I'll look into all the suggestions. We are definitely not looking for challenging driving (I think Highway One will be enough of a challenge for me.) We'll be touring north of the Golden Gate Bridge with my daughter.

Don't worry, the inland country roads I mentioned above are not that bad. Sorry--I didn't intend to scare you, but just inform you.

I am currently living on New Zealand's South Island and the winding, narrow, country roads are more challenging here due to often-inclement weather, and scary drop-offs. By comparison, Northern California road conditions should be fine in May; the weather might be foggy but otherwise good. Also, being near Silicon Valley, the above-mentioned roads are well-maintained. While there is a lot of traffic in northern California, especially at peak commute hours (keep this in mind), when we last drove the above-mentioned routes #35 & #84 through the Santa Cruz Mountains and Santa Mateo county, we often found ourselves the only ones on these country roads. We took our time, didn't need to rush along as we would have needed to do on the freeway. There are many You Tubes of what routes #35 and #84 look like. Here is one, taken by a bicyclist:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEJJJ3iCXsk
As you will see from this, this drive is beautiful.

The more direct coastal route from Monterey to Pacifica (Highway One/Cabrillo Highway) is not challenging, nor very busy.

Regarding finding budget accommodation, I signed up for Travelzoo.com to get their top 20 deals of the week. You can search their other listings as well. Sometimes, the deals seem too good to be true, so I always check the reviews for the accommodations that are on sale on other websites, such as Trip Advisor and Hotels.com, and you can always check with folks on this board, too, to make sure that the "deals" are worth going for.

Thanks for the reassurance!

If you do take 35 or 84 be aware that there are many bicyclists and the roads are narrow. There are bike/car accidents on these roads all of the time, especially 84. If you are prone at all to motion sickness do not go on 84.
If you look for San Mateo Road on a map it is Hwy 92.It connects Hwy 1 from Half Moon Bay to Interstate 280 and Hwy 101. San Francisco airport is on 101.

I lived in San Mateo County for 26 years and never knew until just know that Hwy 92 was called anything other than '92'.

WINE TOURS IN CARMEL AREA: Driving east on Carmel Valley Road has HELLER, BERNARDUS AND TALBOTT'S. All fun places to go plus great scenery. It is always sunny in this area if the peninsula has fog.

Talbott's is a new location for them. Has great collection of old motorbikes completely restored and nice area to sit outside with a bottle of wine. Plus, there are nice shops nearby. Across the street from Talbott's is CAFE RUSTICA RESTAURANT....it looks small, but is one of the best reviewed places to eat in the area.

Oops...I pushed submit.

PLACES TO STAY IN CARMEL AREA: Go to www.pacificgrove.org for the Pacific Grove website. It lists many small hotels that are reasonable and the quaint town of PG is just a short drive (10-15 minutes) to Carmel. Most of the coastline on the Monterey Peninsula is actually located in Pacific Grove. One historic place you may want to check out is ASILOMAR. This is owned by the state of California, over 100 years old and has a beautiful setting. Go online to check out their rates.

Just checked in again on this thread. Thanks for the additional tips. I found a reasonable motel in Monterey with good reviews and I'll check out the wine tours in Carmel Valley.