If you have never been, I recommend to drive the coastal stretch from San Diego to San Francisco first. I prefer driving from south to north, not facing the sun all day. If you want to visit cities like SD, LA and SF too you'll need your ten days between SD and SF.

If it's the coast that attracts you without cityvisits I would recommend next route:

Day 1: Los Angeles-Santa Monica-Malibu-Santa Barbara-Solvang-Morro Bay or Cambria.

Day 2: Hearst Castle-Big Sur, Point Lobos SR-Carmel-Monterey

Day 3: Santa Cruz-Half Moon Bay-San Francisco

Day 4: San Francisco

Day 5: (Inland route). San Francisco-Humboldt Redwoods SP.

Day 6: Eureka-Redwood NP-Into Oregon.

Day 7: Oregon Coastal drive. Visit to cheesy Tillamook

Day 8: Portland

Day 9: Portland-Mnt St. Helens-Seattle..

2 flighing days.

Lots of driving but you are a fan.

Many other options too.

Direct distance LA-Seattle: 1200 miles.

Tet

As a Pacific Northwesterner I think you should allow a little more time for our fantastic and beautiful part of the country! You will be burned out on California after a week anyway. I would drive along the coast starting in LA, stop at Santa Barbara, Morro Bay, Cambria and Hearst Castle, Monterey, Carmel, San Francisco, Redwoods. Then stay along the coast to see the beautiful dunes in Oregon, see the stinky Sea Lion Caves, stop at all the lighthouses along the cliffs, then head in to Portland and visit the vital Pearl District for food and shopping. Continue north on I-5 to Mt. St. Helens to the observation areas and take some short hikes to view our country's only active volcano. Then you can take a side trip to the Hoh Rain Forest, the only temperate rain forest in the US, continue up to Port Angeles and catch a day ferry to see Victoria B.C., then travel to Bainbridge Island to catch a ferry to Seattle. Or travel straight from Mt. St. Helens up I-5 to Seattle to visit Pike Place Market, eat at some fantastic restaurants, take a ferry ride, or walk the waterfront. I would start in the south because the later in the season the better the weather in the NW.

Can ALL this be done in 9 "travel" days?

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I agree with Tet - it's more convenient driving to the North and not need to face the sun all the time. The road along the coast is not very frequented so you won't have any problems pulling across the road to the ocean view points.

I would not want to do all the coast (LA-Seattle) in just 9 days. I would either do SF-Seattle or LA-Portland. It's such a wonderful stretch and there's so much to do and see it's really not worth just driving. Have in mind this is coastal, in some places narrow and very winding road, so it slows down your travel considerably. Don't just look at the map and compare the distances to the straight desert highway stretches to Vegas and Utah. It might also get foggy and when fog really settles in it even further slows you down.

I agree that all sections of the 101 are not scenic (or you just get bored of the same scenic landscape) and on those section an inland deviations with some inland sightseeing seem very practical.

They have a history of being big travellers - they did 2500 miles in 10 days so I think they can handle 1500 in 11 days. I would add a few hundred miles on to the previous estimate because driving along the coast is much more winding than going straight down I-5. A lot of the places along the coast are 'fly-by's' where you take a quick look as you going by. You don't need to get out of a car to see Morro Rock - it's right there as you drive past. You can see Hearst Castle in a couple of hours, Big Sur is worth a viewpoint, The Oregon Dunes are a fly-by, take in a few viewpoints on the Oregon Coast. Mt. St. Helens will be a half-day. Skip the Hoh Rainforest if you must, see how your schedule is at that point. Or skip Washington altogether, fly out of Portland, and come spend 11 days seeing Washington next time!

Well, after all you could book a window seat on a San Diego-Seattle flight and say you've seen the Pacific coastline. That would certainly be the most compressed fly-by experience, why bother with the drive. :-)

Just trying to fit in what they wanted to do in their allotted time.

We drove from Portland to LA summer 2005 in our RV in 3 long days. You can easily do it in 9 in a car.

And I have to disagree with a previous poster about the northern part of the trip. We found the Oregon coastline to be every bit as spectacular as the California coastline. You will love it all, I'm sure.

Be sure to check out a couple of the historic lighthouses along the Oregon coast - Heceta Head was our favorite - as well as the sand dunes between Florence and Coos Bay and also a detour into the Redwoods when you hit northern California.

I'm jealous! I wish I was back there right now!