Over the past month I’ve done some serious planning for this July’s West Coast trip with my brother. Two weeks ago I booked our flights–about $530 for both of us–and since then I’ve made hotel, hostel, and camping reservations in various points between Portland, Oregon and San Francisco.

As our itinerary shapes up, it looks like we’ll fly into Portland and spend 3-4 days in the City of Roses. The plan is to stay with various friends of mine but to be honest, I have to firm up these “reservations” before I can say for sure where we’re staying. I’m hoping we can borrow or rent a couple bikes and explore the City on wheels. I plan on drinking lots of coffee from some of the country’s best roasters and eating more food than is advisable. Josh and I read about Voodoo Doughnuts in a Portland guidebook and feel we must make a stop. I’ve been reading the Little Red Bike Cafe blog for a year or so, and want to have at least two meals at the cafe. Plus ice cream.

From there we’ll head to the Oregon coast in a rental car and stay a few nights at yet-to-be-determined Oregon State Parks. Unforunately for us, every yurt in every State Park is booked on the nights we’ll be there. It appears that we’ll be tenting it after all but I’m not going to get too bummed, there are plenty of tent sites within view of the Pacific ocean. I’m hoping we’ll get in a nice hike, eat some yummy seafood, and take endless amounts of photographs at the tidepools. A reader of this blog pointed me towards the Treehouse Institute in Cave Junction and if we can get past their two-night minimum rule, we’ll sleep high up in the branches for a night.

Next we’ll head down into Northern California and the Redwoods National Park. I booked us a night at the Redwood National Park hostel which, according to its website, is one of the Top 5 hostels in the country. Judging by photographs and descriptions, I think we’re in for a treat. The hostel is steps away from the beach and a hiking trail–it will be hard to choose. The next day is our biggest driving day but since we’re going through the Redwoods, I doubt it will be anything but boring. We land that night at another hostel: the Point Reyes National Seashore hostel which, according to its website, is a certified green business. Both hostels have well-furnished kitchens and I think Josh and I will end up making use of them.

Point Reyes puts us about an hour and a half outside San Francisco. The plan right now is a to wake up early in Point Reyes, explore the National Seashore a bit, and head into the City (and drop off the rental car). We’ll have three days to explore San Francisco before heading back to Buffalo on a (thank you Lord) direct flight from SFO. Josh and I have both agreed that we want to walk, walk, walk all over San Francisco until we can’t walk no more. Golden Gate Park, the Mission, and those crooked streets are all on the agenda. Our mother says we’ve gotta check out Alcatraz so we’ll likely do that as well. And I decided to splurge on a hotel for the last three nights (thank you Hotwire for your cheap, cheap rates).

Oh man, I’m excited for every single day of this trip. There isn’t one that I imagine being less fun than any other, even our driving day.

If you have any thoughts or suggestions on things we should do, places to eat, or where to stay, please leave them in the comments.