L.G.
Are you going Hwy 5? Go to the Schnitzer Museum in Eugene on the U of 0 campus. Best art museum between San Francisco and Seattle. It has an Asian collection that will dazzle your children's eyes and yours. Eugene has some fantastic health food stores like Sundance where you can buy a hot meal. Everything in Sundance is organic. Ashland has a lovely downtown and some fine playgrounds. Stop at Mt. Shasta which is a holy mountain to Native Americans. It is majestic. Shasta has an excellent health food store to get food at.
Castle Crag is across the highway from Mt. Shasta it is a magical set of rocks and caves to explore.
In Corning there is the Olive House where you can taste at least 50 different kinds of olives.
When you get to Concord Mt. Diablo is nearby and the hundreds of acres of interlocking county parks from Contra Costa to Berkeley.
If you go the SFO go to Chinatown and sample the DimSum.
I could go on and on but now many other Mom's who travel have given you the inside skivvy on where you can go.