September and October is the Off-Season for Lake Tahoe, so to speak. Like Mike said, all along the north shore are hotels. Truckee also which is 15 miles away.. By the way, the drive around the lake is awesome. 73 miles and especially Emerald Bay..

Dan...Topanga Canyon is just that, a canyon. It has no overnight accommodations. I would forgo that as the drive up PCH is much more scenic. To get to the canyon you would take I-10 to 210 to Glendale 134 to 101 and south on 27 to about Santa Monica. The reverse route would miss Malibu and a lot of PCH ocean view, that is, Santa Monica up the canyon to 101 and on to Santa Barbara. North of Santa Barbara is a famous Inn on PCH called The Madonna Inn. Google and plan to stop there for a break or a meal. You can't linger going between Santa Monica and Santa Barbara unless you plan an over night. It's 6 hours to Santa Monica and another 2-2 1/2 to SB. Make sure you plan the route to avoid any LA rush hours. It will be unbearable anywhere before 11am and after 3pm on any highway. If you depart PHX at 4am that puts you in Santa Monica at 10am without stopping. I's say departure at 4am with gas stops put you in SM a 11-12am. Get out of SM as fast as you can north on PCH. Not much to see but ocean on PCH between SM and SB. I would target Santa Barbara for overnight. Bkfst the next day at the last surviving Sambo's in the U.S. After SB there is little pressure on PCH until you get to the ocean drive and motor homes.

Solvang is boring to me and instead of Buelton I would head on up to Pismo Beach. Pick up PCH again at Moro Bay. Easy drive to Monterey but I would think of taking a tour of Hearsrt Castle in San Simeon. Tickets and reservations are a must. Not many facilities of any kind along Big sur (between San Simeon and Monterey).

Take the 17 mile drive while in Monterey and drinks at Pebble Beach. From Monterey up to Castroville, Watsonville, Santa Cruz, Davenport, Pescadro, Half-moon Bay. There plan on lunch at Barbara's Fish trap at Princeton by the sea, just north of Half Moon Bay. On to Daly City and a drive along San Francisco's Ocean Beach on your left shoulder and Golden Gate Park on your left. Past by my mother-in-laws house and then cross the Golden Gate Bridge.

Next is a drive tourist don't know. Once you cross the GGB exit and go under the highway and drive west up the steep hill for photo ops at several locations. Go to the top keeping left at an intersection. Stop at the top of the hill to take a short walk through a tunnel that leads to an WWII artillery location. East side tunnel view of Bay, west side view of west and the Marin Headlands. There you will see the Pt. Bonita lighthouse. Do not go back down the way you came but head west down the narrow road that goes down the hill. Follow to the Light House and take a walk. Continue towards Sausalito as the road is one way. Catch the road leading to Sausalito and head dow there for what ever.

Sausalito is very close to Muir woods (nice redwood grove). Take Shoreline and which is on the same road to get to Muir Beach, Stinson Beach and pickup PCH again. Since you saw, if you stopped at Pt. Bonita, a lighthouse you can skip Pt. Reys. Route would be Stinson, Pt. Reyes Station, Tomales, Petaluma, Temecula, Sonoma, Napa.

There is nothing, I repeat nothing you want to see Benica. You could overnight around Vacaville instead. That area is s jumping off spot for Lake Tahoe, Reno, Carson City, NV and south multiple routes back to PHX.

THanks Mike.. I wasn't planning on driving Topanga, but there was a motel on PCH just south of Topanga that I was trying to find. Pretty reasonable last time I stayed there..

Looking forward to driving through LA !

The drive up.Malibu and thru Magu is part of the plan. Besides we will have been on the road for about 6 hours by then.

I think a Friday departure from Phx would be better then Thursday.

"I think a Friday departure from Phx would be better then Thursday"

Wouldn't the northbound traffic be heavier Friday afternoon than Thursday with people wanting to get out of town for the weekend?

That is why you got the big bucks Karl!

Actually the Thursday departure was derived from planning to be at Tahoe by end of day on the 22nd and working backwards. This is supposed to be an adventure. Solvang, San Simeon, Morro Bay and Pismo Beach, Big Sur, Carmel, Santa Cruz, The Aquarium at Monteray, Muir Woods, Napa are all places my wife has never been and I would like to spend some time visiting some of these places. I figure it will take about 6 to 7 days for all of this. If we leave on the 15 and spend 7 days seeing all of these sites, that will put us in Tahoe in the afternoon of 22 July which is the day before the boat show starts. So I've tried to accomodate everyone, but this is a vacation road trip. There will be site seeing.. and shopping (well, not too much since there isn't a lot of room for extra "STUFF". There will be picture taking and then we can sell the pictures to Mikie.. er,,,Uh...Um.. I meant show the pictures to Mikie..

I"m a bay area guy...so if your heading from Half Moon Bay to the City, stop at Alice's restaurant on Skyline Blvd. off Highway 92.

It's a local eating place, know for a pit stop for Cobra's, Lambo's, Ferrari's, cycles, and tons of other cars.

Nice stop in the redwoods too....

Alice's Restaurant | You Can Get Anything You Want At Alice's

Thanks for the tip. Eating is one of the best things this crew does... Kind of messy something, but thorough..

"Eating is one of the best things this crew does"

Especially if the food is free, or served by "saucy" servers.

Alice's gets my vote. Old driving grounds for me. Never at the restaurant but a great location.

For You long distance travelers
 

I have the jack. I also have a scissors jack that fits the cobra better.

I've got a scissor jack, and several pieces of 6" lengths of 2 by 4 for support when fixing a flat. Light weight and there's enough room for a bottle of scotch in the same duffle bag. I'll need the scotch after ! **):JEKYLHYDE**) Oh, and cigars for my buddies. ;)

Ok you bring the jack and I'll have room for Adriana's suitcase.

The Return Trip
 

It looks like the last leg of our little venture will take a couple of days. Where would everyone prefer to overnight? Las Vegas? Bullhead City? Palm Spring? Laughlin? I need your preferences.

If we were to get to Laughlin, might as well go on to Kingman, and then might as well head for home?

Palm Springs, I suppose. Seen more than enough of Las Vegas, unless we all wanted to stop by the Shelby Museum...

Which highway are we coming back on ? Palm Springs and Kingman are 2 different directions.