April Trip to Calif. first time

[Petra]

Cathy:
> A few of us are planning to visit Calif in April.  Can you all tell 
> me a bit about the weather and true travel time.  We plan to go from 
> Venice to Monterey Bay to San Fran to Muir Woods. All this in 3 
> days.  Am I crazy thinking its possible or what.  Plan to check out 
> Monterey for a couple hrs then san fran for a couple hrs.  sleep 
> there.  Wake up to muir woods then travel to Venice again.

Hmm...you will end up spending proportionally a lot of your days on the
freeways.  You might want to consider prioritizing and pick either northern
*or* southern California.  Just one or the other should already (over)fill
your trip.  I wrote up most of the below for other would-be CA visitors who
after reading the tour guide books on CA had mostly decided to do just the
north or just the south...and they had a week to spend here.

I usually end up doing the LA to SF trip via the 5 anywhere from 6 to 10
hours, depending on if I'm driving alone and if there's major traffic at
either ends.  Either way, listening to the HP audiobooks makes playing
leapfrog with the other drivers on the 5 much less annoying ("Oh for crying
out loud, did you pass me a few miles back just to nod off now?" <g>).  As
this is your first trip, plan for getting lost at least once!  Ok, maybe
that's just me.

You should also be aware that AAA has *two* books for CA, one for the
northern and one for the southern.  You'll want to ask for both.  I've also
done the 101 which takes a bit more time (an hour more?) but is prettier. 
I've heard the 1 is even more gorgeous since it hugs the coast more but
I've yet to drive that route and can't speak to how much longer that takes.
 Seeing the sun sink into the Pacific Ocean is lovely though.

April is usually pretty nice in CA but your best bet is to dress in layers.
 You will want to be in thin t-shirts and shorts and drink plenty of water
during noon hours in LA but during night time in a desert climate like LA
(and while standing on the Golden Gate Bridge as the fog rolls into the
Bay) you'd want a sweatshirt maybe even a heavy sweater to pull on.  A
backpack to carry extra outer clothes in would come *really* handy.  We're
pretty casual out here so you can probably get away with bringing just
comfortable clothes but you'll probably end up wearing light cotton, medium
fleece, and heavy knit each once.  If you forget, someone will be happy to
sell you a t-shirt or sweatshirt that says "Go 49ers!" or "Hollywood or
Bust."

BTW, one of my favorite April events in SoCal is the LATimes Festival of
Books which is being held at UCLA (not too far from Venice) on April 23 and
24 this year.  Go to http://www.latimes.com/extras/festivalofbooks or buy
the Sunday LATimes with the event program (the weekend before usually and
should be available at a big newsstand nation-wide) to see what authors you
might want to sign a book for you.

> Thanks for the tip on the verbage - sounds hostile though. Sounds like
> I'd be caned.

Nah, most San Franciscans are not especially hostile.  (Despite Emperor
Norton's proclamation, you will not be fined for saying "Frisco.")  We have
been known to giggle at tourists who pale at the sight of driving and
parking on the steep hilly streets though, especially those who are trying
to do so in cars with manual transmissions.  <eg>  Then there are the
homophobes who *insist* on going to the Castro district...  <rolls eyes> 
No matter what any tourist is/isn't into, most SF sights won't involve any
hostility on the part of the natives or the tourists.

You can get a visitor's kit to SF for free at
https://www.sfvisitor.org/cgi-bin/webc.exe/st_main.html?catid=3 and LA's
got its visitors' bureau site at http://www.lacvb.com

Petra
a
n  :)


		
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