I’ve told you before about my obsession with visiting all the California missions along the Old Mission Trail. My original concept was to do it on burro as the old padres did, but that proved impractical, not the least because I don’t yet own a burro. So I’ve been settling for a series of roadtrips. To keep it from being too easy and to add a little flair to the endeavour, I’ve sometimes varied my traveling companions. One trip involved two ladies in their seventies which became a Golden Girls trip. Another trip had me hauling my mother down the Central Valley to San Juan Capistrano for the return of the swallows with a side trip to worship at the shrine of Buck Owens. Now I’m upping the ante with a small child, known to readers here as The World’s Most Beautiful Baby. Has such a roadtrip of discovery been attempted since Lewis & Clark took off from St. Louis with a young Sacajawea and her infant son? Well, there was that time my parents took off from Alaska to New York with a teardrop trailer, a toddler (me) and an infant (my brother) over the not-yet-finished Al-Can Highway. (That story here.) But still, I’d say these are endeavours as challenging as traveling with burros.
So here’s the to-date list of the Missions I’ve managed to visit:
- Mission San Francisco Solano, in Sonoma
- Mission San Rafael Arcángel, in San Rafael
- Mission San Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores), in San Francisco
- Mission San José, in Fremont
- Mission Santa Clara de Asís, in Santa Clara
- Mission Santa Cruz, in Santa Cruz
- Mission San Juan Bautista, in San Juan Bautista
- Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, south of Carmel
- Mission San Antonio de Padua, northwest of Jolon
- Mission San Juan Capistrano, in San Juan Capistrano
- Mission San Diego de Alcalá, in San Diego
That leaves these missions still unvisited, and luckily, most of them are clustered on the Central Coast:
- Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, south of Soledad
- Mission San Miguel Arcángel, in San Miguel
- Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, in San Luis Obispo
- Mission La Purísima Concepción, northeast of Lompoc
- Mission Santa Inés, in Solvang
- Mission Santa Barbara, in Santa Barbara
- Mission San Buenaventura, in Ventura
- Mission San Fernando Rey de España, in Mission Hills (Los Angeles)
- Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, in San Gabriel
- Mission San Luis Rey de Francia, in Oceanside
San Fernando, San Gabriel and San Luis Rey may have to wait until a trip to LA. But I think we can handle the other seven, even with a toddler who is not convinced she likes long car rides. One thing about the padres, they set the missions about a day’s ride apart which at that time, and by burro, was about 25 miles. With the vagaries of today’s highway and byway systems, that means most missions aren’t more than half an hour to an hour from each other. Which could be a good thing for toddler travel.
Why drag a child along on such an adventure? Well, I think it’s in the Godparents’ Manual. Isn’t part of the job description overseeing the child’s religious upbringing? Focusing on the religious artifacts of 200 years ago has to figure into that somehow. Shortly before I take her to see the Godfather Trilogy.
Anyway, the adventure kicks off early Tuesday, September 14. Stay tuned.
Shown above: San Antonio de Padua in Jolon, one of the most isolated missions but definitely worth a trip.
Sparrows?!
Hey we’re heading toward San Miguel and SLO tomorrow on our way to Cambria for lunch. Will you be touring the wineries of the Central Coast/Paso Robles? Enjoy your time. Hope you are successful in meeting your goal.
We won’t be doing much winetasting with a baby in tow. Mostly beach time and the Missions. And good call on my heinous blooper by referencing the “sparrows” of San Juan Capistrano. Ulp. Make that swallows!
You’ll have a great trip. It’s beautiful down here. Visiting all the missions is one of my goals, too, but my touring has been haphazard. I live near Mission Santa Ines.
What about Mission Delores in San Francisco? Is that not on the Camino Real?
Yup, it’s third on the list above of missions I have visited.
Hold off on San Luis Obispo until Thursday and enjoy the fantastic Farmer’s Market downtown in the evening. Also, there’s a creek for the small one to play in directly in front of the mission.
Thanks for the suggestion. We’re hitting Pismo Beach Tuesday night, then on to Santa Barbara for Wednesday and Thursday. We will be coming back up that way to get anything we missed on the way down. We’ve got ample farmer’s markets in Sonoma and SAn Francisco, so we’ll avail ourselves of SLO’s other attractions.
Oops.
I’ve been to San Luis Obispo, Dolores and Mission Hill.
San Luis Obispo is as cute as a button. I say that in spite of the fact that I stopped there to buy a copy of Rod Stewart singing “Forever Young” so I could cry my eyes out over a lost love as I drove up the PCH to 20th St.