Planning A California Trip... What To Do

[intuitiva]

Sept 27, 2017 17:44:40 GMT woofytreats said:

Sept 27, 2017 2:59:48 GMT bob said:

Sacramento is not much of a place to go. You can see the state capital and walk some suburban streets. Other than that, it's a dive of a town.

Orange County is great. Santa Barbara county is great. Ventura County is good. Even Contra Costa is better than Sac. Skip the EAR area and go to the ONS areas. Sac is a dump. Even people in CA don't go to Sac unless they have to. There's no point in paying to get to CA and then going to Sacramento.  It's not the part of the Golden State that is golden.

ALL of the other areas are nicer. Even San Jose is nicer than Sac. and San Jose is a dump compared to those other places.  

I might meet you all out there, but not in Sacramento.

I think it all breaks down to how much research / sighting on the case is being done versus vacationing and being concerned about how "nice" an area is...I'd agree that Sacramento proper isn't much and it's a metro island among itself in a lot of ways.  However, being at ground zero in Rancho might mean more to your understanding of the case than worrying about which areas of California are nicer than others. Personally, I'd much rather ( and do ) live in Contra Costa than Orange County but then you get into the NorCal/SoCal cultural divide and how provincial someone is...which may not mean much to someone coming out from North Carolina to run down Ripon Ct. or to vicariously go "pantless" at the appropriate location.

If flying, I'd probably do an "open jaws' itinerary that had me flying into one place and out of another...which would be your choice based on what you want to do. If driving, just be aware of the distances and time involved.  I used to drive from Contra Costa to UC Santa Barbara at night at considerably above the speed limit ( 25+ ) and it still took close to five hours.

^^^Agreed, anyone not from California may not understand the distances between the attacks.  To drive to SB (which I've done many times), takes about 4.5 hours from the Bay Area (depending on traffic).  SB to Orange County can take about 3 hours (again depending on LA traffic, which can be really bad).  And Sacramento to Contra Costa can take about 2 hours.  And Modesto is in the middle of nowhere - so that can be time consuming by itself.  Woofy has the right idea here, maybe fly into Sacramento, rent a one way car and drive south through the attacks site and leave from John Wayne Airport.

[woofytreats]

Intuitiva said:"..maybe fly into Sacramento, rent a one way car and drive south through the attacks site and leave from John Wayne Airport."

Yep. Depending on time, that's what I'd do versus the opposite but it all depends on how much you can and want to do during your time here.

[bob]

The air-hop itinerary makes sense. Get the locations in Sac out of your system then get yourself down to Goleta, Ventura, Irvine, Dana Point. 

[Sean Hogan]

Would be lovely to do a small bit of canvassing in sac to help the case if you can. Sounds like a great idea and to see and feel it would give you a whole new view point.
All the best

[arlington]

Bring or rent a small drone with a camera for aerial neighborhood photos.

[Deleted]

Sept 28, 2017 2:37:04 GMT arlington said:

Bring or rent a small drone with a camera for aerial neighborhood photos.

Now THAT is a good idea!

[Deleted]

Sept 27, 2017 17:44:40 GMT woofytreats said:

Sept 27, 2017 2:59:48 GMT bob said:

Sacramento is not much of a place to go. You can see the state capital and walk some suburban streets. Other than that, it's a dive of a town.

Orange County is great. Santa Barbara county is great. Ventura County is good. Even Contra Costa is better than Sac. Skip the EAR area and go to the ONS areas. Sac is a dump. Even people in CA don't go to Sac unless they have to. There's no point in paying to get to CA and then going to Sacramento.  It's not the part of the Golden State that is golden.

ALL of the other areas are nicer. Even San Jose is nicer than Sac. and San Jose is a dump compared to those other places.  

I might meet you all out there, but not in Sacramento.

I think it all breaks down to how much research / sighting on the case is being done versus vacationing and being concerned about how "nice" an area is...I'd agree that Sacramento proper isn't much and it's a metro island among itself in a lot of ways.  However, being at ground zero in Rancho might mean more to your understanding of the case than worrying about which areas of California are nicer than others. Personally, I'd much rather ( and do ) live in Contra Costa than Orange County but then you get into the NorCal/SoCal cultural divide and how provincial someone is...which may not mean much to someone coming out from North Carolina to run down Ripon Ct. or to vicariously go "pantless" at the appropriate location.

If flying, I'd probably do an "open jaws' itinerary that had me flying into one place and out of another...which would be your choice based on what you want to do. If driving, just be aware of the distances and time involved.  I used to drive from Contra Costa to UC Santa Barbara at night at considerably above the speed limit ( 25+ ) and it still took close to five hours.

This was my way of thinking most, more about seeing it first hand so when I discuss the case I can feel better knowing what I am talking about.

