Planning road trip from SLO to Seattle (Coast highway)

[kickinindian]

so my wife and I just got married after living together for 6yrs. was a great wedding, not too many people, and had a blast! problem is that we dont make much money (hospitality, boom or bust) so we could not have a honeymoon that was worth going on, plus we have a daughter who as of this writing is 9 months old, and my wife breastfeeds so we could not be apart from our daughter for very long.

soooo..........we decided that it was worth it to wait until she could stay with grandma and eat solid foods and be a toddler, and not a boob milk crazed infant.

we decided that we would like to do the highway 1/101 trip up to Seattle from SLO,(cuts out areas we have been to before and dont like LA very much) then back down through the portland corridor (we have family in springfield) and mash home on the 5 and get home to oakhurst safe and sound.

we are planning on doing this around our anniversary so that gives me about 11 months to plan this all out and figure out how much to save up, we will probably take the new family DD 98' 318ti (m44) auto :( sucks i cant take the e30 but its down for what started as heart transplant to full restomod.

anyways planning the trip around early october since we love fall/winter but i dont want to hit a bunch of weather up north that might stall us out.

i know a-lot of you gents and ladies are bay area/oregon/washington based so where are good hotels, places to stop, FOOD, and make the most out of trip?

in advance sorry for grammer or spelling errors

[Dozyproductions]

I took a date to an amazing restaurant around cambria that had the name with lotus or rose or some sort of flower in the name of it. The chef traveled all around the world and fused it with her asian pacific heritage to make amazing food. A bit up north from cambria we went and had cocktails while watching a jazz concert on this amazing two story hotel looking over the ocean on the bluffs right before the twisties on the 1. I will have to get back to you. I use to live in slo for years so but all the names are fuzzy.

[flyboyx]

damn! 11 mos gives you a hell of a long time to plan. my wife and i were in portland/norcal/seattle this summer. see the redwoods in norcal. check out the microbreweries and strip clubs in portland. the strip clubs in pdx are off the chain. really hot girls and they get full nude. drive up to seattle and take the ferry across to the western peninsula. see olympic park. on the way back stop at crater lake and yosemite.

above all else, check out the strip clubs in portland!

[kickinindian]

Dozy that sounds great would be a good start!

Flyboy those are awesome ideas!

Strip club sounds tits!
Seriously though

I live in a 30min drive from Yosemite and redwoods so all the interior cali stuff is not appealing to me but coastal cali, Washington, and Oregon interior stuff would be great!

[Dozyproductions]

It's a start! The place was called Wild Ginger Cafe but is a full restaurant. Very 1 on 1 and nice place, if you can sit outside. Anthony bourdain could go here if was filming a california coast special. Get her pumpkin pie, phenomenal!

The jazz show was at a restaurant called hamlet at moonstone gardens if that's your thing. It might of closed but stuff like that is out there haha.


Have fun man! Such a great time to up that road! Summer is amazing but there's an entirely different type of beauty during this time of year. You'll have a great time!

[kickinindian]

Dozy, the cafe sounds great. im hoping to find one nice place every town we stop at to ether eat, visit, or experince.

[Dozyproductions]

Def worth a pass by. I know that if you want to stay in the e30 german'ness there's a place called the Hofbrau in Morro bay. Great sandwhich... there's only one you need to get there. Then get the taffy next door.

[pandaboo911]

I just recently did a road trip from the Bay Area to Seattle with 7 people in my van. If you like camping and exploring the Lava Beds National Monument is a great place to stop. The lava caves there are fuckin beautiful.
Also stopping at crater lake I think is a must, make the hike down to the water (only takes about 20 minutes to walk) and there's great places to jump in the water. Be advised the water is like 2 degrees and you'll freeze your nuts off.

In the Portland area you should visit the silver falls state park. They have a trail that'll take you through 10 waterfalls, you can jump off a few of them in you're down with that. Also an insider tip is to head to Shellburg Falls, it's a beautiful secluded camp ground with only about 3 spots. It's a long drive down a dirt road (30 minutes) but it's 100% worth it. Right next to a waterfall straight out of a postcard, and nobody within MILES. You can literally do whatever the fuck you want there, like having sex under a water fall.
I can't think of any more right now but that's a few things.

[kickinindian]

That's cool that actually my favorite thing to take pictures is waterfalls so I'll have to check the spots out!