Passing through Toronto? Excellent reason for a TronnaDope. 
Lessee… the Royal Ontario Museum, the Ontario Gallery of Art (which reopens November 14th after a rebuilding and addition), the CN Tower (dinner at dusk: the view is amazing)…
If you let us know when you’ll be arriving we can check what festivals and events are on.
Oh, and the West Coast is gorgeous. Mountains…. So’s the East Coast. And the North Coast. And the bits in the middle. Definitely visit Montréal.
Actually, here in America, we drive on the right side of the road. Really, we do :).
Ok, my contribution . . . you’ve already picked some great places, so I’ll just add to those. See Las Vegas (~4 hour drive from LA), not because it’s particularly great, but it’s just a very unique city. See the Grand Canyon - it’s particularly great. Try to make it to the Appalachian mountains, but especially the Great Smoky Mountains if possible - I don’t think there is a part of Oz that really looks like that.
You’re really going to need a car. I cannot stress enough how bad the public transportation sucks in this country. Some people will try to convince you that it’s “pretty good on the east coast”, but they mean a couple hundred miles, optimistically, between northern New Jersey and Boston. By comparison that’s about half the distance from Sydney to Brisbane.
Well, if you decide to swing by Nebraska you can 1) visit me 
2) go to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha.
I knew a lady (math professor) from Tasmania who chose St. John’s, Newfoundland for a sabbatical because it was as far away as she could get. Beautiful place.
Go to a college football game. Come early for the tailgating. While other schools may play the game, come to East Lansing, MI for the best experience.
And in East Lansing you can be really popular and impress the natives by doing things like verbal communication, using opposable thumbs, and standing upright.
What’s with the Aussie fascination with squirrels?
Toronto’s got you covered on the squirrel front though - the park around our provincial parliament buildings is crawling with the little bushy-tailed rodents. Plus we have a zoo so you can get your fill of the other critters, though it’s a little bit isolated in the east end of the city.
As far as aquatic critters go, there’s the aquarium in Vancouver. They have several beluga whales at the aquarium, including a relatively young calf born earlier this year - I don’t believe you have those back home either? It’s quite fun to watch the sea otters frolick for a while, too.
Some other stuff…
If you’re in Toronto for a little while, you can also do a day trip out to Niagara Falls, which is a couple of hours by train or bus. It’s something of a tourist trap, but the falls themselves are quite impressive. You could also consider a wine tour through the Niagara Peninsula - there are several tour companies that will drive you around, seeing as you’re not keen on driving.
I’d also strongly suggest swinging out to Montreal for a few days. The culture there is entirely different from any of the other cities you’re visiting, and it’s only 6 hours away from Toronto if you take the train. The city has a very European vibe, tons of great cafes and restaurants, a historic port district with nice boutiques and galleries, a gorgeous botanical garden, a big park smack dab in the middle, and a subway system that’ll get you just about anywhere you need to go.
Of course you have to see NYC. And if you want to meet me in Times Square, I can show some of New Jersey.
I always recommend The “Worlds deepest hole” in Missouri and the “Worlds largest ball of twine” in Kansas. It will only take you a couple of days:)
If I had to make one serious suggestion:
Las Vagas - it is a sight to see all by itself, plus it’s a great base to visit the Grand Canyon and some other amazing parks. And it’s not really very expensive, or wasn’t when I went.
Just dropping in to say: we went to Britain for our honeymoon, and rented a car to drive from Edinburgh to Inverness. While there were a few moments of trepidation at the beginning, it took me about a half hour to learn to drive on the other side of the road. The only thing you really need to keep in mind is that left turns are the difficult ones in the US, not right.
That being said, don’t drive in New York. There’s no need, and you don’t want to put yourself through that.
Also, I realize it’s not on your itinerary, but if you find yourself in St. Louis, say hi.
Just saw this as I was getting ready to put together my post on Los Angeles.
If you are not willing to drive, you probably won’t have much fun in LA. So start on the east coast and work your way west. By the time you get to LA you will be used to the direction the cars travel.
There is no such thing as a central location in Los Angeles and…well let’s just say that public transportation is sub optimal, and cabs are expensive and hard to come by. Will you be traveling with someone who is willing to drive?
Also, if you aren’t willing to drive you will miss out on one of the most spectacularly beautiful places on earth…the central California coast. If you have about 2 days to travel between LA and San Fransico, you will have the opportunity to travel up highway 1 . Highway 1 is long and will force you to stop overnight, but I am not kidding when I say it is spectacular beyond belief.
Stoping off in Morro Bay, or Carmel, or Pismo Beach or Monterey (with a great aquarium)Santa Cruz, or Halfmoon Bay. Seeing Herst Castle. Spending some time in Santa Barbara. You could spend a whole week working your way up the coast and not run out of things to do and see. But it can be done in about 2 days if you want to just drive and look.
