I would aim to get the coast on your first day so you have more time to stop and enjoy the Oregon coastline.
D1 just corrected me that our rental house in CA is in Orick, so even better proximity to Redwood National Park.
It’s all good to me. 
Driving south on 101 keeps the ocean and the pullouts to your right. Better view for the passengers too.
@privatebanker Having visited both Sequoia and Redwoods, I am more in awe by the towering trees, reaching for the eternal sky. Redwoods is also more remote so sometimes it seems you have the woods to yourself.
Traffic through Seattle to Tacoma then Portland on I 5 was exceedingly slow midday one year- don’t count on Chicago style midday patterns. We visit son in Seattle every year or so and spend the night coming and going in an inexpensive hotel near SeaTac, often timing the rental car so we use a hotel shuttle. I wouldn’t bother with greenery for that stay. I like Dave’s Diner for meals in the area.
There better not be any wildfires or high heat this summer- I am so looking forward to sub 90’s temps in July. Tampa has been hit with hot temps due to that high pressure ridge sticking around and drenching the Midwest. Chose Tampa over Seattle for the winters, not so sure the summer heat makes up for the lack of gloom. No place perfect for retirement.
Have fun with the trip. You could spend a month and not run out of places to see in that region. We usually just spend a few days doing things with son and enjoy on our own the rest of our time.
PS- I thought Tampa was casual, but Seattle seems to be even more so.
I have done this drive a couple of times (actually all the way to monterrey). Spectacular. Are you doing this soon? If so, your timing is good. The wild rhododendrons will be blooming under the majestic trees. it’s incredible.
@scubasue, yes, very soon. 
For pickup at the airport, the departures deck works better than arrivals at certain times of the day. 2:30-3 pm should be a slower time at the airport.
This sounds like a wonderful trip and is making me eager for my vacation to Olympic National Park in late August. Hoping to see some big trees there, in addition to the rain forest and coast. If only I had time to continue on down into Oregon and California!
The majestic Douglas firs of Oregon and Washington are lovely, but you won’t find any redwoods (=sequoias) in Washington. Their range extends from very southern Oregon to just south of Monterey (that’s a bit south of San Francisco, well north of Santa Barbara) in California.
Nothing else is like a redwood forest. You should come to California and see one.
@privatebanker, Another thing about redwood forests: I live in the San Francisco Bay area, in the South Bay. There are tons of redwood forests here in the coast range. My bike club’s century ride is called The Sequoia because we ride through sequoias; we change our routes every couple of years but we always ride through redwood forests because it would be difficult to find a good mountain route here that didn’t go through a redwood forest.
So by all means go visit Redwoods National Park, or my favorite, the adjacent Prairie Creek Redwoods. But also, if you find you like redwoods (like me!) and you’re visiting San Francisco or San Jose, you can be in a redwood forest in 45 minutes. Muir Woods, Big Basin, Huddart Park, Wunderlich, Purisima Creek, SP Taylor, Pescadero Creek, Forest of the Nisene Marks… they are all over. These are not little pocket parks. They’re big parks where you can be alone in the redwoods without much difficulty.
Well, the trip went very well.
D1 lives near a light rail station, so she hopped on it and showed up in baggage claim right as we arrived. We got on the road south by 3:45 pm. There was actually a wreck on I-5, so traffic was bad for a while due to that, then it really wasn’t too painful once we had passed it.
We drove south to Hwy 34, turned west on 34 and stayed overnight in Corvallis, home of Oregon State University. We were on the road by 7:30 am and drove to 101. The rest of the drive was wonderful. We stopped often to enjoy the views and stretch our legs.
I have to say that the Oregon Coast is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. It’s so unspoiled. I never saw any billboards, the hills/mountains have not been devoured by large mansions, there are not gated communities hogging up the ocean front, like you see in southern CA; it’s not a series of closely adjacent towns. You get much relief from human influence for great stretches. I’m so glad we made that drive. At a couple of stops, we were able to see whales-D kept remarking how jealous her husband would be when she told him about it (he couldn’t get off work to join us).
D1 is the one who found our Airbnb. It was a lovely farmhouse in a beautiful valley just minutes from the ocean. We couldn’t see the ocean from the porch, but we could hear the waves breaking from our room when we went to bed. It was a perfect choice. We were in Orick, CA, which was only minutes away from the hikes we had planned in Redwood National Park. It was a 3 bed, 1.5 bath home that was quite spacious and had a lovely porch, gas grill, and all of the other expected amenities. We had a lovely view of cattle grazing in a gorgeous green meadow in the foreground, with beautiful hills in the background. The owner provided bikes, and it was a very short ride to the ocean, which after a long day in the car was a nice little excursion. I’d be happy to provide a link of the house to anyone who is interested. It was only $215 per night and was worth every penny.
