In March-May 2005 I worked as an intern at IBM research center in Almaden (Silicon Valley) California, USA. During my stay I created a grid computing application for the creation of synthetic electronic health records.
Wherever you turn you see famous names on the office buildings, but unless you are invited to enter those offices and see what they're up to, it isn't really that exciting. San Jose, and Silicon Valley in general, is spread out and hard to explore without a car.
I stayed at a furnished studio apartment complex, which was a bit pricey, but OK for temporary use.
The IBM research center is located on a mountain a bit south of San Jose.
This is the library.
And this is a researcher at work. Unfortunately I had to stay in a much smaller cubicle without a window.
It was not all work. I travelled to San Francisco and Sacramento, and I finally got to see Futurama on TV :-)