san francisco to San Diego in June?

Christine wrote:

Hello, we are a family of 5 with 3 kids ages 11, 8 and 3. We have never
been to the west coast and would love to plan a trip there this June for 2
weeks. Ideally we'd like to fly into San Fran and fly out of L.A. My
children really want to go to legoland and that is all they want to see.
Disneyland would not be a top choice for me, we've had enough of disneyworld
in Florida. I want to see the beautiful pacific coast and maybe some LA or
Hollywood spots. Any suggestions on things to do for this coastal trip,
towns to stop in or scenic drives and also major travel hangups I might face
in June? Thank you very much for your time in advance.


Los Angeles (northern part of the city):
1. Universal Studios Tour (or Warner Bros in Burbank).
2. Huntington Library cactus collection (includes tree size cacti),
museum, art gallery and a restaurant. There is also a picnic area. Wear
comfortable shoes - plenty of walking.
3. Take a look at http://www.laconservancy.org/tours/tours_main.php4
4. Getty Museum (there are two of them - one on the Pacific Coast
Highway, and the main off the 405 freeway). Check the website.

To see the above will take probably three days. You will probably sqeeze
visit to Hollywood, too. There not much to see in Hollywood in my
opinion. If you stay in Santa Monica (as somebody suggested before) and
decide to go to Getty Museum, take a ride north on Pacific Coast Highway
to the Sunset Boulevard and proceed on Sunset to 405 freeway. The ride
is nice and the Museum is close to intersection of the Sunset and 405.

To avoid getting stuck in traffic drive between 9 AM and 2 PM.

On Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:54:43 -0500, "Christine"
wrote:

Hello, we are a family of 5 with 3 kids ages 11, 8 and 3. We have never
been to the west coast and would love to plan a trip there this June for 2
weeks. Ideally we'd like to fly into San Fran and fly out of L.A. My
children really want to go to legoland and that is all they want to see.
Disneyland would not be a top choice for me, we've had enough of disneyworld
in Florida. I want to see the beautiful pacific coast and maybe some LA or
Hollywood spots. Any suggestions on things to do for this coastal trip,
towns to stop in or scenic drives and also major travel hangups I might face
in June? Thank you very much for your time in advance.


While you are in San Diego County, I think your family would also
enjoy the San Diego Wild Animal Park. It's quite a distance from
LegoLand so you probably should stay overnight.

http://www.sandiegozoo.org/wap/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego_Wild_Animal_Park

For example, you might drive to San Diego in the morning, go to
LegoLand, and then drive to Escondido where hotels and motels would be
a little cheaper than on the coast. It would also place you at least
30 minutes closer to the Wild Animal Park. After a day at the Wild
Animal Park, drive to LA for your flight home?

DKM

To contact me directly, send EMAIL to (single letters all)
DEE_KAY_EMM AT EarthLink.net. [For example .]

"Don Kirkman" wrote in message
...
It seems to me I heard somewhere that Calif Bill wrote in article
:


"Hatunen" wrote in message
news
On Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:00:03 -0800, "CalifBill"
wrote:

... Solvang is
a Danish Community not to far off of Hwy 1 and lots of good food and
Dutch
architecture.

Solvang is off US-101 and a fair distance away from Hwy 1. It can
be done from Hwy 1, but I don't personally think it's worth the
sidetrip. And it has Danish, not Dutch, architecture.

Some dutch also. And is not a long drive from 1. It is worth the
sidetrip
for the pastries.

The dutch architecture must be a new edition. It was all emphatically
Danish the last time we were there, including the pastries. :-)
--
Don Kirkman

Big Dutch wooden shoe on the main street. Been there at least 30 years. ;

wrote in message
...
just be careful going south on whatever the named road is that all
just call the pac coast highway....

you are as close as you will ever want to be to falling off the side
of the coast, and the idiots in the rented rv's come screaming around
corners towards you.....

And do not stand on the very edge of a 500' high sandstone cliff to look at
the ocean. Been a few who did it as the last thing in this life. And all
call it the Hwy 1 or the coast highway. Only Hatunen refers to it as the
Cabrillo in normal conversation.

"Don Kirkman" wrote in message
...
It seems to me I heard somewhere that Christine wrote in article
:

Hello, we are a family of 5 with 3 kids ages 11, 8 and 3. We have never
been to the west coast and would love to plan a trip there this June for 2
weeks. Ideally we'd like to fly into San Fran and fly out of L.A. My
children really want to go to legoland and that is all they want to see.
Disneyland would not be a top choice for me, we've had enough of
disneyworld
in Florida. I want to see the beautiful pacific coast and maybe some LA
or
Hollywood spots. Any suggestions on things to do for this coastal trip,
towns to stop in or scenic drives and also major travel hangups I might
face
in June? Thank you very much for your time in advance.

Just to pick up on some points I haven't seen mentioned yet:

Legoland is a fair distance from Los Angeles, well on the way to San
Diego, so you need to include that knowledge in your planning. It's
still close enough that flying out of LA is doable.

There are several State parks suitable for picnicking and hiking in the
Big Sur area south of Monterey and Carmel.

There are some small redwoood groves in some of those parks, but they
don't compare with Muir Woods north of San Francisco.

