Mother of All Missions

Last weekend Rene and I resumed our goal of visiting all 21 California missions. So far we had visited four: Santa Barbara (which we will need to revisit because we didn't go inside the church nor the grounds inside the compound), San Juan Capistrano, San Gabriel, and San Luis Obispo. This weekend we visited our fifth mission: San Diego de Alcala, California's first church and also known as the Mother of the Missions.

This was our second attempt at visiting Mission San Diego. We tried to visit back in August but were literally stopped by traffic. During our first attempt, we ended up exiting the freeway after being on the road for over four hours. At that point, we weren't even close to San Diego – crazy huh? Luckily, the exit we took was near San Juan Capistrano, which also had a mission. So we visited that mission instead. This time, armed with the knowledge that traffic sucks on the 5, Rene and I found an alternate (hello Highway 15!) and made it to San Diego in two hours. Woo hoo!

When we arrived at the mission the mood was festive. There was a Mariachi band playing music for people gathered around the front entrance; they were probably hired for an earlier wedding. We watched people dance for a little bit then decided to explore the mission.

We went to visit the church first because another wedding was starting shortly. The church layout was simple and elegant: white walls, dark wooden benches, and painted ceiling beams. What I like most about the California missions are the altars; this one was made of wood and was painted with green, gold, and coral. This altar was made in California, but some were carried over from the Old World, which is amazing when you take into account how many thousands of miles they had to haul that thing after crossing the Atlantic Ocean. I also liked the pulpit, which had a yellow/red fabric suspended on top of it like a roof.

We didn't stay inside the church too long, only long enough to pay our respects and take a few pictures. Also, preparations were underway for the next wedding and we didn’t want to be in the way.

The mission courtyard to the right of the church was pretty small. It had some nice trees, a birdbath and a shrine to JC. In the back there was a statue depicting the Virgin Mary and Jesus (I think these are universally called Pieta, like the famous one by Michelangelo in Rome) and directly opposite a depiction of the 13 Stations of the Cross.

Also to the right of the church is the mission’s religious education center. Unlike the mission with its curved arches and asymmetrical structure, this building was essentially a white box with nice shutters. It actually looked like a house with a nice brick trail leading up to it. I want my next house to have a brick path and a big magnolia tree in front of it just like this one.

To the left of the church was a large fountain and the parking lot. The parking lot took most of the space, actually, so there wasn’t much to see there. Supposedly a priest named Father Jaime was buried within the mission grounds but we didn’t see his grave anywhere. Back in the 1770s the local Indians raided the mission and Father Jaime was killed in the altercation. Unlike the San Gabriel mission, the graves here were out of sight.

Overall, the mission was picturesque but small. It was nice to visit the Mother of the Missions.

Taking it SLO

Does Friday count as part of the weekend or the work week? I think it could go either way: officially the weekend starts after you leave work on Friday, but you still go to work for at least 8 hours on Friday. I guess since more time is spent getting ready for work and actually going to work it really should be part of the work week. What do you think?

Anyway, I got the day before Labor Day weekend, Friday (see where I was going with my discussion in the first paragraph? I was torn between saying “Labor Day weekend” and “the day before Labor Day weekend” – the latter won out ) off from work, so Rene and I decided to visit California Mission #5, San Luis Obispo (S.L.O. or SLO for short). We had plans to visit Yosemite during Labor Day weekend and decided to visit SLO on the way up and make a day out of it. This is the fourth mission we have visited so far; our goal is to visit all 21 California Missions within the next year.

On Friday morning we headed out at 9 a.m. (that is pretty early on a non-work day) to North Hills to drop off Chuy. Chuy-man was sad to see us go as always. He always finds a way to escape my mother-in-law’s backyard after we drop him off, so Rene and I made sure to check all gates and doors before we left. During his last visit he escaped and went for a walk around the block, then came home and waited for someone to let him back into the house. We think he comes back because he’s so used to having food and water at his disposal and he’d rather have that around than have to find food and water by himself. Besides, he’s living the dream, why leave the dream behind?

