Mission San Juan Bautista

This is the final post from our mini vacation last month.  You can read about Mission San Jose, the Dennis the Menace playground, Mission Carmel, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium to catch up.

I took the kids to Mission San Juan Bautista nine years ago, after a trip to Monterey Bay Aquarium, so Jack and I had been there before.  Jack, however, was only 4 at the time, so it was pretty much all new to him.

Upon entering the gift shop to pay our fee, we were told that there was a funeral service that day, so we would not be able to see the main church until after it was over, but to explore the rest of the mission and then we'd have access to the church and cemetery.

At the prior 2 missions, I'd shown the kids rosaries, so in the gift shop, I asked, "Can anyone tell me what these pretty beads are called?"  Katie burst out, "ROSEMARY!"  A docent snorted.

The music books were massive.

Hey look!  Another cauldron, like the one at Mission San Jose.

We had fun wandering around looking at all the artifacts.

This totally reminded me of my grandparents' house.  They had an organ with the knobs like this, and they had an octogon clock like that, too.

This mission must have been very beautiful in it's day.

It even had a sewing machine!

Liturgical vestments.

There's such an amazing sense of history in these old missions.  I'm so glad I got the opportunity to expose the kids to them.

Then we went out in the garden.

The kids discovered a sundial, which was an impromptu science lesson, of course.

The photos behind the statue give information about each of the different missions in California.

Again, I took advantage of the pretty scenery to take pictures of my beautiful children.

One of whom was a little pictured-out.

The former well.

Mission San Juan Bautista is on the San Andreas Fault, but we did not see the seismograph that was there the last time I was there, so that was a little disappointing.

After exploring the inside of the quadrangle, we ventured out, staying a respectful distance from the church, which was still in use.

The views were breathtaking, and the weather was perfect.  You know, people complain about California, but I love it here.

In preparation for out trip to Mission San Diego in April, we read Mystery on the California Mission Trail, which talked a lot about the mission bells, so it was fun to see more mission bells. 

The doorway there is an auxiliary exit from the cemetery, but it's padlocked.  Guests enter and exit the cemetery through the main church.  So we couldn't visit the cemetery while we were waiting for the funeral to be over. 

We took a little stroll, instead. 

We saw lots of beautiful flowers, and enjoyed the tranquility. 

The really disappointing part is that after the church emptied out and we saw the hearse leave, they locked up the whole mission and left an "out to lunch" sign.  Since we were on our way home with a 3 hour drive ahead of us, I really didn't want to wait another hour to see the church and cemetery, so we left.  But I was pretty bummed. 

On our way out of town, we stopped to get gas, and saw the hearse at the local cemetery. 

This was a fun trip, and has left me with a bit of wanderlust.  Although I miss the baby days, traveling with older kids is really easy, and I'd like to do some more exploring with them, as they have days off from school. 


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