h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

...you could see Faith again

But seriously, you're welcome to visit anytime--maybe we'd even get to know some of the cool places to visit in Sacto if we had someone coming

Ooooh oooh oooh that would be cool. It is incredibly sad that I've lived on the West coast for 8 years now, and have yet to make it south of Portland. I'd love to take a road trip all the way down the coast, but I'd want to find someone to go with me. Hmmmm..... who could I drag....

What do you think the best time of year to see Sacto is? I've heard autumn, but don't really know a lot about the area (despite having applied for jobs there in the past ).


Mikey

You could probably talk GT into the trip, plus then you'd have a lot of room for bags and souveniers and stuff

Autumn *is* really nice. Of course, being from up there, winter wouldn't be horrible (I remember one year, I decided to give up waiting for winter by the time April rolled around) Winter here's a lot like late fall up there. So not nice for going to, say, the American River Parkway, but fine for visiting indoor stuff. It should start getting down to highs of mid80s by the end of next month, maybe even mid-month. and it's generally nice until just before Thanksgiving--sometimes even up to then. I think. We've only lived here for 4 years, so while I've a pretty good idea, I'm not absolutely certain.

If I were doing a road trip, I'd go down 101 to Arcata, cut over to 299, then when I reached Redding, I'd catch I5. That way, there's be redwoods and montains to see. If you want to see Mt. Shasta, though, I'm pretty sure you'd need to go another way (would need to ask Tom--I'm familiar with the 101 way because we've made several trips to Crescent city, because of family)... Fastest would be to just run down I5, though then you'd just be mostly in the valleys (Willamette and Central) and I don't know about you, but to me, that's pretty boring! *scrolls down* Ah, yes, you said you'd like to make a trip all the way down the coast! In that case, you could cut over to the valley from... Clearlake, I think (we've gone that route in the winter, so as to avoid high mountain passes)Then you could swing back. Or else come over from San Fran... Anyhoo, I'm sure you can look at a map just as well as I can pull stuff out of my memory

OK, so I guessed just slightly wrong about temp timetables 'Tis in the low 80s now.

Sounds like delicious weather to me.

The one friend perhaps most likely to agree to such a trip has suddenly taken on a job which will keep him from road-tripping until late winter or early spring, but I bet I might talk him into it then.

Of course, in addition to beautiful scenic roadways, we'll also need all of the cheesiest possible roadside attractions - like 'World's Largest Statue of a Very Tiny Insect', that kind of thing. Do you know if there are any websites listing them for California or Oregon? I've seen websites like that for some of the midwest states.

Better yet, I know of some in the Crescent City area There's the museum on the way to the Ship Ashore resort, and there's Prehistoric Gardens (never been to myself, but the sculpture out front looks cheesy) There's Undersea World... No, wait, they had to change the name because Sea World was going to sue them... Lemme see if Tom remembers the new name... Ocean World Uncheesy, but must go to--Trees of Mystery!!!!!! (Admission is, or at least used to be, free on Easter) There's a drive-thru tree near where Tom grew up (so about 20 miles from Crescent City--and of course neither of us have ever gone through) I remember that in one of the Oregon coast towns, there was a Ripley's museum, and another cool cheesy one, but we went there on our honeymoon, so I can't remember if it was in Depot Bay, Lincoln City, or Newport.

And there's the Tilamook, Bandon, and Rumiano's (in Crescent City) cheese factories--can't get much more cheesy than that

As far as sites, you'd probably have more luck finding some than I'm having--can't seem to get my search terms right

I just remembered--the last issue of Via (AAA traveling magazine) we got had an article about tourist traps! I'll look to see if it got tossed, tomorrow. If we still have it, you could email me your snailmail, and I could cut the article out for you and send it

And of course since Tom, unlike me, is *not* a packrat, that magazine is long gone

But since we've moved, I know places to go, and you could stay on the coast the whole time! IIRC, midJuly-September's the best weather. Faith's birthday (July 11) sorta teeters on the edge. Then again, the weather's been --warm and sunny for the first half of February, and snow that almost stuck at below 50' elevation just last week! (Actually, it was just starting to be not slush when the snow turned to rain)

Well, I've finally found a friend who is interested in doing a good west coast road trip with me -- the only caveat being that I have to wait until he finds a new job out here, which hopefully will be by this summer. YAY for car camping!

Oh, and I'm most glad to hear that y'all have found a better living situation. That's a very happy-making thing.

Well, with our current situation, there's not room for folks to crash at our place, but there's lots of cheap camping places, and a hostel (and lots of motels, in Crescent City especially, but of course camping or the hostel's tons cheaper). Email me, and I'll give you our phone number, and when timing and such is figured out, I can check prices for ya

Gonna come celebrate your doctorhood by crashing on our futon?

*poke*