Sunday's keynote address, poster session, and banquet, will all take place at Caltech, in Pasadena. All of this starts at 2:30 pm, so that people have time to move to a new hotel in Pasadena if they are staying for the SEP, or to have a relaxed morning and still have time to make it up to Pasadena if they are not.
We hope to arrange carpools for people who are moving from one hotel to another. Please contact Kenny at easwaran@usc.edu if you'd like to arrange this, and let him know what hotels you are staying at. It is also possible to do this by public transit, though it would involve walking through a train station for a connection, and walking several blocks at the end, which might be awkward with luggage.
This trip involves riding Metro rail for about 30 minutes, with a mildly complicated transfer in the middle, and a 10 minute walk to the hotel at the end.
Go down the escalator into any subway station, tap your card at the turnstile, and then go down again to the subway platform. (At 7th St in downtown, you will need to go all the way down to the subway, rather than the light rail platform. Pershing Square is a slightly more convenient station from many downtown locations.) Look for trains to Union Station (both the Red Line and the Purple Line go there). Each line runs approximately every 10 minutes, so you shouldn't have to wait more than 5 minutes at the stations where both trains run. The ride from downtown to Union Station is about 5 minutes.
At Union Station, go up either set of stairs or escalators until you reach the main train station. Find the walkway with the platforms for all the regular commuter trains. The Gold Line is at tracks 1 and 2. Go up the stairs to get to the platform, and tap your card again at the post. Look for trains towards Sierra Madre. They should come approximately every 10 minutes.
For the Pasadena Hilton, ride the train to the Del Mar Station (8 stops, about 19 minutes). The Hilton is 3 blocks east at Los Robles Ave, on Cordova St (one block north of Del Mar Blvd).
For the Saga Motor Hotel and the Howard Johnson, ride the train to Allen Station (11 stops, about 24 minutes). Walk south on Allen Ave about three blocks to Colorado Blvd. Both hotels are three short blocks west, at Sierra Bonita Ave.
Each of these hotels is about a 20 minute walk (1 mile) from Dabney and Baxter Halls at Caltech, where the conference will run. Baxter Hall is building 77 on this map, and Dabney Hall is building 40.
For other hotels, Google Maps can find transit information. Note that some of the buses in Pasadena don't run on Sundays.
People who aren't switching hotels can have a more relaxed morning. However, since transit takes about 35 minutes to get up to Pasadena, and the closest train stations to Caltech are about a mile and a half away (a 30ish minute walk) you'll want to make sure to give yourself plenty of time. That probably means leaving Los Angeles by about 12:30 if you've already eaten lunch.
Directions are as above, except that you should either get off one stop earlier at Fillmore and walk about a mile and a half east on California Blvd to Caltech, or get off a bit later at Lake and walk about half a mile south on Lake Ave to Del Mar Blvd, and then walk east a couple blocks to Caltech. Baxter Hall is building 77 on this map, and Dabney Hall is building 40. The Del Mar and Allen stations will also work, though they are slightly farther.
A good option would be to come up before lunch, get off at Lake, and eat somewhere along Lake Ave, which has many quite decent lunch options. Or people who want to see a bit more of Pasadena could come up in the morning and get off at Del Mar or Memorial Park and wander around Old Town Pasadena. It has a bit of the feel of an outdoor shopping mall, except that it's mostly in historic 19th century buildings, and several of the shops and restaurants are actually very nice.
For the return trip, if you plan on taking transit back to Los Angeles, make sure to catch the Gold Line by 11:15 pm (heading towards Los Angeles), in order to transfer at Union Station to the last Red or Purple Line train before midnight. If you miss the 11:15 pm train, the Gold Line continues running until 1 am, but you will then have to transfer to a bus to finish the trip. (There are many buses, which mostly continue running all night, but their routes are more complicated.)
The banquet is likely to end by 9 pm, which gives plenty of time to get back to Los Angeles. There are more night life options in downtown Los Angeles than in Pasadena, but one of the best beer selections in all of Southern California is two blocks from the Gold Line, at Lucky Baldwins, in Old Town Pasadena, by Colorado Blvd and Arroyo Pkwy. (They're also open until 1:30 am, and apparently showing World Cup matches as well.)