Asked... about Palo Alto, CA

Downtown Palo Alto is a nice little shopping district with plenty of restaurants, book stores, and all variety of other shops. There's also a lot to explore in the marshland (other wise known as the Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve). If you're into science, I'd suggest the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, and if you're more of a history person, Hoover Tower and a tour of the rest of the Stanford campus might be more up your alley.

I hope that gives you a good variety of ideas!