After saying goodbye to Chuy, we hopped on the freeway and took 101 N to get to SLO. On the way over, we stopped by Gaviota State Beach for an hour. Gaviota State Beach is known for a railroad bridge (no longer in use I think) perched above its beach. There is also a pier next to the beach where people were casting fishing lines. When Rene and I got to the beach we took our shoes off and dipped our feet in the water (it was freezing cold! Brrr!), then walked over to the rocks to sit and eat our lunch. On the way over to the rocks, I saw black sand and got excited, only to realize that the black sand was not a natural occurrence like in Hawaii. The black sand is from washed-up crude oil and it dirtied my feet. There are several oil rigs you can see from the beach; sometimes the oil pumped from the ocean floor leaks into the water and ends up at the surf. Which made me wonder if the fish caught from the water had one head or three? And did it taste… greasy?

After eating our lunch we walked over to the pier and peered into the water. Interestingly enough the water was clear and you could see maybe 10 feet into the water, which made me feel a little better about the fish… although, why can’t you see them in the water? Perhaps they are in “invisible” mode? Or perhaps the light reflects off their scales in a way that makes them seem invisible? There is really no way to tell unless you get in the water and suddenly you see schools of silver fish swimming around. That’s what happened to us when we went diving in Channel Islands – at first it seems like there is nothing in the water, then bam! There were little silver fish all over the place.

We took some pictures at the pier and looked in the water some more before making our way back to the car. On the way back to the car, I felt packed sand stuck under my foot, so I decided to check it out after I got in the car. It was not just packed sand, my friends: it was grease, yup GREASE from the beach mixed with packed sand. Five more minutes and that stuff would’ve turned into concrete – it took me a good 20 minutes, plus half a box of tissues, to get the entire mass out. The stain was another story – I didn’t get that sucker out until later that night at our hotel in Fresno. Please wear flip-flops when you visit Gaviota State Beach, even in the sand!

An hour later we were cruising into the little town of SLO. It is such a cute little town, exactly like the ones you see in older TV shows and movies. There are stores and restaurants around the city center, along with the municipal buildings and the mission. The sidewalks were clean and the local folks were friendly. There were a lot of people walking around town that day, and they were setting up for a concert in front of the mission. It was only 2 pm and people were already lining up their chairs, jockeying for the best positions.

The mission itself was a little bigger than San Gabriel and San Juan Capistrano, and was arranged in an L-shape. The altar was the mid-point of the church, where two sides of the L meet. It must be strange attending mass there because the altar looks out into a corner, not into the sides where the congregation sits. Somehow they make it work, but I imagine attending mass must be a bit strange since you can’t see who else is attending mass on the other side of the church. Half the fun of mass is watching the people in front of you, and you are missing out on an entire side! Also, I wonder which side the priest enters and if he alternates sides. Usually everyone sees the priest come in, and if he only comes from one side of the church, how does that make the other side of the church feel? All these logistical questions! I wish they just stuck with convention and just built the church in the shape of a cross instead; that way you can watch both the people and the procession. I don’t know why these questions even matter since I don’t attend mass here – but STILL!

Church altar

The mission garden, on the other hand, was a less complicated affair. It’s small, about the size of a large back yard, and very well-maintained. It had a nice wooden trellis in the middle, with grapes growing on the top and side of the trellis. We explored the garden in 10 minutes, which was stretching it because there wasn’t a lot to see. The only other things worth nothing were the three church bells displayed in the back. I don’t know if these are the bells rang for mass or if they are the original church bells but they looked pretty lined up in a row. I love symmetry, and having things lined up in a row always makes me happy.

Rene in front of the bells

Rene sitting in front of the fountain

My size doors

After our visit to the mission, Rene and I checked out one of our favorite stores in the world: Ross. Until recently, I have not been a fan of stores like Ross because there is too much stuff to dig through, too much stuff to process. I’ve only started liking Ross because of their random household items, and this is the only section that I like to visit. I don’t even make an attempt to scope out the clothes or shoes because it pisses me off when I find something I like and it’s not in my size – then I have to sort though 8 million other racks to see if what I’m looking for is even in the store. Anyway, their household stuff was so-so and we came out empty handed.

