Cross Country - North South Style

One of the things that has floated around on my mental bucket list for a while is to drive across the country.  Originally my plan was to do a solo photographic adventure across the US.  As I thought about it more, I thought that this might be something that I could share with Jacob. I asked him if he was interested, and he immediately said yes.  Later still, I thought it would be great if my dad could join us.  For some reason I thought that he would hesitate to come, but I was definitely wrong as he enthusiastically expressed interest in the adventure.

Just who would come on the trip changed, so did the direction of our journey.  I had planned on flying to the east coast, rent a car and drive west.  After giving it a lot of thought and planning out routes, I decided that we should make the drive along the Pacific coast.  The new plan has several advantages,;  the trip a lot shorter,  the scenery is supposed to be gorgeous (no offense to the cornfields of the midwest), and I can take my own car.  

So far the plan looks something like this:

• Drive from Irvine to Portland via I5.  We'll stop overnight somewhere (probably Medford, OR).  I know that I5 isn't the scenic route, but I just want to get north faster and we'll take in the sights on the way back.
• Spend 4 days in Portland and the surrounding area, then drive to Seattle.
• We'll spend 4 days in Seattle then head down the coast.
• Take about 4 days driving along the Pacific Coast from Seattle (may be inland for the beginning of it) to San Francisco.
• Spend 4 days in San Francisco.
• Drive down the coast from San Francisco to Irvine in 4 or 5 days. 

If anyone has any recommendations or wants to try to get together when we are in town, let me know.

I plan on updating the blog with our plans as they develop.