I grew up in Northern CA so I know it pretty well. If you're going along the coast - highway 1 or 101 - Mendocino CA is a must. It's a perfect quaint beach town with plenty of art galleries or resturaunts if you're into that kind of thing. Nearby is Fort Bragg, which is close to nice campgrounds and some other pretty beaches, a cool one being 'Glass Beach' where the sand is all smooth bits of glass that had been dumped into the ocean. And SF is great, you are never more than a block from a Starbucks. Haight Ashbury is a fun neighbourhood if you like hippie throwback stuff. And the Castro neighbourhood is always fun :) Hope that gives you some ideas!

Kings Canyon is with the giant sequoias, right? If yes, that was one of my top points to visit in the US :)) and it was great indeed (although quite a loop from the California's ocean shore)

Hi, I suggest you to go to Crater Lake National Park, south west of Eugene, Oregon. It is really spectacular and easily accessible by car from I-5. I had never seen such a deep blue lake like this one. 

I second the side trip to Yosemite or down a bit along 1 to Monterey and Big Sur -- amazing coastline!

thanks so much guys, really appreciate your help, keep on going :-) I'll sure let you know afterwards what I've seen, well, we only have 15 days to see all that exciting places, I might have to come back a second time then...

tell your experience afterwards...i am also interested to go there some time..

have a nice trip!

I will ! thank you all, I'm leaving tommorrow ! So excited

Portland is a great city to visit- definitely check out Powells books if you like bookstores, Pok Pok is an amazing Thai restaurant in SE, the Saturday market is a lot of fun, and downtown or the Pearl district in NW are loaded with great cafes and people watching. The doug fir is bar that frequently has good bands playing.

Ashland is a cute city to stop in for a meal or a night as you head south- the Shakespeare festival will be bringing alot of people into the city though, so you may want to consider a reservation if you are going to spend the night. Not far from Crater Lake either, which I also agree is worth a visit.

I'd check out China town in San Francisco, and 24th street in Noe Valley for shopping, people watching and cafes.

Have fun! I've lived both places, and they are pretty great.

Prarie Creek Redwoods State Park. Walk the trail from the highway to Fern Canyon. Can not beat the majestic old growth redwoods and the lovely canyon walls framing the little creek that arrives at the ocean..

Enjoy the journey!

beautiful

Well, it was GREAT ! Everything went smooth and easy ! temperature perfect not to hot not too cold, met great ppl, great sceneries (coast, ocean, trees, national park, desertic places, coast again, and... San Francisco !!! (where I wished I could have spent more time), so it's been a great overview of Oregon and North California, I will be back for sure ! so many treasures still to discover ! Anyway, thanks for everyone for your tips, cheers !