Ditto what V said - looking at the maps I would expect the less urban route to be prettier.

And double ditto - 4200 feet in 125 miles is cake - relatively speaking. If you're doing 125 miles, that is not a lot of climbing. (There are plenty of folks on this board doing 10k centuries.) It is 1000 feet more than the Santa Rosa 200k we did in March. I really don't think anyone would have noticed another 1000 feet of climbing over 125 miles.

With my family, I cannot plan any more travel for bike riding than I have or I might be tempted to join you....