2 week road trip from Seattle to San Francisco, via an inland route through Oregon, and then down the coast of California.
Day 1 - Seattle to Astoria
After a long drive (much traffic around Tacoma), we arrived in Astoria. We went for a walk, and ended up at the Astoria Column, which was a cool monument with a great view of the town and the river. We then went to Fort George Brewery, a brewery I particularly like - in Astoria it takes up an entire city block, with their production facility, a restaurant, and a taproom. We had dinner in the pub part and did one of their beer flights.
A specific recommendation for Astoria - stay at the Norblad Hotel. It's really good value because some of the rooms have shared bathrooms, but it has a great old school vibe and it's directly in the center of town.
Day 2 - Astoria
For our second day in Astoria, we went to the Flavel House Museum in the morning, which is a cool old house that was built by a sea captain in the 1800s. It was interesting to see how people lived back then, and the house was in great condition. After, we drove down to Cannon Beach and walked around the town and the beach, watching the puffins quite a few pelicans. We actually ended up having dinner again at Fort George, because it was so good the night before - this time we had pizza from their upstairs restaurant and played a game of scrabble on the built in scrabble board in one of the tables.
Overall Astoria was one of the "town" highlights of the trip - it's a cool little town with a lot of character and some really good food and drink.
Day 3 - Astoria to Salem
To break up the drive, we stopped at Bloom Lake Trail which was a fairly unremarkable trail apart from the fact we saw a snake and a salamander. We also made a spontaneous stop at Camp 18 Logging Museum which was basically just a large quantity of 1900s logging machinery that you could walk around. It was free, and quite interesting.
We stayed at the Grand Hotel in Salem which was fine. Salem itself was a bit of a let down, nothing in particular to recommend, but it was a convenient stop on the way to Bend.
Day 4 - Salem to Bend
We left Salem in the morning to head to Bend - on the way we did the 10 waterfalls hike at Silver Falls State Park, which may be in my top 10 hikes ever - mainly due to the high density of waterfalls compared to the otherwise quite easy hike.
We then headed to Bend, where we had dinner and a few beers at Deshutes Brewery, which had a cool pub vibe, and a good selection of beers that you can't get in stores.
Day 5 - Bend
Today we had a bit of a rest day in Bend - in the morning, we walked the Deschutes River Trail, which was a very pleasant out and back along both sides of the river. Afterward, we went to the Deschutes Historical Museum which had a great exhibit about the history of mountain biking in Bend, and only cost about $6. Afterward, we went to Spork for dinner, which was a counter service asian food place, with quite down to earth service but very good food.
Day 6 - Bend to Jacksonville via Crater Lake
We left Bend early to head to Crater Lake. The drive was beautiful, and the lake was stunning. We did several shorter hikes around the lake rim, and then headed to Jacksonville.
We stayed at The Jacksonville Inn, which was a great old hotel which had been converted into self service rooms. The rooms themselves were super nice, but there was also a bunch of perks, like a free glass of champagne in the restaurant underneath the hotel, and a free breakfast at one of the coffee shops in town the next morning. Would recommend! Jacksonville itself was a cute little town (clearly the "nice part of town" to neighbouring Medfor), with a few good restaurants and a nice park.
Day 7 - Jacksonville to Crescent City
Escaping the swealtering heat of Jacksonville, we headed to the coast. We stopped at the Oregon Caves, which were incredible. You have to stop at the info center in Cave Junction to get tickets (which were only $10), but the tour was well worth it. We saw a salamander, and the caves had an incredible variety of stalagtites and unique rock formations inside. We then headed to Crescent City, where we had dinner at Seaquake Brewing. The food was good, and the beer was good.
And almost forgot - we managed to get a picture with the ubiquitous California sign on the way to Crescent City.
Day 8 - Crescent City to Eureka
We did the James Irvine Trail in the Redwoods, which was amazing. Quite a long hike, but the trees are so big that it's hard to get bored. The James Irvine Trail heads down Fern Canyon, which is accessible from the beach but requires permits - we didn't have these, so we just did the trail from the top. Lots of banana slugs, and some really big trees. By the time we finished, it was about 5pm, so we saw The Big Tree and then headed to Arcata. On the way we saw a herd of elk, which was cool.
In town we had dinner and some beers at the Lost Coast Brewery, which was good.
Day 9 - Eureka
Had an extremely classic diner brunch at Adel's. Solid food, feels like you've been transported back to 1950.
After that we went to Trinidad State Beach, via Elk Head and College Cove Trailhead which was beautiful. We walked around the headland, and then down to the beach. The water was cold, but the sun was out, so it was nice. We saw seals, starfish and some good sea anemones.
Day 10 - Eureka to Mendocino
Today we left Eureka after getting a bagel at Los Bagels, which was delicious. We then headed to the Humboldt Redwoods State Park, where we did a 2 mile hike through the redwoods. We then headed to Glass Beach, which was a bit of a let down. The beach was covered in glass, but it was mostly small pieces, and the beach was quite small. We then headed to our Airbnb just south of Mendocino in Little River.
Day 11 - Mendocino
Today, I had booked lunch at the Harbor House Inn, which was a 2 Michelin star restaurant. The food was incredible, and the view was amazing. We had a 4 course meal, and split a wine pairing, and it was all delicious, although the wine was possibly slightly adventurous for our tastes. The service was great, and the view was amazing - we had coffee outside on their deck which looks over the bay in Elk. Well worth the visit and price (especially for lunch).
After that, we did a 4 mile walk along the Mendocino Headlands, which makes you realise what a cool place Mendocino is, jutting out into the sea on a little headland with a Beach and a bunch of rocks to explore.
We went for a walk on the beach at Elk beforehand, and we found this incredible Abalone shell washed up in the surf - I've never seen a mollusc with such a cool shell.
Day 12 - Mendocino
After a busy day yesterday, we had a more relaxed day today. We went to Van Damme State Park, where we did what ended up being quite a long 12 mile hike to the Pygmy Forest, which was interesting, with quite a few fairy ring tree growths. We then went to Cowlicks Ice Cream in Fort Bragg (because for some unknown reason, Mendocino doesn't have a dedicated ice cream shop), which was delicious.
Day 13 - Mendocino to Sonoma
In Sonoma we stayed at The Best Western which is a absolute bargain - they've just re-done the rooms, so they're really nice, and the pool is great.
We had dinner at The Girl and the Fig which was a great reminder of how good French food really is. I had a Sole Meuniere which was delicious, as well as a pretty good fig manhattan.
Day 14 - Sonoma
During the day we rented bikes and cycled out to Glen Ellen, which was mostly a nice ride (although there was a small section on a slightly busy road). We stopped at 2 wineries:
The Loxton Cellars was super cool - the owner was a nice Australian ex-physicist who had a lot of interesting things to say about wine. The Mayo Family Winery was more of a classic tasting room, but we had about 8 wines for $25/person. They don't have their own vineyard, but they source from a lot of different places, so it was interesting to see the variety of wines they had.
Day 14 - Sonoma to San Francisco
Drove over the Golden Gate Bridge and had lunch at a Pupusaria in the Mission. A great end to a great trip.
The full list of places we went to/stayed at is in this Google Maps List - enjoy!