Planning A Getaway In California

When it comes to a northern california vacation, you definitely have a lot to pick and choose from. Just hop online and see what I mean. I must admit that although I don’t love the California heat, I do enjoy seeing all they have to offer. If you are in the mood this season for a nice and relaxing northern california vacation, then I suggest you do something about it and quickly. The cool thing about California is that it has all the beach scenes, it has the Hollywood thing going on, it has the great nightlife, it has the amenities, but it also has the desert.

Experience The Long Beach, California

Long Beach, California will hold beautiful memories for many of us, my friends and myself included. Once you arrive at the place, get reminisced, refreshed, rested, and hit for the town. After a stint back at your air-conditioned apartment, where you can do henna tattoos and tarot readings, you can go for Italian food in a crowded but friendly (popular) local place called Ciravello’s Restaurant and Sports Bar. The most remarkable of Long Beach California experiences, though, happened at midnight. More on this in the next paragraph.

One piece of advice I have always listened to and passed on is to hang out with locals when you are touring, for you will get to experience the underbelly of the vacation spot, not just the touristy areas. Try to eat outside, not only so you can smoke but so you can pick up more of the outer ambience. You can lunch at a classic diner and shop along Pine Avenue, where curiosities and collectibles meet with contemporary and other arts and souvenirs. When night falls, if fate in your favor, you can strip down and go swimming in the Pacific. No one but you and your loved one will be frolicking and slip-sliding about in soft, smooth, sleek calm waters.

So for you who visit the playful town (or city, really, with a population of almost a half a million), the parks and playhouses and plazas might turn your crank. Or, the realization that major celebrities live or lived there might be the crowning moment in your Long Beach, California vacation. You might be thrilled to know, then, that Bobby Burgess and Bo Derek; the Doggs, Snoop and Nate; Spike Jones; Billie Jean King; and many, many other superstars have lived or do live there. And I am sure some even visit now and again. Maybe you will rub elbows with someone!

A couple of years back, my friends and I rented a sporty car from San Francisco, packed some art and writing supplies, and headed south along the coast toward Long Beach, California. We deliberately went without a map so we could serendipitously explore new areas and people and things to write about and photograph. In spite of all the amazing and stunning history, scenery, and activity we enjoyed along the way (the missions, the Orange County Fair, and more), our arrival in and visit at Long Beach was giftedly pleasing.

If you are in the mood for a nice northern california vacation, it’s now time to give a northern california vacation a shot. You can hop on a trolley in San Francisco and check out all the wonderful city has to offer. If you prefer the internet, All you need is your personal computer and Internet access to get started. Pop open that nifty Google search engine and go to town. Well, so to speak. Just punch in the key phrase “northern california vacation” and you’ll be flooded with great results. Due to the darn high priced to live there, you may want to do your research and prebook some low cost hotel or motel before heading for northern California.

If you are still wondering if you should have your next vacation in California, just think, on your California vacation, you won’t be too far from Vegas. This may mean you have to take another vacation immediately after. Can you really pass up on Vegas? So start planning today. With so much information that is readily available to you, it’s a synch to plan your next big trip from the privacy of your living room.

More Northern California Vacation Articles

My wife and I have lived in the Chicago area since we got married over 20 years ago. I absolutely hate, hate, hate, HATE it here, and the thought of living here much longer makes me literally suicidal.

I am a real outdoorsy person. I need to get out into wild country and enjoy some solitude and natural beauty. But within 200 miles of where we live there isn’t even a decent place to go camping or take a hike. (Believe me, I’ve looked very hard to find such a place. There’s nothing!) In fact, nothing but endless subdivisions and malls, surrounded by endless fields of corn and soybeans.

For complicated reasons, I had to work in the San Francisco area for an extended period a few years ago, and I really loved it. (She resented every day I was out there.) Northern California is everything Illinois isn’t. It’s paradise! In fact, any place on the west coast, from Santa Barbara CA to Vancouver BC would be a vast improvement in living conditions.

The problem is, my wife loves it here, and will not consider moving. She says the cost of living on the west coast is too high, we would both have to change jobs (actually, not a problem since we both have highly valuable skills). She says she doesn’t see anything wrong with living here, and, no matter how many times I explain my feelings, she can’t seem to understand why I’m not happy here. I’ve traveled with her to the west coast on vacation to show her how beautiful it is, but she was unmoved by the experience.

