Dinner with Gwynne and Randy

In mid-February we had dinner with Gwynne and Randy at FarmShop in the Marin Country Mart. It was a nice meal and fun company. Randy has done a series of photographs of a squirrel on their deck - which he has named "Double D". He gave us a Double D print for Christmas and we had it framed and put it up in our powder roon.

Modernism Week and Tennis in Palm Springs

In late February, we travelled to Palm Springs for Modernism Week, an annual celebration of mid-century modernist architecture and design. We stayed at the JW Mariott Desert Springs Resort and Spa so we could take tennis clinics in the mornings prior to attending Modernism Week events. The weather only partially cooperated - we had rain about half the time but we managed to not let that crimp our activities. The rain created snow in the mountains above Palm Springs - so that was a beautiful treat. Our friends, David and Kathy came over from Orange County to join us for several dinners and events and our friends Jim and Tisha came over to join all of us for dinner on Friday night.

Bus Tour.We started to get an overview of Palm Springs in a guided bus tour. It was an open-top bus, which was fine until it rained.

Twin Palms. Right after our initial bus tour, we did a house tour of Frank Sinatra's Twin Palms estate. It was rainy outside but we got a sense of the house and the open space around the pool.

Frey House II, The next day, we toured the Frey House II, the long-time home of Albert Frey, one of Palm Springs most important and prolific modernist architects. The home is basically a small glass box built on a mountainside aournd a giant boulder. It had spectacular views.

Canyon Estates. The Frey House tour was followed by a tour of houses in the Canyon Estates neighborhood. a 1970 modernist development. All of the homes started out identically. It was interesting to see how they had been modified and furnished over the years. Lots of Eames chairs and other mid-century modern furnishings.

Twilight Bus Tour. Friday night we took another double-decker bus tour, this time with our friends Jim and Tisha. It rained a bit but we braved the upper deck. This as a twilight tour, which covered many of the same places. The difference was that many of the homes and buildings were lit with colored lights for us.

El Rancho Vista Estates. Saturday, we did another tour of houses in the El Rancho Vista Estates neighborhood. This was also a neighborhood of identical homes changed and decorated over the years.

Marilyn Monroe. We did a video of a giant Marilyn Monroe statue out front of the Palm Springs Art Museum.

Yoasis House. Our final house tour was the Yoasis House, a fabulous golf-course house which as the second home for "someone in the movie industry".

PS Underground, Saturday Night of Modernism Week, we went to PS Underground, a dinner and musical show themed around old movies that had ties to Palm Springs. The show was fun and the food was fabulous.

Visiting The Marshes in Hemet

After Modernism Week in Palm Springs, Jon drove over to Hemet, CA for dinner and to spend the night at the Marshes - Jim, Tisha, Quinn, Zoe, and Leo. It was good to catch up and we did a brief hike in the hills above Hemet.