Road Trip to California: 3/8-3/17

We're road trippin' to California.

Jim and I have been talking about doing a road trip all along the 101 on the west coast for a long time. When we found out that he was being laid off on March 7th, we thought that it would be the perfect time to do a road trip. While we've been considering this for some time, we couldn't make any solid plans because Jim got a great job offer (hurray!)... but without a confirmed start date. Would it be March 12th or March 19th? We didn't find out until last Friday, the 2nd, that we COULD take a road trip after all... he starts on the 19th!

I started planning our route as soon as I heard the word "go". We would head out of Denver to Salt lake, then up to Boise, up to Seattle or maybe even Vancouver, head down the 101 to Portland, along the California coast to San Francisco, then out to Vegas and back home. Just what I've always wanted to do... but wait a minute. That's over 60 hours of travel time in just over a week. We'd be pretty cranky... that trip needs at least two or three weeks. And we wanted to see Crater Lake in Oregon... that will be covered in snow this time of year. Scratch the 101, that will have to wait for another time. Hmm... what to do now?

We decided to still make San Francisco our destination... I only got to see it briefly on a layover (see Semester at Sea blog haha), we'd like some place that's a little springier, and my friend Scott just moved there. It's only a 4-5 hour drive to the Red Wood forest from there, something I've always wanted to see. We can stop to see my family in Utah on the way out, and stop in Vegas on the way back. Bingo.