Palo Alto, CA + Add a trip

wander around Stanford University or else head up to the city

Yep, there's pretty much nothing to do in Palo Alto itself. Mountain View (Castro Street) has some good music on weekend nights, but other than that, San Fransisco is probably your best bet. Stanford has lots of events going on all week, but you need to do some digging to find the best ones (and they are mostly academically oriented, so if that's not your cup of tea... well, Stanford still has a beautiful campus).

Take a sightseeing tour on the Zeppelin, c/o AirshipVentures.com (I'm on the board).

Rent a bicycle and explore the Palo Alto area. Standford campus for an easy ride. For a longer, more sporty ride, take Page Mill Rd, cross I-280, Arastradero Rd, Alpine Rd, Portola Rd, then back via Sandhill Rd. To extend the ride head North on Woodside Rd, or climb Old La Honda Rd up to Skyline Blvd and back via CA-84. Many bike shops in town rent bikes. I found the Campus Bike Shop on the Stanford campus to be one of the cheaper options to rent a road racing bike.