my boss just made me a very happy camper by announcing that he and I will be taking a trip to Silicon valley in March/April for about 14 days. We live in Slovenia (EU) and we're running a pretty successful (for our standards) company (no longer a start-up). We have many products (some are among the biggest web pages/portals in our country) but now we are looking into new fields (mostly mobile). So that's why we are coming to CA. To do some soul searching, maybe catch some inspiration, check out the start-up scene and attend a conference if possible. And take a short break. Kinda like working vacation or something :)

Anyway, since neither of us has ever been across the pond, I'd like to ask you, fellow hackers, for some pointers:

1. where to stay (hotel, hostel, something else?) so we can work on our laptops while we are there? Nothing fancy, cheap and preferably somewhere close to various meet-ups (if there is such a place)

2. what conferences/workshops/events are happening in March/April? We will base our trip around this. We're looking for something that will cover mobile apps (and or mobile web pages) for me (the developer). And something for my boss ("designer", UX, marketing, ...) in the social media, social gaming, ... something along those lines. So far I've found this: http://where2conf.com/where2011/ http://www.web2expo.com/webexsf2011 and http://en.oreilly.com/mysql2011 (they are all rather expensive, remember we're from Slovenia)

3. what to see, where to go, etc. If somebody knows how to get a tour at Google, Apple, Facebook (or at some other cool kids) that would be awesome too.

I must sound like a kid in a candy store, probably because I feel like one right about now :)