Benji: You can easily get a room for like $75-$100 per night. Depending where you're willing to stay. I know one in downtown where you can pay $65-75 per night (if I remember right).
But don't count on the parking spots on the street be open for you at any time. If you're lucky to get one, then it's free to park for days (except when you have to move your car twice per week for one hour to let the streetcleaner pass through). A garage is an option, but $15 per day is a lot for some of you maybe.
You could try the hostel I just told you all about. The downside that you won't get much privacy apart from the curtain at your bunker bed. Which means, Joe and Mason will have a lot of trouble having sex in the shared shower room. But there are two-three small cabins for two person each (in twin beds) and you would have a lot of privacy there to sleep around at the same hostel.
Passport: The backlog is smaller I think. I think it takes about a month or two. But if you're driving, then you don't need a passport. Just a birth certificate and driver's licence will do. But after June 1st, 2009 (assuming that the Congress and next president change nothing), you would need a passport or a cheaper $60 US-Canada-Mexico border passcard. I don't know the backlog for passcards because they just introduced it, but if you do it early before people realize the requirement...you could get it fast before the rush.