inBOIL

Actually, the redwoods extend south to around Monterey; there are several good places to see them, including Muir woods in Marin county and Henry Cowell State Park in the Santa Cruz mountains.

I'd highly recommend visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium and walking around the local shops afterward. Yosemite is another place you should see if you can. You might want to buy a national parks pass if you plan on seeing more than one park while you're here, as it will save you a lot of money.

Lake Tahoe is a beautiful place in the summer or winter, with water/snow sports, gambling, wilderness areas, off-roading, and a few historic houses to tour. There are also plenty of good restaurants around the lake.

San Francisco is a must-see, but there are so many attractions there I wouldn't know where to begin. If you go through San Jose, there's the Tech Museum of Innovation, if you're into the history and science behind Silicon Valley, and the Winchester Mystery House, if you're into crazy old houses built by crazy old people.

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And you believe Bush and the liberals and divorced parents and gays and blacks and the Christian right and fossil fuels and Xbox are all to blame, meanwhile you yourselves create an ad where your kid hits you in the head with a baseball and you don't understand the message that the problem is you.