truckee river. It's slow and it's fun. Try to get into splash fights with other rafters. Stop along the sand bars to join in the fun.

Go to Squaw Valley High camp for the day. Buy the ticket that gets you into the pool and ice skating. There is grilled food and a bar at the top too.

Zypher cove has lots of water vehicles to rent as well as boat tours of all kinds, paddle wheel and sailing.

Sand Harbor and Incline have great beaches.

Historic stuff:

Tallac in Camp Richardson
Mansion and Tea House at Emerald Bay
Mansion at Sugar Pine Point

Second summer for the high speed ferry Meteor. Leaves from South Lake Tahoe and Tahoe City.

Lots of hiks too. From Bliss you can take a great hike. Also the Lake Tahoe Rim Trail is complete but you can take certain sections instead of doing the entire rim.

Michael,

I forgot to mention about the Big Basin Redwoods State Park in the Santa Cruz Mountains above San Jose. They have lots of great hiking and biking trails. In addition, I would recommend taking the Roaring Camp Railroad steam train tour through the redwoods in Felton (www.roaringcamp.com) the scenery is great.

Isn't the Thunderbird Lodge a bad time share?!

Scam alert!

The Reno-Tahoe Territory has lots to offer besides gambling. I think you would enjoy a trip there.

No, Bill, the Thunderbird Lodge is NOT a time share. It is a fabulous lakeside lodge built in the early 30's by George Wittell on the Nevada side of the Lake near Incline. It is open to tour - not to stay in! Sheesh!