At one point, when I threatened to leave her, she agreed to move when our younger child finishes high school in a few years, but now she has made it clear that she has absolutely no intention of ever doing that.

So now I’m out of ideas. What can I do?

Gypsy Kings Hotel California Chords

One of these is Northern California.Gypsy Kings Hotel California Chords This place has a lot to offer everyone ranging from stunning views of the mountains up to the most challenging activities like biking, skiing and hiking.

Northern California mountain vacations are adventurous and fun-filled trips for families, friends and couples. Work can usually limit your time with your family, ant that is why it is wise to plan a mountain vacation in Northern California with your family once or twice a year. And to ensure that everyone will enjoy the trip, you can tailor your own personal mountain vacation to include all of the members’ favorite outdoor activities.

Aside from families, Northern California mountain vacations are also perfect getaways for groups of friends who are adventurous and thrill-seekers. Unlike the typical type of vacation, a mountain vacation allows you to experience nature — away from the busy streets of the big city. If you and your friends are nature lovers, this is the best option for you because you will not only love the vast mountain views but you will also enjoy doing different outdoor activities such as hiking, camping and skiing.

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Meanwhile, if you are a couple looking for a romantic getaway, you can also try a Northern California mountain vacation. This is a better way to unwind and spend quality time with your partner, because you are away from the pressure of work and other stressful obligations. There are mountain vacation lodgings that are specifically designed for couples and feature romantic amenities such as candlelit dinner, private hot tubs and cozy rooms. All these and more will make this vacation a truly romantic and memorable one.

Indeed, Northern California mountain vacations have a lot in store for everyone. So whether you plan one with your family, friends or partner, your California vacation will become an adventure of a lifetime.

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also if you could – please name a nice hotel in the area! 🙂 thanks!

I’m mixed race ( black and white ) and I have naturally curly hair. It’s hard to find a hairdresser who can work with my hair type without always trying to force me to blowdry my hair straight. I always end up leaving the salong with my hair all frizzed out because the hairdresser didn’t know what to do with it! So – I’m looking for recommendations for a good hairdresser in my part of town who is not too expensive and knows how to deal with my hair type! Any suggestions?

What’s a beautiful, outdoor location to have a wedding in NC?
Garden wedding?
An Inn, Bed and Breakfast?
You know…somewhere pretty

Redwood National forest in pictures looks amazing and my friend and I (both from Kentucky) would like to backpack in there for a couple of days. Is this a good idea or do you have other suggestions on where to backpack in California?

Russian River Canoe Trip Ideal for Families

People of all ages will enjoy a gentle canoe trip down the Russian River, one of California’s most scenic bodies of water.

The Russian River flows through such famous Wine Country destinations as Geyserville and Healdsburg before it makes its way out to the sea through gentle hills covered with thick redwood forests and teaming with rare birds and other wildlife. About a 10-mile stretch of the river from Forestville to Guerneville is ideal for calm-water canoeing or kayaking and a local company called Burke’s Canoe Trips helps make it even easier by providing canoes, kayaks and a shuttle service that will return you to your car near Forestville.

The Russian River, in this case, is not exactly the “rushin'” river. If you’re looking for a lot of fast water and river rapids, there are other California rivers that will fill that bill, but not this one. In fact, the water here is so tame that it’s really not all that good for inner-tubing because in some parts you can’t keep enough forward motion without a lot of paddling. For that reason, canoes and kayaks — which seem to glide over the water with little effort — are ideal.

It’s not that you won’t get a few thrills. As the people from Burkes’ Canoes told us, there is just enough fast water to make things interesting. There are a few points in the river where channels of current can carry you into tree branches along the shore, or get your canoe turned around in a whirlpool if you don’t guide your canoe to the right area. But the good news is that, even if you flip, the water’s relatively warm, not very deep and you’ll be carried forward to a calm area in literally just seconds.

We opted for a canoe on our trip down the river and were advised to keep all of our cameras or anything that could be water-damaged in a safe water-tight plastic bag. We also had been told to wear our swim suits, and were required to wear lightweight life-preservers. Looking at the calm water near the launch area, it almost seemed silly to worry about flipping over and we were wondering why there was so much emphasis on preparing to get wet.

