Sounds like you've gotten some good advice so far. Here's what I'd add: Camping in the lake Tahoe area is great, particularly one campground on "Emerald Bay".

Sounds like you've gotten some good advice so far. Here's what I'd add: Camping in the lake Tahoe area is great, particularly one campground on "Emerald Bay". If you're there in winter, do try snowboarding/skiing. In the SF area I recommend checking out Pacifica and Santa Cruz, and making a quick stop through Carmel. Each is a different flavor of northern CA beach town. Also, north of SF Mendocino is awesome and the surrounding area is quite unfettered compared with a lot of areas that attract tourists. In SF, you can find a monthly room in someone's apartment/house for $400 to $600 on Craigslist. Also, check out the wine country (tourist attraction but there are some nice restaurants, and everything is posh and manicured, yet not in a stodgy way), and definitely check out the redwoods (Muir woods is easy to get to but there are others) for some hiking. You don't see trees like that every day. The smell of the redwoods and the eucalyptus will be memorable for a long time... it's wonderful. In SF proper, check out the mission district, and yes, Yelp is a great resource. Also, there are a bunch of cool technology oriented meetups in the bay area, so spend at least a few days (at the beginning of a month) around here so that you can check some of them out (js, mysql, ruby, startups, etc.). You can't miss L.A. either. I highly recommend going to this place called Skybar which is in the Mondrian hotel. Book an (expensive) room for one night at the hotel (preferably Thurs, Fri, or Sat) and go to Skybar that night and mingle with the local L.A. scenesters. I have done this a few times and it's quite an experience. Also, the Mondrian looks out over the bluffs and you have a great view of the HOLLYWOOD sign. Hey, you're visiting the west coast so just bite the bullet and be a cultural anthropologist for a night... :) If you go south of L.A., check out the fish taco scene. The NY Times ran an article last year about a west coast taco "exploration" that a writer wrote up on a similar trip. For the driving, I recommend that you stay on the 1 when possible, as the view of the ocean is worth quite a bit. The 5 is full of trucks and it's very hot and unpleasant. In general, I recommend trying to conserve money by doing things like camping, couch crashing at people's houses, etc., and then splurging a bit on some good food now and then. Restaurants I recommend: Cafe Gratitude (creative vegan fare that will knock your socks off, particularly the coconut pie), Pane e Vino (in SF, try the pizza with arugula), Mustard's (in Yountville, decent prices and a sample of the great food of the wine country). Also, sprint EVDO doesn't always have a cap. Mine was a bit more expensive and has unlimited bandwidth.