Hello - my family and I are going on holiday to the US, and we will be driving along the coast between San Francisco and LA (our arrival and departure points).

With the limitations of flying to take into account, I'm trying to work out what to take as regards preparedness, does anyone that knows this area have any guidance on typical weather in July and anything else that you only find out once you get there?

My current list/thoughts are:

Buy water once we get there.
Take space blankets and FAK in luggage (not carry on)
Find fire starting means once we arrive (some matches in luggage, depends on what the regs are at the time)
Not sure on clothes -how hot/rainy/windy etc it'll be...

Any advice/ sources of info will be greatly recieved

Oh, additional info is that there are 6 of us altogether, youngest is 16, oldest late 50's.

Thanks!