I've been in all those cities except the one in Georgia. I think the most exciting for tourist is San Francisco. It will be a little foggy, possibly, but that burns off by mid morning. You can walk from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Embarkadero to Coit Tower to China town, and if that gets tiring you can take the bus (the famous trolly is fun, but the wait can be long, but maybe not so much in winter). There is Golden Gate Park, fabulous museums, including The Exploratorium that isn’t just a museum, but "an ongoing exploration of science, art, and human perception—a vast collection that feed your curiosity" and in nearby San Jose is a TECH museum which is astounding. Is is a world-wide cosmopolitan city with representation of an incredible number of cultures. We have taken a lot of people to San Francisco (and we live 2.5 hours away) and every one of them has been impressed. Across the Golden Gate is a wonderful fishing village with a lot of arts and crafts places, and of course the Bay itself which is a thrill to tour by ferry and includes Alcatraz (an old prison) and Angel Island (which was a "clearing" place for Asian immigrants; both are full of incredible history. Do you get the feeling I could go on and on.....?
Yes, San Diego is probably warmer, and it is lovely, is near the lego museum, etc., but it is not compact and you would spend more time on buses while in San Francisco you can mingle more.
Portland and Seattle will be rainy for sure, although both are nice cities. Phoenix is the one I can tell you to skip! It is essentially a series of towns and it is totally geared for the retired. It has very few interesting places to visit (we go biking there in the winter because they have wonderful biking trails and we've looked for "places of interest"). It is close enough to take day and two day trips to some astounding canyons, but frankly, that would mean hours on buses because it is so far flung between places that even people from the eastern U.S. are "dismayed" at the "wide open spaces."
Hope this is helpful! If you do deicde on San Francisco, pm me and I'll send your husband a list of places which would be expecially fun for teens.
Last edited by Sierra; 10-19-2012 at 07:04 AM.