We did several hikes in the park over the next two days. The highlight was the hike down to the Tall Trees Grove. Thanks to @Twoin18 for the tip-we were first in line! These redwoods are enormous, majestic, really almost unbelievable. The light filtering through the trees is something I’ll not soon forget. We kept saying we felt like we were in another world, almost like being in a movie about the land that time forgot or something. We made it down to the grove and stopped to admire some of the tallest and largest trees in the area. Then the trail loops back and you begin the climb upward. About two minutes after we had stopped on the trail to admire an adjacent creek, we heard some strange creaking noises, like a squeaky door opening and closing. Then we heard the sound of many falling branches. We kind of froze in place looking at each other in confusion. Next we heard a huge cracking sound, then a cacophony of indescribable sounds, vibrations, and rumblings. Then came a thundering, explosive thud. DH said “HOLY CRAP!” We hurried back down the path where we had stopped to look at the creek, and there lay an enormous tree now blocking the main trail, reaching all the way to the water. It was incredible. Several others who had been in the vicinity gathered there also, marveling, taking photos, and sharing impressions of what they heard and how they felt when they realized what was happening. It was this strange bonding session between total strangers who shared this incredible moment together. So glad no one was hurt though!
I’ve got to get ready for work, so I’ll continue my trip review later today or tomorrow. Thanks to all for their suggestions!
Nrdb4, We love that part of the country. If you get back to the ORegon Coast, stop at Tillamook for the cheese tour and curds! We’ve stayed at Patrick’s Point SP in far northern CA along the coast. Wonderful place. We’ve done a number of the parks you mentioned, including Tall Trees Grove – but never had a tree fall while we were there! What an experience!
Wow, @Nrdsb4 your trip sounds amazing! And that AIRBNB!!! I’d love to hear more when you have time.
On our last hike on the second day in RNP, DH sprained his ankle. It wasn’t too terrible, but any more hiking was out of the question for him. So we decided to cut our stay in Orick short by one day. Instead, we retraced our steps to drive the coast and continue north from where we first hit 101 (at Newport) in order to see the coastline north of that point.
We stopped for the night between Lincoln Beach and Lincoln City and stayed at the Salishan Resort, which was a great decision. They upgraded us to a Premier Room, which was a very good deal indeed. Check it out if you ever are in the neighborhood. https://www.salishan.com/
Our last day was spent driving the coast from Lincoln City to Astoria, then over Hwy 30 back to I-5. We stopped for lunch in Cannon Beach, which as has been mentioned by several people on this thread, is a very pretty little beach town. DH was feeling a little better, so we did a couple of easy hikes along the way in a couple of state parks. I just couldn’t get enough of this area; we were sorry we didn’t have a couple of more days to enjoy it. We did drive through Tillamook, but didn’t feel we had the time to do a tour. So many beautiful little towns in this region!
We took @BunsenBurner’s advice to check out the Cedarbrook Lodge in Seattle, where we had a really nice dinner. What a little gem right in the middle of the airport district! You would hardly know there is a major airport just minutes away. The only thing which detracted from the dinner was getting a text that our direct 3 hour flight on AA had been canceled. A brutal storm had blown through Dallas, causing a lot of damage and shutting down power for hundreds of thousands of people (including at our house) and causing huge travel disruption. They offered to rebook us to a flight the next night that wouldn’t have gotten to Dallas until after midnight on Tuesday morning. Since I had to work an early surgery, that was a no go, so we caught a SW airlines flight at 5:00 am Monday morning that had several legs. Got home to find two fallen trees in our back yard (fascinating in the Redwood National Park, not so nice in our own back yard). We were astounded at the number of downed trees everywhere we went in Dallas. It took several days for everyone to get power restored, though ours was on by the time we got home. It was big news, as we don’t normally get 70 mph winds here. A large crane in downtown Dallas blew over and fell into an apartment complex, killing a young woman the same age as D1 and injuring several others. Such a tragedy.
In retrospect, I would consider this short vacation kind of an “intro trip,” in that we didn’t have the time to see and experience all it has to offer, but it whetted our appetite for more, that is for sure! I appreciate the advice given and hope to re-visit this area again in the future when we have more time to devote to it.
@abasket, I’m going to go ahead and post a link to our Airbnb farm house. I would highly recommend it if you are going to be in the area:
Loved reading your recap! Yes, Cannon Beach is a place you really don’t want to leave!
Sorry about your H’s ankle and the trees at home - yikes!
I just might bookmark that Airbnb!
Eons ago, we did the coastal drive all the way from Seattle to Central CA camping on the way. It was incredible. Time to repeat - with reservations at lodges and Superchargers mapped out.
@Nrdsb4 - glad to hear you enjoyed the trip, and thank you for the report. Hope your husband’s ankle is back to normal.