We ate a late lunch/early dinner (Linner?) at this local barbeque place with good tri-tip, then went over to Barnes & Noble for to browse the magazine section and check our e-mail (what, you don’t carry your laptop with you at all times?). Afterwards it was on to Fresno for the night and Yosemite the next day. Fresno, as you can imagine, was pretty uneventful. The highlight of our stay there was when Rene and I went to Ross (again!) and bought this really cool pot for one of his plants and really cool Daisy Fuentes sunglasses for me for $6.99. I call those shades my Daisy Funtesssss sunglasses for added pizzazz, but they are really just oversized brown sunglasses (from Daisy Fuentesssss).

Mission: Accomplished (at least mission #4 anyway)

Guess what I did this Saturday? Why I visited another mission of course (as if the title didn’t already give that away, man I make it so easy!). Rene and I went to see Mission San Gabriel Archangel (#4 of 21) in beautiful San Gabriel, California. I dressed up as Nicole Ritchie for the occasion, in a short dress complete with oversized sunglasses (minus baby bump). I hope I did Nicole proud.

Before we visited the mission, we lunched at Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles, my favorite restaurant in Pasadena. If you haven’t been you should definitely check it out; without question they make the best fried chicken in LA. As you know, I have certain rules about food I do not break, namely having anything sweet in my entrée. Hence, I do not like any salads with fruit added, I do not like orange-flavored chicken, and I hate raisins in my main dish. I like to limit the sweets to dessert, which I enjoy tremendously, sometimes more than the entrée itself. But I digress. The reason chicken and waffles work reason is this: I always eat the chicken first as an entrée and have the waffles as dessert. I do not eat them simultaneously - genius. You should try it! And don’t worry about feeling out of place in that restaurant, especially the one in Pasadena. I have seen people of all races eat there without any eyebrows raised, and I have been there plenty of times (enough to know not to show up after church on Sundays). If you don’t believe me look at the picture of N’Sync in their glory days on the wall. Man that Justin Timberlake was rocking some baby jeri curls back in the day!

So it turns out that the mission was located only minutes away from my beloved Roscoe’s. We found the area after a short commute on surface streets. On the way to the mission is a lovely street with restaurants and mom-and-pop stores. Rene and I checked out a shop called Sol y Cortina which sold handcrafted household items and clothing. We fell in love with their beautiful ethnic mirrors, all of which were priced under $200. Sadly, no mirrors came home with us but we will definitely come back when we are in the market for a beautiful red mirror like the one I saw that day.

As we walked further down the street, we came across this beautiful little theatre called the Mission Playhouse. At first we thought it was the mission and started snapping away in front of the fountain and the entrance. We finally figured out that it was NOT the mission by processing these clues: there was no cross atop the structure, there was a ticket booth on the side, and there were movie posters displayed in Chinese at the entrance. Yep, this was not the mission. Don’t laugh but it took me ten minutes to figure that out. Sometimes I am such a dork. Also, this adult recreation center on the side kind of gave it away too; in church it’s called a rectory or something, but definitely not an adult recreation center. Do you know why this would be a recreation center just for adults, and not for everyone? Hmmm… Anyhow, it turns out the mission was just around the corner but in the other direction.

On our way to the entrance, Rene and I spied a group of teenagers taking pictures for a Quincenera on the church lawn and decided to spend time observing them (code for checking out that incredibly heinous outfit the birthday girl was wearing! Sadly, we took no pictures). Since when did gold and red princess gowns come back into vogue? Honestly, that outfit, complete with the poodle hair, would’ve made me cry at 15. I feel sorry for the poor girl for having such unfortunate photographic evidence of that look!

We finally made it to the mission after our break. The mission façade, like the other missions, is pretty simple. It’s basically beige stucco with large wooden doors. It wasn’t laid out in the shape of the cross like San Juan Capistrano (or SJC as I like to call it; kinda catchy, huh?) but rather was like an “L,” with the church in the bottom with the campanile (fancy word for bell tower, see I learned something in Italy!) and museum on the side.

