Thanks, and you can PM at anytime if you are out of ideas. California is so amazingly spread out that sometimes it appears as if it's just vast, empty space between the major cities. The cool, small towns and sights are very easy to miss and not always visible from the highway. You will notice outside of the big population centers of the San Francisco Bay Area, L.A., Orange County, and San Diego, the rest of the long stretches of land have terrible, ambiguous signage if they even bother to post a sign. Also a lot of small areas are not worth the time of the GPS people but are so worth the physical visit (if you want to see Elephant Seals, navigate the Elkhorn Slough, go whale watching, hit the best Mexican restaurants in southern California, or stay at a high quality, yet affordable motel/hotel/inn).
San Luis Obispo is where I did first two years of college. It was a small agricultural town with mom and pop stores and restaurants. In recent decades, it has become more of a tourist trap but it's still worth a visit. If you look hard enough, you can still hit some of the small eateries that have not become touristy and you will love the food. If you want a small town atmosphere, but with the ocean, Pismo Beach is amazing. McClintocks, if I remember correctly, is a great bar/restaurant in both those towns. It's been decade since I have been there and maybe they have changed.
If San Luis Obispo is too far from San Francisco, and I admit that's quite a long drive, stay in Monterey. It's a small town and there's a Fisherman's Wharf, too, but not as overcrowded as the one in San Francisco.
Monterey has been the capital of California under several different flags. California was also under Spanish rule, Mexican rule, an independent nation, a US territory, and finally a state with Colton Hall and the Custom Plaza (near Fisherman's Wharf) being central locations. Right next to Monterey is Carmel and if you blink you will miss it since it only has three exits fairly close to each other. It's always worth a visit and the entire city is one square mile but with lots of shops. Pacific Grove is another small town and the only one that has not been overdeveloped. Right by the ocean there is the Monterey Bay Aquarium and that's always a great place to visit. It's also on Cannery Row, which is perhaps the only household name of all the unknown places in Monterey County.
If you are daring and want to take the coastal Highway 1 route, see if you can find lodging between Carmel Highlands on the coast and anywhere along the rugged coast of Big Sur, all within Monterey County. It's certainly not cheap but it's a chance of a lifetime and perhaps some of the prettiest coastline in all of California.
The one route I failed to mention is the express route, which is the very fast, straight, yet boring Interstate 5. It's what a lot of us locals do when we know exactly what we want to see and get there very fast. Sometimes locals don't want to see the small hamlets along the way, some towns consisting of fewer than ten people, and the I5 takes you from north to south very quickly. Let's say you want to hit exciting nightlife and city hotspots. You can do S.F. then go east/southeast and eventually attach to I5, beeline it to L.A. and spend a few days there, and then go to San Diego and spend time there, too. Those are the major happening bit cities on your path. That being said Oakland and San Jose are also fairly large cities, too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_5_in_California
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As an anti-big city alternative, you can go from S.F. to stay in or around Pacifica, then stay in Carmel or Carmel Highlands or Big Sur, stay near but just outside of Santa Barbara, stay near sleepy Malibu, and then go to San Diego.
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