The other day, I needed to go down to Fremont on an errand, which allowed me to pick up another mission on my quest to see all the missions founded by the Spanish during the colonization of California. Surprisingly, I’m finding that a lot of missions I haven’t yet seen are right in my backyard, as was Mission San Jose. And like the other northern missions, I found this one to have little left of the original, an original which was never as ornate as some of the elaborate southern missions such as Mission San Juan Capistrano.
Still Mission San Jose was worth the detour, especially for a very good little museum about the lives of the Ohlone Indians who populated this mission. The mission church, itself, is a clever and latter day recreation of the second church on this site. Not the one founded in 1797, but the one built in 1809 and destroyed by earthquake. The outbuilding that houses the museum (probably originally the padres’ living quarters) is one of the few original pieces of the mission. Also preserved is an interesting graveyard with the graves of prominent Californians, Spanish and English, whose names Californians will recognize.

The inside of the faithfully reconstructed church.

Wooden statue and painted wall in the church.

The old cemetary with the grave of Jose Bernal, owner of one of the larger Spanish land grants in the area.

The grave of early pioneer, Robert Livermore.

All that marks the mass grave site of hundreds of Ohlone Indians who died largely of disease.

Original ironwork from one of the Bernal’s graves.

Padre Fermin Francisco de Lasuen, the mission founder, stands guard over some of the original olive trees.

Burnt hills above the Mission School.
So let’s see where we are with my Mission Score Card. Here are the chain of Missions which the padres founded, from the first, San Diego, to the last, Mission San Francisco de Solano. Missions with links are those I’ve checked off my list. The links take you to the post where I wrote about them.
Mission San Diego de Alcala (San Diego) (Need to migrate this post from my old website)
Mission San Luis Rey de Francia
Mission San Juan Capistrano (Visited on Swallows Day)
Mission San Gabriel Arcangel
Mission San Fernando Rey de Espana
Mission San Buenaventura
Mission Santa Barbara
Mission Santa Inez
Mission La Purisima
Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa
Mission San Miguel Arcangel
Mission San Antonio de Padua (One of the most intact of the old missions.)
Mission Nuestra Senora de La Soledad
Mission San Carlos Borromeo del Rio Carmelo (Visited as part of the Golden Girls Tour with two 75-year-old ladies.)
Mission San Juan Bautista (Done on the Golden Girls Tour.)
Mission San Francisco de Solano
Looks like I need a Santa Barbara roadtrip where I can pick up several missions along the way!
Here’s a few excuses you can use to knock a few more missions off of your list:
http://centralcoastbritishcarclub.com/
http://oldspanishdays-fiesta.org/
http://www.pasoroblesolivefestival.com/
santa barbara sideways wine tour
http://www.fessparker.com/
http://www.imadonnarifestival.com/im.html (This one is already passed but you may consider a visit in the future.)
Mission San Miguel is the one my kids visited for their 4th grade mission field trip. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to my application for employment with the Central Coast Travel Bureau (kidding). Hope these suggestions are helpful.
This just demonstrates that there is always something worthwhile to do, if you just take the time to think about it and pursue it. I look forward to reading more about your mission adventures.
http://www.pasoroblesolivefestival.com/
http://oldspanishdays-fiesta.org/
http://centralcoastbritishcarclub.com/
http://midstatefair.com/
http://www.hearstcastle.org/
Here are some excuses to use while you knock off some of the missions from your list.
I’ve tried unsuccessfully to provide you with links to events on the central coast that you could use as excuses to continue your pursuit to visit all the missions. Here’s some suggestions (sans links):
Hearst Castle, San Simeon
Santa Barbara French Festival, Santa Barbara (7/11-7/12)
Mid-State Fair, Paso Robles (7/22-8/2)
Ventura County Brithish Car Show, Oxnard (7/26)
Old Spanish Days Fiesta, Santa Barbara (8/5-8/9)
Olive Festival, Paso Robles (8/22)
My kids had to visit San Miguel as part of their 4th grade mission field trip. Very interesting and great memories all these years later.
Thanks for the travelblog.
Wow, I always love coming here to learn something new and when my daughter is out west maybe we can check some of these places out!
Thanks Maybelline. I also liked your link on an earlier post to the Weedpatch Dust Bowl celebration. I think the new version of WordPress views all links in comments as spam and disallows them. I have no idea how to counteract that. But one can always Google.
hahaha. Sorry for what looks like an over caffenated response.
You are the only person I know with a mission checklist. Very efficient, but what’s a mission without cheeseballs ??