Vacation Time and Cali Cycling Route Suggestions

Sam and I are headed out on our somewhat annual visit to California in the next week-ish. I think we both have a love/hate relationship with this trip. We love that we get to leave home for a bit and see something different than the every day, avoid work, and of course we enjoy seeing our families, but we also find that the "obligation" of visiting makes it difficult to go anywhere other than to visit family for a vacation, and we're not horribly fond of being in a car travelling for many hours either. I'm sure there are others who can identify. We could make it a shorter trip and take a separate vacation somewhere we'd like to explore, but it's challenging because we have 3 dogs to drag along on the road trip (which means frequent bathroom/water breaks for anyone who hasn't attempted this), and several stops to make ranging from southern to northern Cali. If we rush through, inevitably someone feels neglected and as if we didn't really want to come and visit... which is only partially true (I kid!).

One of my favorite stops is to see my in-laws (and their pups - who happen to enjoy suitcases)

This year, we are also taking our bicycles along for the ride. We attempted this last year, but had a last minute hiccup with the bike trailer hitch and ended up not only without our regular bicycles, but actually purchasing new two-wheeled friends while visiting relatives (which wasn't necessarily a bad thing - but probably could've been avoided had we had our bikes). We wised up this year and will make sure everything is set to go the day before so as to not panic in the few minutes right before departure. The debate has ensued regarding which bikes to bring, but I think we've both settled on road bikes in case we attempt any longer distance jaunts, and honestly they are probably preferable as most places we'll be visiting are fairly hilly.

Speaking of possible bicycle jaunts, we are looking for suggestions for cycling routes to try while out that way. Even though we both grew up in California, Sam spent most of his time mountain biking, and I pretty much just rode around the neighborhood, so we're hoping to find some interesting spots to check out. If you have thoughts for the southern Orange County area or for the northern San Luis Obispo county area, we'd love to hear your ideas. I would prefer the less-hilly rides if possible, but I'm willing to try out anything with a great view. It's also possible (slim, but possible) we could end up in the Portland, Oregon area, so if you have suggestions for that area, please chime in as well.

Hopefully, I'll be able to share some photos as the trip takes place, but if things seem slow from the beginning to mid-July time frame, there is a good reason for it. Happy Friday!