The itinerary

Nice post, Josh. Glad to see you making positive, substantial contributions already!

Okay, so here's a rough of the itinerary:

Tuesday, August 8th
Fly into LAX in the morning, and pick up our car...a convertible, of course. Spend the afternoon sightseeing in and around Los Angeles, thinking Santa Monica, a ride through Beverly Hills, and Hollywood, then to our hotel in Pasadena.

Wednesday, August 9th
USC tour at noon, will fill in before and after with sightseeing. Dodgers-Rockies game at night: field level box seats behind third base.

Thursday, August 10th
UCLA self-guided tour, whenever we get there in the morning. More sightseeing in the afternoon...the beach? Possibly heading to Kurt's cousin's home in Simi Valley for the evening.

Revision: We're now confirmed for the afternoon tour at UCLA. May try to hit Zuma Beach in Malibu in the morning if we can. Will be meeting Kurt's cousin's family for dinner in the evening.

Friday, August 11th
Cal Tech tour in the morning, then start the drive up the coast towards San Francisco. Possibly a late lunch/early dinner in Santa Barbara, at La Super Rica Taqueria (see the article from the New York Times: Chasing the Perfect Taco Up the California Coast). Then on to our hotel in Cambria.

Saturday, August 12th
A rest day. Relaxing and exploring in Cambria and Morro Bay, maybe a trip to Hearst Castle in nearby San Simeon.

Sunday, August 13th
Continue driving the Pacific Coast Highway through Big Sur, Carmel and Monterey up to Silicon Valley and our hotel in Mountain View, where dinner is probably outside on the Castro.

Monday, August 14th
Busy day. Stanford in Palo Alto in the morning. Then stopping by the Sportvision offices in Mountain View to talk to some of the engineers and see some of the rocket science. Continuing on up to San Francisco for some quick sightseeing and dinner. Then across the Bay Bridge to our hotel in Berkeley.

Tuesday, August 15th
UC Berkeley in the morning, then to SFO for an afternoon flight back to Chicago, which should get us in at around 10pm.