Originally Posted By Stacers76 Hey everyone ~ I was wondering if anyone has been to any/all of the California Missions(esp. central and so. cal) and how easy they are to get to off of Hwy 101? We are tossing around the idea of trying to see as many of them as possible next year on our honeymoon. We will be driving, no real big rush, we have about 10 day total, with aim at Disneyland for 3-4 days, possibly a day or two in San Diego, and Monterey either on the way down or back from the Bay Area. I can't seem to find alot of information in one place about the missions, I do have individual addresses and that's about it....we're just in early planning-land, so any thoughts/ideas/advice would be great! Thanks all!! )
Originally Posted By SuzieQ Some of the missions are beautifully restored and still in use by the Church. Others lie in ruin. Mission San Jose and San Juan Bautista in the San Francisco area are both beautiful and in use.
Originally Posted By Lisann22 I've been to all the missions. Here's a pretty good site for inforation on each mission. There are some books readily available that will tell you about the missions in detail. <a href="http://www.ca-missions.org" target="_blank">http://www.ca-missions.org</a>
Originally Posted By Mrs 2oon I live close to Mission San Jose in Fremont. It's an interesting place to visit. There is also a cemetary at the mission where some of our historical city figures are buried.
Originally Posted By wonderingalice <----------Loved the elementary school field trips she took to missions WAY back in the '60s.
Originally Posted By chickendumpling <<I live close to Mission San Jose in Fremont>> Ahhh, so *that's* where your DH gets his "Jose" obsession in the Last to be First Thread. LOL. Sounds like a fun trip to plan, Stacers and Lisann22's link looks totally helpful. Hope it all comes together for you.
Originally Posted By Big Thunder I've been to 17 of the CA missions, plus some. Not all missions are listed under the 21 CA historical missions. I'm most familiar with So CA missions because I'm from So CA, I was born a few blocks away from San Gabriel Mission, I have friends who went to Mission San Gabriel high school, I have attended mass many times at mission SG, and sometimes shop there for gifts. My cousins lived a block away from San Fernando Mission and we used to play in the park outside the mission when we were kids. When I was a kid, we'd sometime take weekend road trips up & down CA, most times they involved visiting a CA mission. Some of my favorites are in Nor Cal for various reasons... Mission Delores, AKA San Francisco de Asisi, the main reason I have a fondness for this mission is that it is in honor of my patron saint. Plus it's in the SF bay, one of our favorite cities, again named after St Francis. Not the prettiest mission, but it has special place in my heart. [note: close to hwy 101] Mission Santa Clara, at Santa Clara university. My job involves visiting Santa Clara University every now and then, I love this school and it's staff, the mission church is beautiful. I was lucky, the professor doing the work for us is a great guy and very knowledgeable about the mission there, he gave me a personal tour, gave me a book, and told me funny stories. St Claire being friend and follower of St Francis, makes me appreciate it even more. [note: close to hwy 101] San Juan Baptista, very beautiful mission. This mission was my daughter's 4th grade mission project. This mission is probably most recognizable because the bell tower is used in many pictures and I believe was in a few movies? One of my favorite tidbits is that the early staff made little small doorways in various parts the building to allow cats to patrol the mission. Because they stored grain and feed there, they had a vermin problem and that cats had free reign to control mice and such. The lil doors are still there [note: fairly close to hwy 101] San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, beautiful mission and it's in Carmel CA, which is just north the most beautiful coast in the world! This is where padre Serra made his headquarters and it's also his burial site. [note: kinda close to hwy 101, but would cause a delay, in my opinion worth the extra time to visit, in fact I highly recommend that you take highway 1 from Carmel down to San Luis Obisbo, stop at San Carlos Borromeo mission, then save enough time for a few hours at Pt Lobos state park, then drive while there is still light down through Big Sur, Lucia, and Cambria, a nice honeymoon treat would be to end for the night in a small beach cottage in Cambria... this will add a whole day or more but IMHO way worth it] Santa Barbara, Santa Inez and San Buenaventura are close to hwy 101, they're worth a visit if you have time, but personally I wouldn't make a special trip if I was pressed for time. San Juan Capistrano is nice if ever you go south of Disneyland, of course the famous attraction is when the swallows return every year. Even though some of the missions close to me have sentimental value, I wouldn't recommend them to someone pressed for time. One that is special to me is San Antonio de Pala, I have priest friends whose order served the Pala Indians and they are buried there. One of them was one of my favorite priests, he died just last year. This weekend there is actually a service for them @ San Antonio de Pala. It is not actually considered a true mission, it is like a satellite of another mission. A bit smaller, but charming as ever.
