Back on Mission
I am writing this in the few days before Kim and I leave our little hilltop to head north for a postponed trip to Mendocino with our friends Frank and Loretta. We initially planned this trip in the midst of my obsession about the Mission trail through California. We have already visited seven of the missions (San Diego Alcala, San Luis Rey, San Juan Capistrano, San Gabriel Arcangel, San Fernando Rey, San Buenaventura and Santa Barbara) and have fourteen to go. I know what they all look like (I have two miniature models of all) and I have read things about all of them. I have our trip to Mendocino planned out to allow us to see all of the remaining fourteen missions in some combination of going and coming to and from our destination next week. There is enough flexibility to account for variations in the daily schedules such that if we miss one mission on the way up, we can plan to catch it on the way back. We are purposefully taking our time going and coming and using the travel days to see friends and family as we go. This is what travel should be about in my opinion. There is an overarching mission (pun intended) and yet the real purpose is to reconnect with everything from family to friends to history and heritage.
I also feel that this trip is emblematic of recapturing some of what was lost in 2020 due to the Pandemic. There really was no need for this trip to happen at this time or that time, which is also a nice aspect of what I will characterize as retirement travel planning. To begin with, the weather here in California is so temperate year round that weather doesn’t really figure into the planning. That uncomplicates things tremendously. The only thing that is unavoidable is that some of the missions are on COVID schedules and restrictions. I haven’t even bothered to look them up yet (though I plan to do so over the weekend) since we just want to physically see and be at all of the missions and we do not feel the need for any tours or lectures at each mission. Of the seven missions, we have been able to see all that we wanted to see at all but two of them (San Gabriel Arcangel and San Fernando Rey). San Gabriel was closed less for reasons of the Pandemic and mostly because they had suffered a devastating fire in the past year that caused it to require extensive renovation before welcoming visitors inside again. And San Fernando is close enough and convenient enough that if we feel inclined to see more than the outside and the gift shop, both of which were available to us, we can always do so easily in the future.
The first grouping is just north of Santa Barbara. They are Santa Ines in Solvang, La Purisima Concepcion in Lompoc and San Luis Obispo. Santa Ines is supposed to be a very charming and colorful mission with a collection of silk vestments set in the famously golden rolling hills of Paso Robles. It is open for business and ready to receive visitors. La Purisima is an interesting mission if for no other reason than it is the only mission not directly named for a saint in some manner. The name of the town, Lompoc, means stagnant water, which is hardly a chamber of commerce name welcoming visitors. When I hear Lompoc, I tend to think of Vandenberg Air Force Base and like Leavenworth, it is a name that somehow means some form of incarceration. The mission is part of a state park now and is completely restored. The large acreage is scattered with working ranch buildings that lend themselves to living history demonstrations. All trails and mission buildings are open to the public now. San Luis Obispo is one of the original missions from the early 1770’s. It is notable because an Indian attack with flaming arrows destroyed the thatched roofs and brought about the red tile roof technology that has become a prevalent architectural aspect of California Spanish architecture. The courtyard fruit trees and art-adorned stucco walls are highlights that are open and available for our visit.
The next grouping of four missions are more inland than the other missions. They are San Miguel, San Antonio de Padua, Nuestro Senora de la Soledad and Old Mission San Juan Bautista. San Miguel is a National Historic Landmark because of the Native American paintings and the shaded colonnade. It is open for business. San Antonio de Padua is the most remote and out-of-the-way mission set halfway between the Central Valley highway and the coastal mountain range. It is adjacent to Fort Hunter Liggett which may be the reason for any traffic nearby. It was further isolated by the William Randolph Hearst land donation to the state, which precluded other development in the area, but left the area very natural. That makes its setting the most original and pristine. This mission remains closed, but we are hoping that our side trip to see it will at least allow us to get a glimpse of this most remote mission. The Soledad Mission is considered the “hard luck” mission due to its history of epidemics (what!?), crop failures and floods that plagued it for several centuries. The name Soledad means loneliness and it is appropriate given its lonely location, not to mention that it is the setting of a rather large state prison facility. This small, remote mission says it is 25% open, so hopefully we will make the cut. Note that I have skipped over the Mission San Carlos Borromeo del Rio Carmelo in Carmel for no reason except that it is on the coast and will be visited on our way home as we stay in nearby Monterey. The last in this cohort is Mission San Juan Bautista, which is set amongst a series of old western storefronts. It is considered notable that this mission sits squarely on the San Andreas Fault and is thus the most likely to fall into the center of the earth in the event of an earthquake. Since our trip will include a visit in Bodega Bay to the scene of Hitchcock’s The Birds, it is notable that the Mission San Juan Bautista was the setting of Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Lucky for us, it too is open.
Of side note interest is that my nephew Jason’s mosaic that now adorns our main entry door, there is a large horse-bound Captain Juan Bautista de Anza, who is credited with blazing the trail from Mexico to Alta California during several expeditions where he went as far north as the Presideo of Monterey and onward to San Francisco Bay. The mosaic depicts his traveling the Camino Real towards the Mission San Diego de Alcala. In actuality, he traveled what is now commemorated as the Anza Trail which hits its first mission at San Gabriel and then goes on to San Luis Obispo and San Antonio de Padua before ending at the Presideo of Monterey and then San Francisco. I can live with the historical inconsistency because the mosaic is so beautifully rendered and evocative of the rich mission history our trip next week will unfold for us.
I have not highlighted the other missions we will visit, which include Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, San Jose, San Francisco de Asis, San Rafael, and San Francisco Solano in Sonoma. I am purposefully leaving something for myself to write about as I journey up and down the coast and gather the experiences of visiting all of these missions. Wish me well as I am back on mission.