You enter the mission through the gift shop, or at least I did, since there was a wedding in progress. This is probably how they get you to pay the $5 entrance fee, since it’s hard to walk through the gift shop without them noticing you. When you first enter the mission grounds, the first thing you notice are the gravestones with a huge figure of Christ on a cross in the middle. It didn’t feel creepy seeing all those headstones since they were arranged so neatly and many, if not all, of the deceased were priests who used to work at the mission. The huge Christ figure didn’t bother me either since it was surrounded by grass and fruit trees. Overall, the effect was peace and tranquility. It’s nice to see the church pay tribute to those who served it during their lifetimes. Rene specifically told me not to smile while we took pictures, so instead I look pouty and pissed – thanks Rene. It would’ve been better if I wasn’t in the picture at all.

Right after the graveyard is a little museum dedicated to the mission’s history. There were lots of pictures of the local Indians, called Gabrielinos, on the walls, along with their art work and tools. What really excited me was the exhibit of a mission bedroom from the 1800s; on display was this beautiful, ornate headboard depicting the Virgin Mary. Can you imagine sleeping with that image above you? It must’ve been such a luxury back in those days to have a bed, let alone such a beautiful headboard.

After marveling at the artifacts in the museum, Rene and I strolled to the garden, where three artists were painting. One was using an angel statue as the subject, the other a person they came with, and the third a really large desert plant. Of the three, the one painting the desert plant had the best picture, so we took a shot of her working under a beautiful tree with yellow blossoms. Past this tree is a model of all 21 missions that were constructed by elementary school kids. Seeing this only reminds me of my shortcomings in 4th grade – no way they made those on their own! Come on –I couldn’t even figure out how to make one wall, let alone a whole model. And what kid puts stucco on the mission? Seems a bit too complex for me… they definitely got help.

To top off our visit, we went inside the church itself and saw a baptism in progress. I noticed that the parishioners definitely use this church – first the wedding, now a baptism. Perhaps there was another wedding on tap so Rene and I sat down for only a few minutes to take a picture of the altar.

That’s it for mission #4. Stay tuned for the next mission!

Mission San Juan Capistrano

Rene and I made plans to visit San Diego on Saturday: first to see the San Diego Mission (first mission in California!), then the Balboa Park Botanical Garden, Sunset Cliffs beach, and a nice dinner in SD to cap off the day. Unfortunately our late start, combined with the crazy traffic on I-5, forced us to make other plans. As soon as we saw the sign for San Juan Capistrano we got off that poop sandwich of a freeway and decided to visit Mission San Juan Capistrano instead. This mission is world famous for the swallows that migrate to the town in March every year (and leave in October). Apparently it is a sight to behold.

Mission San Juan Capistrano is the 7th of 21 California missions. Rene and I are planning to visit all 21 missions, and this is our second mission. Living in the valley we have passed the San Fernando Mission dozens of times but that I don't count that one because we have never seen the interior or taken pictures in front of the church. Anyway, the lovely people who oversee SJC kept the original structure of the mission, which was built in 1776 by Friar Junipero Serra. In addition to the church, there is a compound that housed the religious order and a garden area where crops were grown for the residents. Now the mission is a museum and can be rented out for special events. On the day we visited tables for a wedding reception were being set up. It must be great celebrating a marriage inside the grounds of this great place.

The first thing Rene and I noticed while wandering the grounds were the size of the doorways - Rene could've been Yao Ming's size back in 1776 judging from the small door frames. Even I looked tall standing right next to them! All the doorways in the mission were this size, so Rene had to duck under each entrance to make sure the frame didn't clock his head. These doorways reminded me of Castle Sant'Angelo in Rome. They are roughly the same height and width, which got me thinking - would I have been considered a tall girl back in the day?

The mission grounds were beautiful. There were two big fountains with koi fish and lotuses, one by the front entrance and one in the middle of the mission courtyard. The grounds were landscaped with rose bushes, succulents, and native California plants. They also had some crops growing on the side of the mission: corn, artichokes, beans, squash, and herbs like rosemary and fennel.

