On 13 July skip Stockton and go to Sacramento. Stockton is an armpit. See the state capitol grounds and maybe have a late birthday dinner in Old Town Sacramento.
The Firehouse restaurant is fancy and a bit pricey.
After Yachats (pronounced ya HOTS) continue north to Tillamook and visit the cheese factory on the north end of town for great ice cream and cheese.
Take Rt. 6 east out of Tillamook to Banks (US 26) on the west side of Portland.

Tom: >>On 13 July skip Stockton and go to Sacramento. Stockton is an armpit. <<

Apparently you missed the bit where there are <i>visiting friends</i> in Stockton . . .

Missed that detail. Stockton is not as much of an armpit as Bakersfield.
DW and I did spend a night in Lodi last year. We saw "Bridge of Spies" in a nice theater there.

Our thinking behind Stockton is that we can spend most of the day in Yosemite and then be close enough to visit friends in Sacramento the following day. This could change so appreciate the tips for Sacramento. Already looked at the menu of the Firehouse .
Janisj - do you know of any good lunch options on our journey up the coast. I particularly like places where you can sit out and look over a view of the Ocean?

Oh -- jeeze louise -- why didn't you say Sacramento in the first place? ;) That make a HUGE difference. Do NOT stay in Stockton. Drive on to Sacramento to visit -- stay IN Sacramento NOT <B>NOT</B> Stockton. It is only an hour longer to Sacramento. or less depending on where your friends are. What part of town do they live? That matters re the route you take.

And also I would not set on the Firehouse quite yet. It is a lovely place/atmosphere but there are many wonderful restaurants in central Sacramento - some very innovative chefs and all kinds of cuisines. Several w/ better food than the Firehouse.

>>Janisj - do you know of any good lunch options on our journey up the coast. I particularly like places where you can sit out and look over a view of the Ocean?<< Which part of the coast?

Sacramento is much nicer than Stockton (have relatives there).
Regarding the Getty Center and Getty Villa, it depends what type of art you like. Getty is mainly more paintings, modern and older while the Villa is mostly Greco-Roman antiquities. You do need reservations for the Villa due to limited parking.

They live near Curtis Park Sacramento but we do want to make the most of Yosemite as well. However now we have 2 days in Pacific Grove we will be able to get up and off early to make good use of the time we have in Yosemite so we can probably be a bit more flexible about the balance of time between there and Sacramento. Hope that makes sense??

If you want to spend some time closer to Yosemite rather than going all the way to Sacramento, why not spend the night in one of the marvelous little gold rush towns along (or close to) Calif. Hwy 49 heading north from Yosemite? Look up the towns of Murphys, Columbia, Sutter Creek, Amador City or any of the towns along SR 49. They're very picturesque and MUCH more pleasant than the likes of Stockton, and still close enough to Sacramento to make it easy the next day.

In Oregon, I'd use US20 from Newport. Have a look at the Oregon State University campus in Corvallis - a very typical US "college town" that's right on your way.

Go to Sacramento -- Curtis Park (really lovely area (100000000% better than Stockton >) )

From the center of Yosemite Valley to Curtis Park is less than a 4 hour drive as long as you miss the morning commute. From your hotel is a little over 3 hours. No reason to detour anywhere. The gold rush towns Gardyloo mentions are lovely -- but that would complicate things.

From El Portal to say Murphys will take 2.5 hours, then you'd have a 2-ish hour drive the next morning.

. . . PLUS - If you head straight to Sacramento and don't waste a night in Stockton, you can make up a night somewhere else.

Bear in mind sunset comes early in Yosemite Valley because of the high granite walls. So you could spend the day then leave El Portal say 5PM (already nearly dusk in the valley) and be in Sacramento before 9PM /dusk in the Sacramento Valley.

The next day you can go to Lunch and spend most of the day w/ your friends. Leave Sacramento for SF after 6:30 PM to avoid the worst of the afternoon commute.

Oh -- just thought of something (tomfuller won't believe this ;) ) . . . You could turn in your car in Sacramento and <u>take Amtrak</u> to SF. That way you don't have to worry about the nasty traffic along the I-80 corridor or in the Bay Area. The train goes from downtown Sacramento - your friends can easily drop you at the station. It stops at Emeryville just across the Bay from SF and then Amtrak runs a bus into near Union Square.

Great suggestions. It's quicker to get back to Sacramento than we thought so we are likely to move our booking there. Also if our friends offer a bed for the night we will now be in a much more informed position to accept so a big thanks from us. They've had some illness in the family so we've not yet been able to firm up arrangements. Plan B will be Murphys or Sutter Creek

The final bit of planning is restaurants and sights we mustn't miss after leaving San Francisco. Glad we will now be able to see the glass beach north of Mendocino. On the food front we are looking for local authentic local cooking. The place doesn't need to be posh as long as it's clean. Preferably with a view.

Jamie99 - thanks. Think our preference will be the Getty Museum.

I'm feeling very indebted to you all for your time and trouble. It's much appreciated.

Janisj - thanks for the suggestion of public transport. We are used to city traffic but would rather not sit in long traffic jams. Amtrak looks to be a very good option. We've recently toured Andalusia by bus. That's a trip I would thoroughly recommend.

Ok -- from Union Square to Little Rive entirely up the coast is about a 4 hour drive plus (very frequent) photo stops. So w/ an early start you could definitely wait - drive all the way to Little River, check in, then pop up the road to Mendocino for lunch.

But if you want to stop en route some options are Timber Cove which should be re-opened by then timbercoveresort.com Or --- if I've counted right you will be driving up the coast on a Sunday. If so . . . St Orres would be terrific (they only serve lunch/brunch on Sundays).

www.saintorres.com/#