The Train's Lounge Car

brianlux said:

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muskydan said:

brianlux said:

Hey friends, back from the Road Trip To Hell. Made it as far as southern Oregon and then car trouble. We had a few good days on the coast but that's about it. The best memory for this trip will be having a smoke and listening to Dinosaur Jr's "Ocean in the Way" through portable CD player headphones while watching waves crash on the rocks at Salt Point. One other good thing- Annie The Cat sure is glad to see us home.

Hope you have had a good almost two weeks.

Bummer about the breakdown, been in that situation numerous of times before and it blows. So my ladyfriend and I will be going on west coast journey for 16 days up the Pacific Coast. We are flying to SF to watch my Cub's play the Giants, then renting a car and taking the Coast north up to Seattle. By Chance did you do any camping out there on Oregon Coast? If you did could you recommend some spots and any other must places to see on the Orgeon Coast or N. Cali/ Washington Coast? This will be my first trip to Seattle so if anyone knows of any of the must go to Rock clubs that have meaning for our best live Rock band on the planet, that would be very much appreciated

Cubbies and Giants at AT&T Ballpark! Excellent, Dan.

You're in for a treat driving up the coast from SF to Oregon! When we broke down we headed right for the coast and limped home in cooler weather- much cooler! Morning are often foggy on the coast but hopefully (probably) you'll get some clearing in the afternoons.

Having done all of the west coast HWY 1 and 101 coast route at one time or another and much of it a number of times, here are my suggestions for places to see between SF and Seattle:

Point Reyes National Sea Shore is awesome! Lots of places to hike and some of the roads go right to the beaches. Drakes Beach is great as is the light house out on Point Reyes (very often windy there though). Take the Golden Gate Bridge north and the through Mill Valley to HWY 1 north. It's a bit confusing going through Mill Valley but HWY 1 awesome. If you want to get to Pt Reyes more quickly you can stay on 101 North to exit 462B in Novato. Go west on Novato BLVD the southwest on Point Reyes Petaluma RD.

From Pt. Reyes if you stay on HWY 1 north you'll hit some great beaches on the Sonoma County coast like Shell Beach and Goat Rock.

Further north on HWY 1 FOrt Ross is interesting and just beyond that be sure to check out Salt Point State Park. Good camping there (though crowded on weekends), some excellent tide pooling and very often one of the best places to watch waves crash on the rocks (watch out for "sneaker waves" though. A number of people who get too close have been swept out to sea. Also, many places have rip currents so swimming in most coastal places is not advised!)

Further north you'll come to Point Arena which has a great light house at the end of Lighthouse Road with a fine tour in the afternoons and great views.

Again, north on HWY 1 be sure to check out the ultimate liberal politically correct yuppie Prius driver town of Mendocino, haha!! But seriously, as yuppie as it is, it's very scenic, has a great music festival (maybe still going when you get there, not sure) and great little shops. A good town for walking around where the shops are.

North of that is Fort Bragg, a nice fishing town and good place for gas and supplies etc.

Once you get to Rockport you need to head inland for a while unless you have 4WD and want to take the rugged Lost Coast route. On the other hand, if you go 1 to 101, just above Garberville is the Avenue of the Giants which takes you through awesome towering redwoods. It's an awesome route to take and easy driving.

Also more great Redwoods on 1 north of Orick.

Once you get to the Oregon coast you'll be on 1 the whole way and mostly close to the coast. Pretty much any of the coastal Oregon State Parks are excellent. Any of the light house are worth checking out and up north the dunes areas are interesting. Florence is a cool little town and has and excellent coffee roasting place downtown.

Further north, Tillamook is famous for excellent cheese and you can tour the Tillamook cheese factory. There's also a very good Aviation Museum just outside town.

Astoria is the last town you hit in OR and it has some interesting sights such as the Astoria Column.

The Washington coast is not as exciting as most of HWY1 is inland. If you take the long way to Seattle on 1 and up and around the Olympic Peninsula, be sure to check out the Hoh Rainforest on the west side and Hurricane Ridge outside of Port Angles on the Peninsula. If you go through Sequim hit Sunny Farms- the best roadside food stand anywhere! (my brother grows a lot of their produce :-) ).

Port Townsend is also very cool- one of my favorite towns up there!

OK- I've overwhelmed you. Have a great time! Keep us posted!