Don't overlook the Pro-99
You may also want to take a close look at the Pro-99 currently going for $99. Although intended as a race-scanner, you can operate it in a conventional manner. (press Function-Car to toggle)
It's small, cheap, and also has PL decode, which might be very useful since the CHP uses PL on many of their frequencies. Here at the house I have a few interfering carriers from my DSL modem which land right on some CHP freqs - the PL decode helps to keep me from going crazy.
Having 16 character programmable alpha tags is also very nice.