The Hearst Castle requires, IIRC, advance reservations. Visitors park
down below and ride a bus to the castle. There used to be, and maybe
still are, separate tours, each of which goes to different parts of the
castle; any is worthwhile.

You've gotten enough suggestions for a two month trip; be sure to factor
in travel time as well as lines at some attractions--you can eat up a
lot of your available time if you overbook. :-)
--
Don Kirkman

Take tour 1 for the first time visit. Gives you a great overview and most
of the stuff you see in movies that have been filmed there.

It seems to me I heard somewhere that Calif Bill wrote in article
:

"Don Kirkman" wrote in message
.. .
It seems to me I heard somewhere that Calif Bill wrote in article
:

"Hatunen" wrote in message
news On Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:00:03 -0800, "CalifBill"
wrote:

... Solvang is
a Danish Community not to far off of Hwy 1 and lots of good food and
Dutch
architecture.

Solvang is off US-101 and a fair distance away from Hwy 1. It can
be done from Hwy 1, but I don't personally think it's worth the
sidetrip. And it has Danish, not Dutch, architecture.

Some dutch also. And is not a long drive from 1. It is worth the
sidetrip
for the pastries.

The dutch architecture must be a new edition. It was all emphatically
Danish the last time we were there, including the pastries. :-)

Big Dutch wooden shoe on the main street. Been there at least 30 years. ;

"Solvang Shoe Store
www.solvangshoe.com

Now walk south on First Street to its intersection with Copenhagen
Drive, where you will see the famous Solvang Shoe Store?you?ll recognize
it by the enormous Danish wooden shoe outside. (Little children love to
sit inside this shoe while their parents take their photo.) "
http://www.syvguest.com/tourSolvang.html

Unlikely they'd have a Dutch shoe outside their store where they're
selling Danish wooden shoes. :-) Besides, the traditional Dutch wooden
shoes were rather like dugout canoes, the wood surrounding the entire
foot, not clog-type like the Solvang Giant Shoe.
http://www.cloggieshop.com/
--
Don Kirkman

On Sun, 20 Jan 2008 16:55:05 -0800, "Calif Bill"
wrote:


wrote in message
...
just be careful going south on whatever the named road is that all
just call the pac coast highway....

you are as close as you will ever want to be to falling off the side
of the coast, and the idiots in the rented rv's come screaming around
corners towards you.....

And do not stand on the very edge of a 500' high sandstone cliff to look at
the ocean. Been a few who did it as the last thing in this life. And all
call it the Hwy 1 or the coast highway. Only Hatunen refers to it as the
Cabrillo in normal conversation.

I don't think I've ever called it "Cabrillo" in normal
conversation. Not even when it was part of my commute drive.


--
************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *

On Sun, 20 Jan 2008 16:51:39 -0800, "Calif Bill"
wrote:


"Don Kirkman" wrote in message
.. .
It seems to me I heard somewhere that Calif Bill wrote in article
:


"Hatunen" wrote in message
news On Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:00:03 -0800, "CalifBill"
wrote:

... Solvang is
a Danish Community not to far off of Hwy 1 and lots of good food and
Dutch
architecture.

Solvang is off US-101 and a fair distance away from Hwy 1. It can
be done from Hwy 1, but I don't personally think it's worth the
sidetrip. And it has Danish, not Dutch, architecture.

Some dutch also. And is not a long drive from 1. It is worth the
sidetrip
for the pastries.

The dutch architecture must be a new edition. It was all emphatically
Danish the last time we were there, including the pastries. :-)

Big Dutch wooden shoe on the main street. Been there at least 30 years. ;

Are you aware that the Danes used wooden shoes, too?

http://en.glryemoelle.dk/


--
************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *

"Hatunen" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 20 Jan 2008 16:51:39 -0800, "Calif Bill"
wrote:


"Don Kirkman" wrote in message
. ..
It seems to me I heard somewhere that Calif Bill wrote in article
:


"Hatunen" wrote in message
news On Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:00:03 -0800, "CalifBill"
wrote:

... Solvang is
a Danish Community not to far off of Hwy 1 and lots of good food and
Dutch
architecture.

Solvang is off US-101 and a fair distance away from Hwy 1. It can
be done from Hwy 1, but I don't personally think it's worth the
sidetrip. And it has Danish, not Dutch, architecture.

Some dutch also. And is not a long drive from 1. It is worth the
sidetrip
for the pastries.

The dutch architecture must be a new edition. It was all emphatically
Danish the last time we were there, including the pastries. :-)

Big Dutch wooden shoe on the main street. Been there at least 30 years.
;

Are you aware that the Danes used wooden shoes, too?

http://en.glryemoelle.dk/


--
************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *

Yup, they sell them in Solvang.

On Jan 16, 4:54 pm, "Christine" wrote:
Ideally we'd like to fly into San Fran and fly out of L.A.

Although I've not read it, I know you've gotten good advice from the
well-known posters who've answered you.

There's a page of DRIVING DIRECTIONS at the TouringSFO site at
http://geocities.com/touringsfo/ as well as a report "A Trip to
Anaheim . . ." with additional details that you might find helpful.

Having two weeks, you might consider adding Yosemite, Death Valley,
Las Vegas, and the Grand Canyon to your itinerary.