We put a cooler full of drinks and sanwiches in our canoe and set off somewhat tentatively on our journey. Canoes are inherently unstable – at least if you haven’t been around them for awhile – and it took us a few minutes to get comfortable with our balance and to get some confidence we could maneuver properly. But alas, our Boy Scout training soon kicked in just fine even though it had been decades – and probably a 20 percent weight gain — since we had last put paddle to water.

Within about two minutes we faced our first challenge – avoiding a fairly fast river current pushing everything toward the wooded right shore. We aimed our canoe to the left bank, paddled quickly and managed to coordinate our front and rear paddles just enough to avoid the hazard. It wasn’t a perfect approach, but it was a confidence builder. We looked forward to honing our paddling skills as we faced new challenges further down the river.

Soon we were into a calm stretch of water, barely moving but only requiring a gentle paddle to keep making good forward progress. This was when we really started to take in the natural beauty of the river – the thick forests of giant trees and the continuous ballet performed by the birds of the Russian River such as the Great Blue Heron and osprey. Along the way we would see turtles and deer as well. We also enjoyed paddling by the charming vacation cabins that are perched above the river in many strategic locations along this stretch of the Russian. Spectacular bridges span the river at various points although most of this float was away from the highway, making it feel even more remote than it actually is.

We spent the next four hours or so alternating between negotiating some of the stronger currents – or what you might call very small rapids — and quietly paddling on a beautiful blue-sky spring day. We stopped only for a few minutes to have a sandwich on a spectacular sandy beach – although we’re told most people linger at these beaches to swim, sunbathe and just hang out with their fellow travelers for hours on end.

After mastering maybe a dozen fast-current bottlenecks and with less than a few hundred yards to go to our finish, we were feeling supremely confident that we had regained the canoeing prowess of our youth. And then the unthinkable happened: we flipped. We had run aground in some shallow water and momentarily forgot that you don’t dislodge a canoe by shifting your weight. Yes, we did get a little wet, but we weren’t really cold on this bright sunny day and we were able to retrieve our belongings in short order.

Our pride was wounded. But we did feel better later when the Burke’s Canoe people told us that fully one half of their customers flip at some point along this seemingly calm and idyllic stretch of river.

Nearby accommodations

Back in our car, we now drove the 10 miles back down to Guerneville where we would spend the night. With parks and trails and redwood scenery all just minutes from downtown, Guerneville is a popular destination for outdoors enthusiasts as well as those who love the charm of colorful small towns. Guerneville has a quiet Main Street – much busier on weekends – that offers a number of crafts shops and hometown restaurants. We enjoyed taking a couple of drives outside of town to places like Armstrong Woods with its trails through deep redwood forests. Many visitors drive just a few miles down to Jenner where the Russian River meets the Pacific Ocean.

We spent the night at the West Sonoma Inn and Spa, a stylish group of buildings at the edge of Guerneville where the resort takes advantage of the natural redwood scenery and nearby vineyard views. The innkeepers here have gone the extra mile in providing a lot of extras for guests that often are not found in small-town lodging facilities – plush beds, fireplaces, granite counter tops, wet bars, private decks and mini-kitchens. Our unit was unusually spacious and, because of a more spread-out configuration, each unit seemed quite private and very quiet. Grounds were richly landscaped and maintained.

A light European breakfast is offered at the West Sonoma Coast Inn that includes gourmet organic coffee, juice, fresh fruit and pastries. Prices at the inn start at less than 0 which, today, is a bargain in a highly desirable tourist area. That’s especially true when you realize that the inn is considered by many to among the best and most luxurious lodging options in Guerneville.

AT A GLANCE

WHERE: The Russian River is in Sonoma County and the put-in point for Burke’s Canoe Trips is about 70 miles northwest of San Francisco.

WHAT: Burke’s Canoe Trips have been popular with couples and groups of all sizes for decades and are self-guided trips down a 10-mile stretch of the Russian River. The company furnishes the canoe and safety gear and then picks you up in their shuttle bus at the end of your trip, near Guerneville.

WHEN: The trips start each year at the end of May and continue throughout the summer. Weather is generally sunny and in the 80’s.