I plan on enjoying my time of course for what it is, something I learned at CC this year that works for me. I don't ever take vacations to just relax anyway so this works out best for what I plan on doing.

From what I've gathered so far my trip will be five days long. One day for travel and unwinding, which I believe will be either in Sac or Bay Area. Two days exploring the nor Cal locales/sites and then two days for the southern sites. Does that sound reasonable to you? One reason I asked on here is for this sort of input as I've never done anything like this before

[woofytreats]

Sept 28, 2017 13:16:36 GMT @murdoc said:

Sept 27, 2017 17:44:40 GMT woofytreats said:

I think it all breaks down to how much research / sighting on the case is being done versus vacationing and being concerned about how "nice" an area is...I'd agree that Sacramento proper isn't much and it's a metro island among itself in a lot of ways.  However, being at ground zero in Rancho might mean more to your understanding of the case than worrying about which areas of California are nicer than others. Personally, I'd much rather ( and do ) live in Contra Costa than Orange County but then you get into the NorCal/SoCal cultural divide and how provincial someone is...which may not mean much to someone coming out from North Carolina to run down Ripon Ct. or to vicariously go "pantless" at the appropriate location.

If flying, I'd probably do an "open jaws' itinerary that had me flying into one place and out of another...which would be your choice based on what you want to do. If driving, just be aware of the distances and time involved.  I used to drive from Contra Costa to UC Santa Barbara at night at considerably above the speed limit ( 25+ ) and it still took close to five hours.

This was my way of thinking most, more about seeing it first hand so when I discuss the case I can feel better knowing what I am talking about.

I plan on enjoying my time of course for what it is, something I learned at CC this year that works for me. I don't ever take vacations to just relax anyway so this works out best for what I plan on doing.

From what I've gathered so far my trip will be five days long. One day for travel and unwinding, which I believe will be either in Sac or Bay Area. Two days exploring the nor Cal locales/sites and then two days for the southern sites. Does that sound reasonable to you? One reason I asked on here is for this sort of input as I've never done anything like this before

That sounds "doable" to me but you might have to factor in an almost full travel day between North and South depending on when you leave, run into commute traffic, or are otherwise delayed. Others might want to chime in here. You might have to be prepared to drop (for example) the Smith site in Ventura ( or another of your choice ) if there are time constraints.

IMO, depending how deep you go, you can probably do Sacramento in a half day or so if you have a few specific things you want to see...and the same holds true for Contra Costa ( 2 hours away ) as there's only 15-20 miles between all eight attack sites. That would probably be beyond pushing it to try to do both in one day if you're not familiar with the areas. Conversely, you can drop CC County and delve into Sacramento more, etc. You just have to align your interests with the time and travel factor.

Moving south, Highway 101 is slower than I-5 traffic speed-wise but generally most people take 101 to Santa Barbara...and no matter how you slice it, it's still about 350 miles from CC County and can easily take six hours. SB to Irvine or Laguna Niguel/Dana Point can easily be 3 hours. My guess is you'd have to have a general itinerary versus trying to see every site you can in a five day period, although that's made a lot easier if you just hit the points you want to see in Sacramento versus lingering there. You might get more out of it that way anyway. Drop some sites that you think might be redundant to what you're trying to accomplish along the way and it would probably be smoother. I know that usually works for me in that kind of circumstance but I don't know how you want to approach this trip so I'm just throwing it out there my brutha.

[Sean Hogan]

To be really fair, this kind of trip is very interesting to me. I have always wanted to visit the sites and get a feel of the neighbourhoods. A running video of the streets canals and corridors near each attack in small clips, would be easy to digest bites. The photos people have shared are great and all but some more footage would be great.

Please keep me posted on how you get along!

[cityofchill]

Dude. I admire your dedication to the case. Seriously. Cause I know if I had a chance to visit Cali on vacation, my itinerary would probably be....different.
So, for real...that is dedication. It's like having a chance to visit Paris once in your life and hanging out in the Banlieues to better understand the growth of ISIS in Europe.
Then again, I kind of get it. People always give me * for going to NYC and rarely going south of 96th St.
I look forward to reading about your travels.

[bob]

There are roughly 40 attack sites in Sacramento. If you want them all on film, give yourself a day for the north side, a day for the south side, and a day of "make-up time." That puts you in Sacramento for 3 days.

From Sacramento the drive to San Jose is 2.5 hours. This allows you to cover Contra Costa (Danville, San Ramon, Condord, and the San Jose site) in 1 day. You'll drive for about an hour and 15 minutes before your first stop.

After the San Jose location (if you stop there), the drive to SB is about 4.5 hours in good time down Highway 101 (Pacific Coast Highway) as long as traffic is good. Traffic somewhere in there will usually slow you down a bit. If you make a pit stop, stop at the Madonna Inn -just for S&G.

