We had changed our plans from visiting the Spanish Missions on Wednesday to today due to a plumbing issue at the house we are renting. As part of the treat, I drove everyone to the Magnolia Pancake Haus for breakfast. Only thing is, Leah got sick :-(
She thought she could tough it out, but she didn't get past the Visitor Center at the first Mission, so we ended up coming home instead. I was disappointed and bored of being essentially home-bound for months on end, and Nancy was still interested in seeing the Missions while she was here, so I drove her to the Missions.
We started at the furthest one south, and then made our way back north. Unfortunately, the Mission San Francisco Espada was under some serious renovation, so I didn't take any photos (there were none to be had without construction fences/equipment to be had).
From there, we drove a short distance to Mission San Juan (both photos, above). The three missions furthest to the south (San Jose, San Juan, and San Fransisco Espada) all have large courtyards (for lack of a better word) that had all or part of the protective wall still surrounding it, with the still active churches inside.
From Mission San Juan we made our way to San Jose, where we started earlier in the day with Ian and Leah. Both kids earned their Junior Ranger Badges (big surprise!) while we were there. The photo, above, is from San Jose just behind the church. This mission was the busiest, by far, of the missions.
Finally, we went to Mission Concepcion. I have been to the Missions before, and I remembered Espada as my favorite, by it was definitely Concepcion this time around. I don't remember being able to go inside the Church the last time here, but we were able to this time. The rangers told us that Concepcion is the church with the most original material, and you could see the original paintings (badly faded) in some of the rooms.
We were blessed with a nice sunset to end the day at Concepcion.
Have a great day. Cheers,
Marc
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