Leisure travel is all about fun and relax, but your arrangement is to drive around California and will make you too tired to enjoy anything!
Here are my suggestions from someone who is "been there done that":
(1) If you have choice, you should fly between northern and southern CA since there is not much to see in-between.
(2) I would fly to LA instead of Vegas since flights to LA is generally cheaper as it is a big city. Then drive to Vegas and visiting Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon (south shore only as north shore is way too far away).
(3) Forget about Utah! Nothing there! You should visit San Diego instead! If you are interested, you can walk to Mexico and actually visit another country!
(4) Fly from LA to San Francisco and visit Yosemite. I would even make Yosemite optional depending where you are from. Yosemite is nothing than a big pile of big trees! I would visit Lake Tahoe and Reno area instead of Yosemite.
(5) Since you are driving, stay in motel just outside of San Francisco would either save you big $ or get much better rooms!
(6) There are a lot of very good American restaurant in SF and LA that you should try! Chinese food within the city of San Franciso is not that good.