But you spent time in Connecticut long before you went to Yale, right?
My grandfather lived in Litchfield, Connecticut, which was just really rural and lush and green and stunning. My grandfather's house - that he had for many years, that I really associate with him - was on a beautiful piece of land with, like, an arch in the backyard, flowers kind of running through it. There was a lake that they had, and that's where I learned to swim. That was momentous. The mud, I remember, was really slimy on my feet. I was repulsed and delighted by that sensation. I remember they had gravel in their driveway, and I thought that was smart-looking. It looked sophisticated. I mean, there are a lot of places in Connecticut that are really pastoral and picturesque. He lived there toward the end of his life. But as I recall, my grandmother was a painter, and they were really involved in art. I remember going to a few of her art exhibitions there, and I was surprised at how cultural it was.

Sounds like you have an interesting family.
[She whips out her cell phone and calls her father, Chris Danes, a Los Angeles-based software consultant and architectural photographer.] Hold on, Dad, let me put you on speakerphone.

[Chris Danes:] Claire's grandfather was head of the Art Department at UCLA and then was hired to be the dean of the school of art and architecture at Yale. When we first moved from California, shortly thereafter, Dad married his third wife, Ilse Getz, who was a New York artist. Then he was part of the first faculty at the new university being built by New York State, under Nelson Rockefeller, the campus at Purchase. About that time, Gibson and Ilse moved to Newtown, Connecticut, where they bought a wonderful old house that had a lovely pond, which was great for swimming. They lived there while Gibson was dean of visual arts at Purchase, which was for about eight or so more years. He retired from Purchase, and they continued on in the house in Newtown for three or more years. Then, as the house and acre or so of land began to wear on them, they made the decision to buy into a community of town houses in Litchfield, and they lived there until they died.