[kmccaf]

I am biased towards the upper Midwest myself, but if it is easier for you to travel to the coasts the I would recommend North Carolina. No major league teams, but a lot of Minor league teams in the state. Asheville is one of the best cities in the country, lots of great beer, food, and culture, and the you can go rent a cabin by the Great Smokey Mountains.

If theMidwest is an option! I would do a St. Paul/Minneapolis to Madison to Chicago run. The Twins Stadium in Minneapolis is great. Lots of great beer and just a wonderful area with great people. Stop in Eau Claire for some Lazy Monk brews, then go to Madison, for a great mid sized city. Then Go see the Cubs at Wrigley Field, and eat great Chicago cuisine.

For the West Coast, Seattle would be a great city to look into.

Nothing wrong with going to San Francisco. Wonderful town with a team that has been great for the past few years. Redwoods are nearby, and you could make run to Yosemite. Lots of great choices on the Coasts!

[duboman]

Having done both coasts by car several times, beer nor food will be a problem! It's the time. In 6-8 days you can easily create a great trip with lots to do and see, weather should be your determining factor. If winter months are when you plan go west, if mid fall, go east, you will not believe the colors, spectacular! You don't want to be in the East during a winter storm and get stranded somewhere, been there, done that:(

Coming myself from the Midwest you can't beat the nice weather on the West coast through most of the winter months!

[HobsonDrake]

I t has been touched on by a couple of people but I think Seattle and Portland are a good bet. You say baseball so I would suggest you start in Seattle for a Mariners game. I would think flights in should be close to what you LAX is. Lots of food and fun in the city.
Then drive to Portland (only 3.5 hours drive through some great county). Lots of food and beer. Good public transportation. During the spring/summer there are beer festivals every weekend (or most weekends anyway) and the last full weekend of July is the Oregon Brewers Festival http://www.oregonbrewfest.com. I have meet people from many countries that come just for that and stay for everything else.
What ever you decide, have a great time. 

[jeffy]

I live in Florida, but my favorite part of the country is the Pacific Northwest.  I think you could easily spend your week between Portland and Seattle and have a great trip.  Heck we did a whole week just in the western part of Oregon a few years ago.  Weather there is usually great in the summer months - long days, plenty of sunshine despite what you may have heard.
You could also fly in and out of San Francisco and spend some time in Sonoma County.  We did that for a week once.
Keep in mind that dropping off a car in another city is sometimes cost prohibitive, but also realize that driving hundreds of miles back to the original airport can be daunting on the final day or two of a trip.  It's bigger than you think.

[BrewingRover]

It's bigger than you think.

Yeah, keep that in mind. Boston to New York is roughly equivalent to London to Manchester. Interstate flights can eat up a whole day with time at the airport, etc.

[narcout]

Ashville, nashville, memphis, new orleans...

Yeah, that would be a great trip.

[Steve Ruch]

I t has been touched on by a couple of people but I think Seattle and Portland are a good bet. You say baseball so I would suggest you start in Seattle for a Mariners game. I would think flights in should be close to what you LAX is. Lots of food and fun in the city.
Then drive to Portland (only 3.5 hours drive through some great county). Lots of food and beer. Good public transportation.

Take a right at Portland and go to Hillsboro for some minor league baseball, the team name is the Hillsboro Hops (yes, those kind of hops).
Have fun.

[HoosierBrew]

It's bigger than you think.

Yeah, keep that in mind. Boston to New York is roughly equivalent to London to Manchester. Interstate flights can eat up a whole day with time at the airport, etc.

+2.  I think it's best to pick a specific part (or even state) of the country to focus on, to keep from burning up so much time in airports and very long drives.  I took a mostly beer related vacation out west a few years back and spent a week in California, and a week was not near enough. And that's only one (albeit huge) part of the West coast. Still want to get to Oregon and Washington and try some of those great beers in person. 

[flbrewer]

As a Floridian, I love my state. As a craft beer nerd, I have to say that you should stick to the West Coast. In particular San Francisco (Russian River, Lagunitas, and Bear Republic are a bit north of the city) and Seattle. Both cities have wonderful vistas, world-class breweries, and great sports.

Of course, you'll have to take a quick flight between the two which would be very affordable.

Which month are you coming, that could make a difference in your mood.

[JT]

I'm from the midwest.  Go to California.  Plenty of everything you are looking for there. 

[markpotts]

Thanks again guys, lots to research there
The most likely time of my visit would be May or June of 2016.
It's quite clear from some of the responses that I shouldn't try to fit too much travelling in and waste valuable time on such a short trip.

[jeffy]

The AHA Conference is in San Diego June 11 to 13.  Stop in and meet 3,000 of your closest beer buds.

[MDixon]

It all depends upon what you want to do. I know you have a list, but honestly all you need for baseball is a major or minor league stadium. I'm not a fan, but do enjoy a good minor league game and those stadiums are everywhere.

You wanted food and that is not quite specific enough. In a metropolitan area you can get all kinds of restaurants from almost any ethnicity. In a smaller area you get regional cuisine.

As far as beer you cannot go wrong in several states. I tried to find a list by state, but every one I saw was wrong including this one:
http://www.brewersassociation.org/statistics/by-state/

FWIW - North Carolina is sitting at 125+ at the moment.

You will have to drive no matter where you go, the US is a big place and we don't have good public transportation.

Since beer and food is one of your goals I would suggest you fly into Charlotte, NC and then drive to Asheville, NC and spend at least a couple of days. The reason why is you can see several breweries in a very small area. Sierra Nevada is close by, Oskar Blues is close by, and New Belgium is under construction. From there you can visit many midsize all the way down to nano breweries. The food in the area ranges from local Southern to ethnic, there is not much white tablecloth, but there are some definite foodie joints. They have a minor league baseball team. The weather is never bad, sometimes rain can diminish the fun, but it typically doesn't hang out forever. Asheville is in the Mountains and within ~6 hours you could visit the beach from there. Asheville to Washington, DC is ~7 hours with much of it through some pretty mountain scenery. The NC beach to DC is about 6 hours, but the drive is not nearly as scenic, although Richmond, VA has some nice breweries and Green Flash should be settled in to the Tidewater area of VA soon. Also Stone is building a brewery in Richmond and I hear it may be in production by the end of the year.

California is a great place to visit, but it is a large state and not much is walkable. Washington and Oregon have a plethora of breweries as well. Wisconsin is very pretty in the spring and summer.

It all depends upon what you want to see. Washington, DC has the monuments, NYC is well, NYC, we have almost every climate under the sun at some point in the US and everything from flat land to mountain peaks.

Once you know kinda where you are heading I'm sure the group can put you on the right path or help with arrangements in the US.

[pete b]

The lack of public transportation is a good point. Exceptions are Boston, NYC, and DC. And you can get between those cities by train. Baseball wise that gives you 5 major league teams if you include Baltimore which has a nice park. It would be interesting for you to see a game at Fenway (100+ years old) and Yankee Stadium (almost brand new). I really like visiting NYC. I would avoid DC June-early August and Boston/NY from late June-early August due to the possibility of a humid streak.

[reverseapachemaster]

You could see a lot of any part of the country in ten days if you're willing to do a lot of driving. The drive through California is pleasant but it is a lot of time spent in a car and you may want to spend several days in San Diego and San Francisco. Making that entire trip is probably too ambitious if you want to watch a game and try to hunt down restaurants along with breweries or good bars. It might be easier to enjoy yourself to pick San Diego up to LA or LA up to San Francisco.

There's a lot of interesting stuff to do in Portland and Seattle and it's not too bad driving between the two if you want.