The crown of the mission is the church, and this one is beautiful. The altar is from the baroque period and it was originally brought over from Spain. According to the mission guide, this was the first church were Friar Serra gave mass. Although the church is small and only contained a few rows of benches, the altar was pristine and gorgeous, and the benches were originals from the 1700s (no doubt priceless antiques by now). This blend of ornate and simple gave the church a comfortable vibe, and some worshippers said a few prayers while visiting the church.

Outside the church is a small courtyard with a fountain, and this is where Rene and I took a break from the sun. After we regained our energy we visited the gift shop and more of the grounds. Here are some pics:

After we got back to the car, I thought that maybe our detour to SJC was meant to be: check out my necklace. As I've said earlier, SJC is famous for its swallows. To me, the fact that I am wearing a swallow necklace is a sign that I was meant to visit this mission today. That, or the I-5 had too many accidents that caused horrible traffic. I think the necklace as a sign is a more plausible explanation.

After our visit to the mission, we took PCH home and the 405 home (curse that I-5!). We ate dinner at Cafe Brasil, one of our favorite restaurants. I love having the ranchera meat with salsa, beans, plantains, and fresh passionfruit juice to wash all the goodness down. I've been coming to this restaurant since 2001 and I never tire of having the same thing.

After dinner we made a quick stop at Ross to look for a new lamp shade. Besides having low prices (the lamp shade cost $6.99!), Ross is great for unique finds. While browsing through the household section Rene found a Spode plate depicting the Vatican and Castle Sant'Angelo for $5.49! This is a great addition to our Roman sourvenirs and will be mounted on the wall next to the framed map of Rome. I was so happy that I decided to take a picture of our find in the store. Yes, I am a geek.

Santa Barbara

Last Sunday Rene and I made our way over to Santa Barbara with plans to see the botanical gardens and to hang out at the beach.

To our surprise it only took about an hour to get there and the weather was beautiful – sunny but not hot and humid. On our way to the botanical garden we passed this beautiful old church, which ended up being Mission Santa Barbara. I remember learning about the California missions in third grade and can even recall the sad excuse I turned in for the project – a 3D map of California. Well, it was either my 3D map of California made out of play-doh and painted with watercolors or a 3D model of my favorite mission, Mission San Carlos, with was next to impossible. I ended up getting a “C” on this project for effort and feeling disappointed with my grade. I felt that I deserved a “B” because it took more effort than the results showed, oh well.

Seeing this beautiful church so soon after my trip to Italy only deepened my appreciation for it. Despite being a simple, humble church (and I only say this in comparison to St. Peter’s Basilica) it is beautifully maintained with an adjacent park and rose garden. Unfortunately it was too late in the day to organize a tour of the church so Rene and I didn’t have a chance to visit the chapel and took pictures of the exterior instead and visited the rose garden. My favorite variety is called “peace” and it is light yellow mixed with pink and lavender at the edges. It smells heavenly. We promised ourselves to visit again with our families. Next stop: the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden.

The Santa Barbara botanical garden was established in 1926 (the same year our tour guide, Will Brown, was born) by Anna Dorinda Blakesly Bliss as a memorial to her father. The garden is entirely composed of native California plants and also serves as an educational facility and nursery. Rene and I saw a few plants “engineered” by the garden’s horticulturists and got to hear about how plants are brought from the wild to the nursery. Apparently, you can’t just uproot a native plant and stick it in your garden due to ecological and botanical reasons, so it is best to purchase native California plants from the nursery. The plants from the nursery are supposedly hardier and are bred to withstand elements they don’t experience in their natural environment. The Santa Barbara Botanical Garden has also re-introduced certain plants back to their native areas. It’s funny how we take it for granted the wild things that grow in California and never think about how they affect our environment. I also never noticed how beautiful some species are – for example, the live-forevers. Yes, that is the real name, and my favorite variety is the Santa Barbara live-forevers.

After touring the garden, Rene and I stopped by the nursery to add some more native plants to our collection. We ended up buying four plants, two for our collection and two for my Mom.

After visiting the mission and the garden, we made our way to the outlets and visited a few stores. Thankfully, the roads were clear by this time and we made it home safe and sound.