Have you been to the Sierra Buttes? Downieville, Sierra City, Bassets Station area. It's like visiting Yosemite without the people. It's pristine high country terrain. Most people from California know the Tahoe area but very few know of the Buttes.

You can get there via Hwy 88 (out of Truckee) but we prefer driving Hwy 49, out of Nevada City.

As a native you may already be familiar with these two but the Hearst Castle near San Simeon and Carmel are 2 of my favorite places. When I was in college my girlfriend and I flew to San Francisco and drove down the Pacific Coast highway to LA - what a blast we had - complete with one car accident and one severe infection! Great fun.

Would you enjoy spending a day wine-tasting in Sonoma or Napa? Healdsburg is becoming known for its antique and decor shops. What are your interests?

Yes, wine tasting would definitely be on our agenda. My DH is in the beer and wine business, and has been on many business trips to Napa, but I have not. In fact just last week he was in Butte, Amador and Napa counties.

Golddust, I went to summer camp for several years as a kid outside of Nevada City, but haven't been back to that area in years.

I really liked visiting the Sequoia national forest when I lived in Cali. I'm more for natural interest places though.

I love Sequoia! But I remember getting carsick on the roads up to there.
Lassen Volcanic National Park has hydrothermic things like mudpots, steam vents, boiling pools, and mountain and lake views.

You've probably already experienced both of these as well but I loved seeing the Aquarium in Monterrey and Big Sur, both are breath taking.

Grass Valley and Nevada City has several wine tasting places downtown, all offering local wines. While not as well known as Napa, etc., we grow outstanding grapes and have great wine. We are certainly the up and coming wine area in the state. Plus it is **really** beautiful here.

If you make it to my area, please call so we can do lunch!!

I second Hearst Castle if you have never seen it. Unreal.

Hearst Castle is amazing. I've been there twice when visiting my DD when she went to Cal Poly.

Temecula might be a good choice for another visit, I actually have relatives not far from there, and have traveled through that area a lot, but we probably don't want to go further south this trip.

Has anyone ever been to Solvang? That's a place I've always been interested in.

Terriks - I was going to write about Solvang yesterday and ran out of time.

Solvang is delightful, but you have to like cute. We've taken many getaways down there. It's in the Santa Ynez Valley - good wine country - north of Santa Barbara and over the Santa Lucia Mts (hills, really, there's nothing mountainous about the drive).

Solvang was settled by Danish immigrants and retains a very Danish-European style today. There are stores that sell Danish imports, restaurants that serve Danish food, and there are all those yummy Danish pastries. The coffee is wonderful!

Outside of Solvang there are wine tasting places around the valley, which in itself is very pretty. Our favorite spot is Los Olivos. A tiny town with one cross-street, it has Fess Parker's inn and country restaurant, which IMO is a must-do destination, the food and wine and ambience are that good. Fess recently passed away. He was Davy Crockett on 50's TV, for those creaky enough to remember! He became a master vintner and host.

In general, that drive from Santa Barbara to San Luis Obispo is so lovely, one of the less visited areas in California. Not to say that there are not tourists - there are. But not nearly as many as at Disneyland or San Fran's Fisherman's Wharf.

Another place that might be worth a drop-in is Ojai. It's on our to-do list. Ojai is an artist's colony, and I've read good things about it. It's just off Highway 1, a bit north of the Pacific Highway.

Still another thing, especially if you're visiting San Simeon, is the Highway 1 drive up through Big Sur to Carmel. This drive is not for the faint-hearted, but if you're going south to north, it's easier, since you're against the mountains. The destination here is Nepenthe Restaurant, which is built on a cliff and has some of the most magnificent views IN THE WORLD! Apologies for screaming! Nepenthe basically serves burgers, etc., but they are good burgers, and anyway, you can't take your eyes away from the scenery.

You mentioned spending time in SLO, but Paso Robles just north of there on the 101 has a lot of good wine tasting and good food. We enjoyed doing a self-directed flight of tastings at the Paso Wine Centre located downtown. They have a variety of wines "on tap" there - their system is really interesting. You can also head right over to Cambria and San Simeon on the 246W.

Awe, I forgot all about Solvang, we used to go there and it's a fabulous little spot. Nice drive too.

Lots of good wine in the Santa Ynez Valley. Sable is right about the Los Olivos area. We did some wine tasting in that general direction last year; I recall seeing a lavender farm and wished we had stopped to see that, too. There are some up-and-coming cellars in a kind of industrial area in Lompoc that are off the beaten track.

Oh, and closer to LA, I saw something recently about the restaurant at the Cordon Bleu school in Pasadena. I've put it on my list.

Here is a link that might be useful: Technique restaurant