If you have less time but are willing to spend a whole day on the travel, drive up the 101 freeway. It takes less time and is slightly less amazing, but it is also a great trip. It will take you about 8 hours to get from LA to SF this way, as opposed to the 20 or so hours that highway 1 will take. The 101 and highway 1 intersect frequently so you will see some of the same stuff, but miss all the really narrow winding cliffside roads. You can also do a combo of the 101 and highway 1, picking up the 101 about halfway up the coast. You have options.
You could also take the 5 and get there in about 5 hours, but frankly if you are going to do that you might as well just fly.
So just for that bit of travel alone, consider driving on the right side of the road a bit. It’s totally worth it. Check out the links.
Ok, so moving on to LA proper and what to see and do here in my next post. Complete with more links.
I know I will offend people with this but I would swap Minneapolis and Pittsburgh for something else. It isn’t that those aren’t great places, they just aren’t very exotic. Besides LA, you are too heavy on the northern US and blending into Canada. You may want to check out the Southern U.S. as well. It is pretty different and tends to be cheap with friendly people. There are a huge numbers of choices. New Orleans would be at the top of the list. Orlando, FL is a tourist mecca of course because of Disney World. Some lesser known but great attractions that represent the actual South would be somewhere like Charleston, SC. Of course there is the Southwest as well including the Grand Canyon region.
Most Americans and Canadians are going to tend to like you right away because you are Australian. Use that to your benefit and throw out a short story or two to those that are interested. Most areas of the U.S. tend to be friendly. The few that aren’t still have lots of friendly people.
Some Los Angeles Links
Touristy Stuff:
Warner Bros Studio Tour (warning music). I am told it’s awesome but haven’t been myself. But if you are into movies you really should do something movie related, and by all accounts the WB tour is the best there is.
The Huntington Library and Gardens are well worth a visit. Beutiful grounds, a great art museum, and some of my favorite gardens in LA. They also do a formal British Tea, but I find it to be disappointing and expensive. While you are in a garden mood, check out the less well known but equally wonderfull Descanso Gardens
The Getty Museum for the architexture more than anything. Unless you are into classical art. Their collecition of Greek art is world class. Otherwise J Paul Getty had fairly crap taste, but the museum itself is a work of art that is work the trip.
The Chinese Theater and the Walk of Fame. (Aka, “Hollywood”)
Ok, so I went to high school about a block away from the Chinese, and can tell you first hand that if you want to SEE a movie, it is a very nice movie theater. If you want to see a sight…you will be standing shoulder to shoulder with every other tourist in LA as well as some people dressed in stupid costumes. This part of LA used to be cool, it really did. It isn’t so much any more. Getting through the traffic to get there will take too much of your time, so find a subway station (there is one right across the street from Universal Studio’s) and take the subway to the Hollywood and Highland stop. It is just about the only really useful function the subway serves. But for a good slice of pizza hit up Greco’s across the street. Also down the street is the less famous Egyptian Theater home to the LA Cinamateqe which shows awesome classic movies and next to the Greco’s is the El Capitan theater, which will be showing whatever Disney movie happens to be out at the time. Both are worth taking a look at. They used to do tours of both, but it looks like they don’t anymore.
If you are into deco architecture, there is a walking tour of Downtown that I have been on and can recommend.
LA Conservancy Walking Tours. Will walk you all over Downtown and talk about the amazing buildings we have down there. Downtown is really almost a no mans land these days. It is only a buisness center and few people actually live there (more or less true). But it has some amazing buildings.
While you are in the downtown area you can hit Olvera street. It’s touristy but worth it. If you want to see more Chicano cultre stuff let me know, there is a lot of it. But if you are just looking for a taste Olvera Street will set you in the right direction.
The La Brea Tar Pits are a unique and amazing thing to see, and are right next door to the Los Angeles County Meuseum of Art the best art meuseum in the city. Near that is the Peterson Auto Meuseum which is well worth a visit if you like cars.
You can always head to Beverly Hills and see the big houses, and walk/shop on Rodeo Drive. Drive Down the Sunset Strip, or cruise Mullholland too. I do these things on a regular basis (not rodeo, too pricy and crowded for my tastes) but I would put them lower on my to do list unless you really have your heart set on any of them.
If you like looking at college campuses you should check out UCLA (my alma matter) and, I suppose, USC. Exposition Park across the street from USC is well worth a visit.
Also, the Griffith Observatory is now open again, worth seeing if only for the Rebel without a Cause connection. Griffith Park in general is awesome, but a lot of it is closed to the public right now due to recent fires.
