My mind has gone blank on things to do, but I do have advice on one thing to
not do: Unless you're super excited by visiting Hollywood or Disneyland, I recommend not bothering going to Los Angeles/Southern California. If you want to plow all the way through LA to go south to San Diego for some reason, which is nice, (or if you want to visit Mexico) then yeah I guess go there, but in my opinion (unless you like Disneyland, or
really want a picture of yourself with the Hollywood sign in the background), the horrible traffic, urban sprawl, smog, and general falling-apartness of the Los Angeles areadoesn't really make it worth visiting in my book.
If you have time to spare and want to see the pacific coast, though, the drive down the coast on Highway 1 from Silicon Valley/Santa Cruz to
San Louis Obispo is totally nice (if a bit curvy), with some great views, small beaches to stop at along the way, and
this restaurant in
Big Sur about half way on the drive, which is a pretty nice place, built up on a cliff overlooking the Pacific. The drive takes the good part of a day though (and requires a full tank of gas), but I try to do it whenever I have to go to southern California but have a lot of time on my hands to do it.