Originally Posted By Stacers76 Big Thunder...thank you sooo much for that info...we won't in a huge rush really,...and this is actually something my fiancee has wanted to do since I've known him, so we will probably be making a lot of mission stops,which is fine. And I will definitely look into a night in Cambria! I'm becoming more excited every day! And I still have a year to go! )
Originally Posted By trekkeruss <<Loved the elementary school field trips she took to missions WAY back in the '60s>> Hey, me too!
Originally Posted By SuzieQ Standard 4th grade curriculum in California to this day! What's very interesting to me is the Church version of the missions versus the native version. I find reading different versions of stories fascinating.
Originally Posted By Lisann22 Don't even get me started. I almost didn't even post the little information I gave. ;<....
Originally Posted By m2 <--- Went on her son's field trip to Mission San Antonio this year. His Mission project is due on Thursday. We visited the Mission in Carmel. It is a beautiful Mission. Mission San Miguel is just 10 miles up the freeway but had major damage caused to it in the Earthquake we had a few years ago. Very little of this Mission is open to the public now. They are trying to raise the funds to restore the church. I agree with Big Thunder's idea, unless you are really into seeing bits of ruins that remain in San Antonio. Carmel Mission is beautiful and worth the trip to see. Then a drive down the coastline to Cambria would be the perfect trip. I live 30 minutes from Cambria and we make many day trips there. The perfect place for a restful stop.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo I hear you Lisann, as a native american descendent, and from a catholic family, talk about mixed views. Apparently this is why DCA and the Grand do not have many Mission references. However, there is no denying their importance to the history of California. I too have been to them all many times. My favorites are: - Carmel - San Jose - San Juan Batista - San Juan Capistrano - San Diego
Originally Posted By BlueDevilSF >>I live close to Mission San Jose in Fremont.<< Hey, we were there a week ago to catch BART over to Oakland for the 50th exhibit! Being a Hitchcock fan, I am partial to Mission San Juan Bautista, but amazingly enough, I have never been to Mission Dolores...and for eight years I lived not far away from it. Imagine that. My last trip to SF for a while will be on 6/9. Maybe I'll check it out then.
Originally Posted By wonderingalice Hey trekkeruss! I went to Fern-Greenwood Elementary School in Torrance - Kindergarten through 5th grade (then my family moved to Las Vegas). Torrance was a wonderful area to grow up... I'd love to retire there, but the real estate prices now... YOWSA!
Originally Posted By FaMulan >>Hey trekkeruss! I went to Fern-Greenwood Elementary School in Torrance - Kindergarten through 5th grade (then my family moved to Las Vegas). Torrance was a wonderful area to grow up... I'd love to retire there, but the real estate prices now... YOWSA!<< Edison Elementary Eagle here from 1970-1975. Our 4th grade class didn't do a field trip to a mission that I can remember, but we did re-create mission life in class as well as gold mining.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo I rember having to produce a scale model of a Mission. My Lego model was disallowed, and then I got in trouble for putting a hidden Mickey and Zorro in my 2nd version. One class mate made San Diego out of Gingerbread and powdered sugar, it was delicious!!!
Originally Posted By friendofdd >>> I got in trouble for putting a hidden Mickey and Zorro in my 2nd version.<<< Such intolerance in a teacher is inexcusable.
Originally Posted By Lisann22 I'd have no problems with the Missions and IF they'd do the following: 1. Tell the truth - the whole truth. 2. Do proper burials. 3. Let the Indians from these missions have proper displays of their history there and still have some use of the facilities. 4. Give us access to their records beyond what is available to the general public. My lineage comes from San Juan Bautista, Carmel and Santa Cruz, mainly San Juan Bautista. From both sides. The bell at the front of San Juan Bautista is from the city of Avila, where my Spanish grandma was born. My ancestors on my grandpa's side built the mission. My cousin was our last native speaker and the red cross and plaque in the back is a memorial to her. My great great great grandma's plague is inside the church on the floor leading to the gravesite. Only in the last year have we been given permission to go and clean in the back part of the mission where our relatives are really buried. There is absolutely value in the kids going to the missions and learning about their significance to California's history. It's just a disgrace that they are given a romantic, fairy taled version of what that history really was.