There is more, but this is a long post already. Next up will be food.
With regarding to driving on the other side of the road, you’ll make the conversion extremely quickly. The real problem is when you get back: you have to remember that you’re back!
I was thinking about this again and I strongly believe that if you are going to New York City you also need to go to Washington D.C. The Smithsonian Museums (Yes there are many and they are so big that they will blow your mind) should be required for everyone on earth and that is only one of many things you can spend tons of time on. I recommend learning to drive in the U.S. The drive from NYC to Washington D.C. should be less than 8 hours and a plane ride should be about 1 hour. The attractions are well structured and easily accessible (often free).
Train service between DC and NYC is also frequent, reliable and convenient, while plane travel between the two cities is a notable form of torture. For the cheap/adventurous there’s also always the Chinatown Bus.
I will share the resultant ire with you, Shagnasty because I’m trying to wrap my head around Minneapolis and Pittsburgh instead of Chicago. 
Um, have fun in Minneapolis in November-- bring warm clothes (to be fair, you’d need them in Chicago as well). I hope you like herring… I’ve been to M/St Paul and while it’s a nice town(s), it’s not a world class city. You could always go to the Mall of America and shop, I suppose.
Pittsburgh is not the first thought when one thinks of tourist destinations–how about Philadelphia instead?
I’m sorry you won’t be coming here, home of Cecil and Dope Central. However, wherever you go, bring stories of all the deadly animal and insect and marine life your fascinating country abounds with. We American love good stories about how that bluey almost got me or that spider came this close…
I second the train from NYC to Washington DC–DC is a beautiful city.
Yeah . . . I can’t find much fault with Minneapolis except that it’s not a world class city or a tourist destination, but Pittsburgh is a dump. SORRY, Pittsburgh citizens! I know you love your city but no one else does.
EDIT: OP might just have a connecting flight through Pitt, especially if he is on USAirways.
I thought DC to NYC was a lot less. More like four hours?
A few thoughts here. It would really be best if you learned how to drive. It may be a bit difficult in the beginning, but would make your trip much more enjoyable. Plus there will be far less traffic due to gas prices! I don’t know about LA, but Pittsburg on mass transit isn’t all that fun. Actually I’d also say to avoid Pittsburg and Minneapolis, especially if you want to go with the mass transit route.
One city that you ought to consider is New Orleans. It’s a really special treat in so many ways. Plus you could stay in a hotel in the French Quarter and walk to most of the interesting places. I don’t know what the status of the streetcar is but I think it’s back up again. If you’re a food and drink guy this is a good place to be! While crawfish sadly aren’t in season anymore (at least not normally) there is always plenty of good seafood. You can’t go to New Orleans without getting gumbo somewhere and you can’t walk a block without running into a great place to eat. Also they have crazy stuff like Aligator po-boys (really good, btw).
I’d also recommend Las Vegas. It’s a strange place, to be sure, but if you’re in LA with a car, you can drive out there in about 4 hours and maybe spend the night or two. If you have a car, Las Vegas can be a part of your trip.
Four words for you sir: In-N-Out burger. I don’t know what it is about these suckers but they are A-mazing. I’ve had a lot of higher-quality burgers, but something about an In-N-Out burger just blows them all away.
Also when in SF, you do need to rent a car and have a drive through the wine country and Big Sur. It’s really amazing down there. The Pacific Coast Highway is a great road in general. You might feel at home too, they still have metric signage up from way back in the day.
I really second the DC suggestion too. It’s an interesting place, and the Smithsonian museums are all free IIRC. I hope the weather keeps up as nice as it has been because you’d be in for a treat for sure.
Now having said that, those are the places I know about. If I were you, and had such a trip planned that time of year I’d also try to see Boston and New England too. It’s a big deal for people to go up to New England to check out the pretty foliage in fall (towards the end of your trip). You might wanna look into doing that. East-coast wise there’s not much going on outside of DC, NYC, and New England (Maybe Philly?). I mean there obviously is, but if you have to compress it down like that then this is where you want to focus. I’d also like to go to Montreal too. I hear it’s cool.
You seem to have a pretty good itenerary though excepting Pittsburgh and Minneapolis. Again, not bad towns but also not good for a quick vacation, and especially bad if you don’t want to drive.
The only other thing that I could suggest to you would be to experience the beauty of a cross-country road-trip. But doing this solo is really only for a certain type of person. When you get to Colorado and Arizona with those big, open skies it is really breath-taking though.
In this same vein, I would also suggest skipping the Grand Canyon. Just my opinion, but I wasn’t terribly impressed. It was cool I guess, but when I’m around nature I like solitude, not to be around a thousand other people. Which also reminds me. You ought to go to Disneyland while in LA.
That’s it for my ideas.
