November 20, 2004: My 58th Birthday Party
	November 9, 2004: A Visit to the Nasher Sculpture Center
	Return to Index for 2004

Introduction

Although I have just retired from Pervasive, Greg has been gone for the better part of a year now, although he has continued to live in Austin (albeit in a new house closer in to town). Up until recently, he'd been doing stuff for the Zen Center and some other groups, but has recently begun to wonder why, exactly, he feels the need to stay in Austin.

Greg called me some time ago and asked me if I would like to take a trip with him out to Palm Springs to look at houses. This was a surprise to me, the fact that he was thinking about moving, but an unusual move for Greg. When he thinks of doing something, he rarely spends a lot of time considering options, but just goes ahead and does it. I understood from him that he wanted to live in a sunnier, more retirement-oriented place closer to both Southern California and his friends in San Francisco. So he picked Palm Springs- certainly a nice place to live.

Greg knew that I was retiring at the end of the first week in November, so he invited me to come along with him the very next week to Palm Springs. I would have paid my own way, to come along and offer advice, but Greg, considerate guy that he is, said he'd take care of the airfare and everything. So I said "Of course" I would come with him and help as much as I could.

My last day at Pervasive was November 5, Friday, and Greg made arrangements for us to fly to Palm Springs on the very next Friday, November 12. We were to tentatively stay 4 or 5 days or until Greg had a few good choices for houses that he would like. Greg had met a Realtor from Palm Springs on one of his cruises- Ralph Laramie- and Ralph, Greg said, had invited us to stay with him while Greg was house hunting. Ralph has a partner, Blade, who is an administrator who helps run some therapeutic care facilities in Palm Springs, and they live a few miles from the center of town.

Anyway, Greg got all the plans in place, and on the morning of Friday, the 12th of November, Greg flew into DFW from Austin and I joined him on the plane for Palm Springs. I thought that the trip would be entirely house-hunting, but, as it turned out, I was able to be introduced to the wonderful hiking in and around Palm Springs.

I returned on Tuesday, November 16, while Greg stayed in Palm Springs to make his final decision and get the ball rolling on the purchase of a house. I thought I helped him a lot, but, as it turned out, the house he bought was the only one that I thought he shouldn't (according to his own wish list) consider. But Greg is nothing if not surprising. Anyway, it was a fun trip, and only my second time in Palm Springs. House-hunting turned out not to be all I was able to do, and the hiking and other stuff that there is to do in Palm Springs augurs well for a return trip with Fred sometime (assuming Greg puts down roots here) so that he and I can do a lot more things there together. I hope you enjoy looking at the pictures of this trip (although a great many of them are just of houses that we looked at but which, in the end, Greg bypassed).

Using the Master Index

I took a great many pictures and movies while in Palm Springs, so I have organized this trip into an album page for each day. There are five of these pages, and you can jump to any one of them using the Master Index below simply by clicking on one of the dates.

We/I also did a lot on each day, so I have further organized these album pages into a section for each of the major things we might have done on any given day. If you wish, you may jump to a specific activity on a specific day simply by clicking on one of the activity links that are indented underneath each date.

If you choose one of the date links, you will be positioned at the top of the album page for that date. There, you can use any navigation technique you wish to read the narrative and look at the pictures that interest you. Additionally, the top and bottom of each album page have links that you can use to navigate to a prior or subsequent day within the trip. There is also a link you can use to return to the Master Index below. Finally, you will also find a set of links at the top of each page that duplicate the function of the activity links below, enabling you to move around the page activity by activity. (At the end of each activity section there is also a link to take you back to the top of that daily page.)

When you are done looking at this Palm Springs trip, use one of the links on one of the daily pages to return to this master index and then use the link at the top of the master index to jump to the top of this index page. There you will find links enabling you to move forward or backward through the photo album, as well as a link to take you to the index for this year.

We hope you enjoy looking at the pictures. To access the master index, please click HERE.