vic

Thanks to all who replied to my last post (father taking 19 year old daughter for her first trip to California) some very useful information there. Based on that I've decided to leave Tahoe for another time. Heres my new plan. Fri night - arrive SFO at 9:30 pm take shuttle to hotel. 3 days in SF. Tues morning get car slow drive down 1 to Big Sur with stop off in Santa Cruz (any other good stops) see coast all the way to JPB state park and walk into park to see cove and waterfall. See Pfeiffer Beach (saw it last trip, awesome). Back to Rays for sunset (is that in Pacific Grove?). Sleep Monterey (best value?). Wednesday see Aquarium, Point Lobos, Big Sur again if time permits and Carmel then drive to town near Yosemite (preferences?) (would it be better to do this trip the next morning?) for sleep. Thursday see Yosemite till dark. Sleep near Yosemite again (should I try another town or are they pretty similiar.) Friday back into Yosemite till late afternoon then drive out back to SF (with detour to Calaveras, how should I do this, which way out of Yosemite?) Sleep in SF. Sat see more SF with car or take day trip to wine country (is that to much?). Sat nite no hotel, make way back to airport for 6am flight. Comments please?

Any suggestions? Anything else I should see in this loop? Is this still to much?

janis

vic: You have pared it down to a more manageable itinerary. I am still concerned that you may not enjoy Yosemite this year. You made a point of mentioning that your earlier visit was disappointing because of the low waterfalls etc. Well it is worse this year.

Anyway, if your heart is set on Yosemite go for. If it were me and I was 19 traveling w/ my father I would prefer Santa Cruz/Monterey/Carmel/Big Sur and SF instead of racing back and forth across the state.

Also They are very strict in Napa/Sonoma about wine tasteing. They do card folks.

My final comment - this is the second time you have mentioned staying in the car the night before you leave. Did you have any idea where this might be? It is certainly not a good idea to sleep in the car in most SF neighborhoods. Nowhere on your itinerary would you have to pull an allnighter to get to SFO by 5AM. So be a sport and get your daughter a room for the last night - you can sleep in the parking lot if you want.

Judi

Vic:

I would cut out Yosemite. It takes a week to enjoy by itself, and the other posters are right about this not being a particularly good year to go there.

If your daughter enjoys amusement parks, there is Great America in Santa Clara (good roller coasters) and the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz, depending on what time of year you are coming (they have limited hours in the fall). There is also the Tech Museum in San Jose.

San Jose and Santa Clara are mid-point between San Francisco and Santa Cruz. But don't drive across Hiway 17 at rush hour or at night in a rental car.

kam

Vic, It's Roy's at the Inn at Spanish Bay in Pebble Beach that has the bagpiper at dusk. If you stay for a meal, they refund the price of admission to the 17 mile drive (about $8 now, I think) Roy's is quite expensive, but I believe the hotel has a couple other restaurants or you could just have a drink. If you want to see the Calaveras Big Trees, you should leave Yosemite on 120 and turn north onto 49. Just near Angels Camp you will turn northeat through Murphys (good for lunch--old historic saloon) and Calvera is 2 miles east of the town of Arnold. It's not as out of the way as it sounds and it's a very pretty drive. The whole area is very historic in the gold rush days--remember Mark Twain and the Jumping Frogs of Calaveras? I would still cut out the wine country and agree with your decision about Tahoe. She might actually want to overnight in Santa Cruz--it's the old "Surf City, U.S.A." Surfing museum, surfing lessons, old boardwalk, great old wooden roller coaster. Neat place for a Jersey City girl! Enjoy.

seamus

For your last night, consider driving down to Millbrae and having dinner at the Hong Kong Flower Garden. There are affordable motels and you'll get to the airport easily the next day. Don't sleep in your car. That's really pretty dangerous and CHP really frowns on it. Merced is a possibility to sleep for Yosemite, Mariposa would be better and El Portal would be ideal.