Hi,
A bit of a beginner question here, but maybe someone can help out.

I'd like to fly to the US this summer with my girlfriend, and to travel around California (and maybe NW too, which is why I wrote West Coast). As I am a freelancer and she is a student, we are basically as flexible as one can be both in time and to where we fly.

I used the ITA Matrix as guided here and other sites, to search all the major airports on the West Coast over a month (Berlin to LAX, SFO, SEA, SAN, PDX) but am getting ridiculous prices for the summer (July August starts at like 1100 Euros). And since I am always seeing fares tot he US for 300-400 Euros from Germany, I was surprised. Are there any other tools I should be using?

Or maybe am I doing something wrong?
Or is there any better websites to search for cheap fares?

Thanks!