WHY: Russian River canoe trips are a great way to see river scenery in a spectacular part of California where you’ll enjoy both redwood forests and abundant wildlife. It’s also a social experience since many people do the trip in groups.

HOW: For more information on Russian River canoe trips, phone 707-887-1222 or visit www.burkescanoetrips.com. Burke’s Canoes charges per canoe for use of the canoe, safety gear and pick up on the company shuttle. For more information on the West Sonoma Coast Inn, phone 1-800-551-1881 or visit www.westsonomainn.com.

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Lake Berryessa is California vacation jewel

You’ve got kids – lots of kids – and you’re wondering how you’re going to fit them into that resort condo unit. You also wonder how you’re going to keep them all happy and, maybe most important, how you’re going to be able to get away from them. Even the most devoted parent, now and then, needs to de-compress.

The answer: a really big houseboat. Being confined to a boat might not immediately top your list of good things to do with large numbers of kids. But if our recent experiment is any indication, the houseboat thing really does work.

So just how many kids are we talking about here? In our case, a total of eight: our grade-school age daughter and our grown-up daughter’s seven kids, ages 1 through 13. Figure in three adults and you can see that planning for this trip would be only slightly less complex than the Normandy invasion.

If you haven’t rented a houseboat before, the first thing to understand is that these boats are far bigger and more spacious than regular boats. In our first houseboat articles we used to compare them to waterborne RV’s, but the truth is houseboats nowadays are much bigger than even the most spacious RV’s. On this particular trip to Northern California’s Lake Berryessa, we rented a 70-foot Millenium – which is to a small power boat what a 747 is to a Cessna 150.

The 70-foot Mellennium features a kind of great room in the front salon along with a large dining table and chairs. There is a breakfast counter and fully equipped kitchen along with four private bedrooms, six queen beds, two full baths, a wet bar, sun canopy and a hot tub on the top deck. Like most houseboat rentals, this also featured a waterslide on the top deck that kids find irresistible.

The setting for our experiment – Lake Berryessa – is less than an hour’s drive east from Napa, and shares with the Napa Valley a landscape of sun-drenched scenery that is as pretty as anyplace you’ll find in California. The wooded hills, forests and country roads in this part of the state are perfect for enchanting Sunday drives or picnics or hikes. Adding to that is the 23-mile-long Lake Berryessa, a turquoise jewel that is as practical as it is scenic. This man-made lake is actually a reservoir known for excellent fishing and warm summer temperatures that make it ideal for swimming and other water sports.

Endless water recreation is one reason houseboats work for large families. It’s not like you’re crammed into a boat for your entire vacation – the boat is just a place to hang while you’re putting meals together or watching a movie on the elaborate satellite wall-mounted television. When you are beached, the water in that particular cove is now your swimming pool and a pretty big one at that. More than likely, you’ll find trails from your beach leading to hours of fun hikes and exploration, another activity that will keep the kids occupied and completely engrossed in what they’re doing.

With a houseboat, you can be as stationary or mobile as you want to be. We’ve done houseboat trips where we spent hours each day cruising and then found a new beach mid-afternoon to explore and settle in for the night. On our Lake Berryessa trip, we found the kids especially enjoyed the shore activities, so we kept our cruising to a minimum and set up camp sometimes two nights in a row in the same location. The point is, you can do whatever you want to do – there is no itinerary to keep, no deadlines to worry about. Just go where the spirit takes you.

It will come as no surprise to parents that kids can have a lot of pent up energy when they’re confined too long to one area — so spending a lot of our time on the beach solved this particular problem. But even that was not a big problem due to the size and design of the Millenium. The upper deck is so large that it was the perfect place to send the older kids to burn off their energy, leaving the main salon in relative silence as we cruised the Berryessa shoreline enjoying the coastal scenery. The other advantage to this boat was that, with so many bedrooms and separate quarters, the kids had places to put all of their belongings so that nothing was under foot — except maybe once in awhile when the youngest brought toys to play out on the huge 16-foot-wide salon floor.

Meals on the Millenium were easy to prepare with lots of counter space available and cupboards and drawers fully stocked with dishes and kitchen utensils. Hot dishes were easily prepared in the microwave as well as on the multi-burner stove. The refrigerator had plenty of capacity for a family this size, assuming you put cold drinks in the many ice chests available on the boat.

