This weekend brought our first real exploration of the area since we moved out. On Saturday night, we headed Westwood where we had a good meal at Native Foods and then went to the Bridges Theater at UCLA for the premiere of the restored Faces and a cast reunion with Gena Rowlands and Seymour “Bert Fischer” Cassell, moderated by Curtis Hanson. All were terrific. Afterwards, Aimee, Amy, Brian, Chris, and I (yes, that’s five people and only three names) went to a bar, our first real late-night going out experience here, and it was fine, I guess; fun, but a little loud and expensive, like anywhere else.

Sunday morning, we headed an hour and a half east to Palm Springs, to see what the fuss was about, though perhaps the fuss had already died down by the 1970s. Anyway, we stopped at an outlet store on the way there for a little more Californianizing of the wardrobe – nothing serious, just some things that aren’t sweaters – and then watched as our thermometer crept up from 67° at home to 115° by the time we passed the intersection of Frank Sinatra Drive and Bob Hope Drive in Rancho Mirage. We ate a delicious meal at Azul, bought some Christmas cards and had some ice cream, trying our best to think cold, and then headed back after a brief tour of the country clubs of Palm Springs.