things to do on the first meet/date for age 56 yr. old man?

An activity where you can walk and talk.

Sitting at a coffee shop forces you both to make small talk.

Going to a farmer's market or flea market allows you to point things out to each other when the small talk falters.

Buy her an ice cream cone, a coffee, or whatever, while you are there.

Do not choose an activity that demands so much attention that you cannot attend to each other. Movies, for instance ... there's some forced small talk (bad) before and after, but much of the time you might as well be sitting by yourself for all the interaction there is.

i live in Cali too, its kind of cloudy where i live, you should take her out to lunch , it doesnt have to be expensive. Olive garden had cheap deals. Go take a walk in the park, take her to get Chinese food , take her to a movie , its not that hard to think of something

good luck

meet at a coffee shop. go walk through a museum or open-air art festival (there should be something open-air/free/city-sponsored going on in your town/city at this time of year).