Stay in Santa Barbara, from there, it's a day trip to Ventura and you can see all those sites.

When you leave there and go to Irvine, you will hit traffic. Technically it's 2 hours and 10 minutes. Allow 4 hours. Don't drive during rush hour 3pm to 8 pm or it will be longer. Irvine and Dana Point are about 20 minutes apart in good traffic. There is not always good traffic.

I get it that you want to walk the locales. Ok, but for parts of the day, you will be in restaurants, in the Airbnb (don't pay for a hotel) and you will be editing film or doing other stuff. All locations outside of Sacramento are more enjoyable places to do the other stuff.

Also re: our conversation (Murdoc) on Air Bnb: they usually cost me 1/2 price and instead of a high rise, I get a waterfront property-literally open the door and walk out and stick your hand in the sand. Wet sand. AirBnbs are for 1 person or for 20. It's a fun way to go. So after the sun goes down (around 8???) you still have at least 3 hours to chat with your traveling buddies.

You will LOVE Goleta and Ventura, and Dana Point. I'm betting you won't get back on the plane and go home. As much as you liked Indianapolis, just wait until you see the golden state. If you want to stop in LA, I'll be your tour guide.

[bob]

Sept 27, 2017 13:33:16 GMT Mitchell said:

Sept 27, 2017 2:59:48 GMT bob said:

Sacramento is not much of a place to go. You can see the state capital and walk some suburban streets. Other than that, it's a dive of a town.

Orange County is great. Santa Barbara county is great. Ventura County is good. Even Contra Costa is better than Sac. Skip the EAR area and go to the ONS areas. Sac is a dump. Even people in CA don't go to Sac unless they have to. There's no point in paying to get to CA and then going to Sacramento.  It's not the part of the Golden State that is golden.

ALL of the other areas are nicer. Even San Jose is nicer than Sac. and San Jose is a dump compared to those other places.  

I might meet you all out there, but not in Sacramento.

So... you're saying that Murdoc should definitely check out Sacramento? You're being sort of cryptic but I think that is the basic gist of what you said. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Ar ar ar ar ar, 

 

[Deleted]

Oct 1, 2017 23:25:48 GMT bob said:

Sept 27, 2017 13:33:16 GMT Mitchell said:

So... you're saying that Murdoc should definitely check out Sacramento? You're being sort of cryptic but I think that is the basic gist of what you said. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Ar ar ar ar ar, 

 

[Deleted]

Sept 29, 2017 21:05:22 GMT cityofchill said:

Dude. I admire your dedication to the case. Seriously. Cause I know if I had a chance to visit Cali on vacation, my itinerary would probably be....different.
So, for real...that is dedication. It's like having a chance to visit Paris once in your life and hanging out in the Banlieues to better understand the growth of ISIS in Europe.
Then again, I kind of get it. People always give me * for going to NYC and rarely going south of 96th St.
I look forward to reading about your travels.

DuuuuUUUUuuuu~~~uuuDe! 

I appreciate that! I really do! After my last actual vacation where I was supposed to relax turned into a nightmare I've since become impervious to relaxing wherever I go lol. Honestly and sadly, I used to love the beach but now I could go my entire life without seeing it again.

The thing is that as long as I feel I have meaning wherever I go and as long as it is something I've never seen before, we're on a roll and it's beautiful. I'll tell you right now that on top of meeting Shelly, Debz and truecrimeguy, meeting the one and only Jane Carlson-Sandler was beyond expectation because I learned far more than I'd ever learned in my entire life about life, love and hope, this crime series being something of a background effect about how life and loss affects us all into what manner. That's the best way I can describe it.

My goal this time around is to see the real deal. See what he saw and know what I know, making my own informed opinions from whatever experience I can muster. I want to get to know my fellow sleuths, extend my gracious hands to them and thank them for everything it is that they do because I know. I know how hard and exhaustive it is but without us sleuths, many crimes would fall into such a feint memory. 

So much interest. So much love for those affected. Everything we do is important at this point and beyond. 

Thank you guys for everything <3

[clapham]

Keep in mind that those beach cities get pretty pricey "in season" and traffic picks up significantly as well. My suggestion for saving both money and significant travel time is to go before Memorial Day or after Labor Day. Also, don't plan on traveling at peak times like Friday afternoons. My suggestion is to start in Day 1 in SAC. Day 2, I5 south will take you through Stockton, but you wouldn't have to spend more than a couple of hours there before heading west to Danville. Since you are on a tight schedule, after seeing Danville, I think on Day 3, I would head on down south to Santa Barbara/ Goleta. Day 4, finish in Goleta, stop in Ventura, and get to Orange County by mid afternoon. Spend the rest of that day in Laguna Niguel, and on day 5 is Irvine. It's a lot to cover in 5 days, but this is how I would do it.