Bit of Country

One of the felicities of Palm Springs is that half the land in the 40,000 person town is owned by the Cahuilla Indian tribe, and most of that real estate is still undeveloped desert.


Another charming aspect of Palm Springs is that many of its treasures are hiding in plain sight, such as the breakfast and lunch spot "Bit of Country" on Indian Canyon Boulevard downtown.


Even with the recent addition of psychedelic murals on its outside walls, the place isn't all that inviting to a stranger...


...but the authentic old diner has good, inexpensive food, cool waiters and waitresses straight out of "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore"...


...and a feeling of small town homeyness that's unmistakable.

Nature and Light

The Palm Springs Art Museum offers free admission every Thursday evening when the town is filled with visitors for the weekly Villagefest street fair.



For the summer, there is an exhibit called "Impressionist and Modern Masters: Nature and Light" which involves about a dozen extremely valuable paintings by Impressionists Van Gogh, Renoir, Matisse, and Manet and the modernists de Kooning, Thiebaud, Joan Mitchell, and Rothko.



The paintings are on loan from an "Anonymous Donor" in Palm Desert, where the super rich such as Bill Gates have homes in gated communities.



The exhibit is fluffed out by complementary works from the permanent collection at the museum but they tend to suffer in comparison to Anonymous Rich Dude's paintings.



I didn't stay long because Nature and Light in the real world were calling...



...with palm fronds and colored clouds.

Palms in the Springs

There was a serious question whether or not we would be able to stand the heat of Palm Springs in the summer, where the highs tend to be above 110 degrees...



...but the place turns out to be remarkably bearable because of the low humidity...



...and the nights are beautiful...



...especially lolling about a swimming pool...



...watching jet trails streak through the palm trees while thinking about poor, shivering San Franciscans.

SoCal Road Trip 2: Sea to Sand via Locomotive

The Amtrak Surfliner route travels between San Luis Obispo on the Central California coast and San Diego...


...and though the train makes quite a few stops along the way, it's a quick, pleasant ride.


On the other side of a tunnel, the San Fernando Valley comes into view, looking a bit like the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in Disneyland.


The passengers on the two hour trip from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles were a mixture of commuter types and tourists...

...with the award for most annoying cellphone user going to the woman above who carried on a dozen different conversations in a piercing Asian language voice.


The newly restored Union Station in downtown Los Angeles is an Arts and Crafts gem...


...and though the Los Angeles Civic Center area around it tends to be a bit bleak on a Sunday, you can always get a Mexican food stand meal on nearby Olvera Street that's delicious and autentico.


I was boarding the Sunset Limited, which leaves at 2:30 PM every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday for New Orleans via El Paso and San Antonio.


One of its limited number of stops is Palm Springs, where I was headed...


...and it was a joy to leave the Interstate 10 freeways and scary East Los Angeles towns like La Puente for the mountains and deserts beyond.

Santa Barbara 3: Fourth of July

The Fourth of July was spent at a beach in Carpenteria with Heidi, the only friend I have from high school days.


She has become a step-grandmother to Tsering, a two-year-old beauty who is the result of a partnership between a statuesque blonde and a Tibetan.


Tsering adored the beach so completely she was even eating the sand with pleasure.


Late in the afternoon, behind the Santa Barbara Courthouse where Jesse James Hollywood is currently being tried for murder...


...there was a concert by the Santa Barbara Symphony of patriotic music from Sousa to George M. Cohan.


I didn't stay for the shindig because the music program honestly looked dreadful...


...and a Fourth of July party was awaiting in the hills.