If you’re a first-time boat captain, the Millenium will seem huge when you first step onboard. But Forever Houseboats has figured out a way to make your first rental experience easy and stress-free. For starters you never actually are required to dock your houseboat or even operate it in close quarters – rental company personnel will take your boat from the dock to an open-water area before they hand you the controls. Then, when it’s time to bring the boat back, they’ll come out and meet your boat and dock it for you.

When you do take the controls you notice that everything’s been simplified and automated. You’ve already been given detailed instructions before you even leave the dock, so you’re completely versed on the throttles and shifting as well as electrical and other systems on your boat. An easy-to-read manual is always at the ready just in case you don’t remember everything.

The main thing a new captain has to remember is to stay away from shallow water where your prop can get damaged. The most technical thing you’ll be asked to do – and it’s not difficult – is to beach your boat. As we’ve done on previous houseboats, we determined ahead of time who would be our “stake-drivers” and then it was just a matter of A/ the captain driving the boat at low speed straight onto the beach and B/ the stake-drivers, one on each side, advancing onto the beach at 45 degree angles from the boat to pound stakes and tie lines from the stern of the boat.

One rule we imposed on this trip — because we had so many kids on board — was to put someone in charge of all the kids and take them to their cabins during the landing process. We didn’t want to have one of them jumping off too soon or distracting the landing crew.

The kids loved it all and looked forward to new spots to explore with every new beach we visited. Each new cove – and there are many on Lake Berryessa – was like a new Robinson Crusoe adventure. It all added up to a vacation the kids will long remember and one they say they can’t wait to do again.

AT A GLANCE

WHERE: Forever Houseboats are available at Pleasure Cove Marina, less than an hour’s drive from Napa. Because the lake level has been down in recent years, be prepared for carrying your supplies down and up a steep grade between the parking area and the dock. While the marina-supplied handcarts help, we found it much easier to drive our car down the boat launching ramp and then cut over to dock area where we parked our vehicle for unloading.

WHAT: Lake Berryessa is 23 miles long and three miles wide and is known for warm temperatures in summer and fishing for such species as rainbow trout, bass, catfish, crappie, and bluegill. With numerous coves, the area offers many places to safely beach a houseboat.

WHEN: Houseboats on Lake Berryessa are available year-round. Our August trip had ideal weather and water temperatures above 75 degrees. The downside is that peak summer dates also are the most expensive.

WHY: Houseboating is an excellent family adventure that combines boating, hiking, fishing, water sports and relative solitude in the Great Outdoors.

HOW: For more information on renting a houseboat on Lake Berryessa, call 800-255-5561 or visit www.foreverresorts.com.

The beauty of Northern California’s coast along highway 101.
Video Rating: 4 / 5

My wife and I have lived in the Chicago area since we got married over 20 years ago. I absolutely hate, hate, hate, HATE it here, and the thought of living here much longer makes me literally suicidal.

I am a real outdoorsy person. I need to get out into wild country and enjoy some solitude and natural beauty. But within 200 miles of where we live there isn’t even a decent place to go camping or take a hike. (Believe me, I’ve looked very hard to find such a place. There’s nothing!) In fact, nothing but endless subdivisions and malls, surrounded by endless fields of corn and soybeans.

For complicated reasons, I had to work in the San Francisco area for an extended period a few years ago, and I really loved it. (She resented every day I was out there.) Northern California is everything Illinois isn’t. It’s paradise! In fact, any place on the west coast, from Santa Barbara CA to Vancouver BC would be a vast improvement in living conditions.

The problem is, my wife loves it here, and will not consider moving. She says the cost of living on the west coast is too high, we would both have to change jobs (actually, not a problem since we both have highly valuable skills). She says she doesn’t see anything wrong with living here, and, no matter how many times I explain my feelings, she can’t seem to understand why I’m not happy here. I’ve traveled with her to San Francisco on vacation to show her how beautiful it is, but she was unmoved by the experience.

At one point she agreed to move when our younger child finishes high school in a few years, but now she has made it clear that she has absolutely no intention of ever doing that.

So now I’m out of ideas. What can I do?