1. Summer Fun, Summer Not

Having graduated from high school and working all summer at Salingers Restaurant, Bailey and Will plan a trip to Mexico for Labor Day, but Sarah and Will's girlfriend, Gina, decide to tag along. Unfortunately, they never make it to Mexico when their jeep breaks down in the middle of an unfamiliar neighborhood in downtown San Diego. As a result, Sarah and Gina desert the guys and head back to San Francisco on a bus. When Bailey and Will try to look for a telephone to call for help, they return to the jeep only to find it gone, having been stolen by unknown locals because Bailey unwisely left the keys in the jeep's ignition system.

Bailey and Will have a fistfight because each blames the other for their predicament, but they realize that ten years of friendship is not worth a fight. Back in San Francisco, Kirsten's mother, Ellie, is spending a few days living at the Salinger house with Charlie and Kirsten because her marriage is falling apart. She tells Kirsten that Gene discovered about an old affair of hers, and Kirsten would not forgive her until she forgives Charlie. Meanwhile, Julia, working all summer as a receptionist, runs into Griffin, who has arrived back in town without telling her.

He tells her that after serving his sentence, he returned to visit his mother, but unwilling to live with his authoritarian father, he joined the Merchant Marines and is currently on shore leave for a few weeks. Julia gets somewhat angry that Griffin never answered her letters that she wrote to him while he was in New Orleans, because he claims that he is not the type of person who communicates or writes letters. He tells her he is still in love with her. Also, Claudia returns home from summer camp in love with a boy who everybody thinks is made up, but he comes to visit Claudia and their disbelief infuriates her.