Hi, 

We've been members of HC for a few years, but have not been free to travel until
now.

This summer we both retire and celebrate our 29th anniversary!  The trips that
we've taken together have almost all been to the East Coast, and now we'd like
to see the west.  

We love art, food and wine, architecture and great scenery, but have limitations
due to health and mobility (I can only walk fairly short distances.  A mile at
most on level ground).  We're in our fifties and taking early retirement.

We're not asking for accommodations, just recommendations.  What's the one
western destination that should be on our bucket list?

How about consulting a travel guide? Or the travel section in your local
newspaper? If you have special interests and/or hobbies, check through your
organizations and use google searches. The more specific you are in your quest,
the better will be the leads you can develop.

Yosemite Falls and Park is beautiful both in the summer and the Fall but it may
be easier to get reservations in the Fall and it would be less crowded.  There
is also a trolley at Yosemite that will take you around so you can limit your
walking. Most places in California is great, from beaches to mountains, from
small rural towns to big cities and from rustic cafes to 5-star restaurants.  It
really depends on what you like to do.

Some of my favorite cities in California are San Diego, La Jolla, Carlsbad, Los
Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Solveng, Carmel, Santa Cruz, Monterey,
San Francisco, Napa and Lake Tahoe.  You can google these cities and find if
they offer what you would enjoy.

Banff of hte rockies mountain is very beautiful during summer.  It does not
really need a lot of walk.

You can come to Vancouver first and go to Okanagan for its ice wine and enroute
to Banff.  Victoria has several places to visit too.

My top list for cities:
San Francisco
San Diego
Seattle
Las Vegas, gate way to Grand Canyon 

My top list for National Parks
Grand Canyon, near Las Vegas or Phoenix
Yellow Stone
Mt Rainier (summer wild flowers in Paradise), near Seattle
Olympia National Park, near Seattle
Redwoods, near San Francisco, world tallest trees, really are giant
Yosemitte

These are what Comes to my mind right now.

By the way, from Seattle you can take a ferry to Victoria BC, then ferry to
Vancouver , or the other way around. Both cities are great places to start and
end your Alaska cruise. 
Any place, you are interested in from my list, I can tell you more about it.  I
just do not know where to begin. All of the places I mentioned are car
accessible or have shuttle services. Easy walk.  Most of them have lodges in the
park, so you could take your time to enjoy, break it into short day trips.

 I totally agree, Banff is amazing.

Another Unique National Park is Death Valley, near Las Vegas, must avoid summer.
spring is the best with wild flowers.

When we retired we did a 12 month round the world trip part of which was
traveling coast to coast across the US meandering as we went calling in at small
and large towns and cities. 
We loved Utah camping in Yellowstone at 8,000 ft and making our way down to
Vegas, The Big Sur then up into California, we stayed at  a wonderful campsite
just outside LA in Malibu over looking the ocean and the fantastic beach it was
magic.
Continued up the West coast taking in all the small towns and fishing villages
making our way to Vancouver Island Vancouver and across Canada taking in the
Rockies Jasper, Banff, Lake Louise on to Toronto Niagara Falls etc.

We traveled by train coach bus plane and hired a car for 8 weeks, a wonderful
once in a lifetime journey.

Sit down and work out where you would like to go after doing your research and
taking into account your limitations and/or medical conditions. 

We all have our different ideas about what we want from travel. You decide what
you want out of it and reach for your dreams.

We've been retired now for 6 years and we are still traveling.

Best of luck and have a great time.

Jean