San Juan Capistrano Mission

Late Christmas morning, after opening our presents from Santa and then gifts from family, Jason and I drove down to spend the rest of the day with his Aunt Barb, Uncle Bob, and cousin Ryan. We had a great time being with family and thoroughly enjoyed a yummy Christmas dinner. The next day, Barb and Bob took us sightseeing at the San Juan Capistrano Mission. This Mission was founded in 1776 and is famously known as the Mission where the swallows return every year and of which Leon Rene wrote the song "When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano."

For some reason, I thought that a mission was just another name for a church that the Spanish built when they were colonizing the West Coast. While missions include a church, they are really small villages or enclosed settlements that the Spanish priests lived and worked in while serving as missionaries to the local indigenous people. The San Juan Capistrano Mission reminded me, in a way, of the Jamestown Settlement. This mission has the ruins of the original church built in 1796-1806 but was destroyed by an earthquake in 1812. It also has many of the original adobe structures that were used as living quarters.

Much of the space used for agricultural purposes is now a garden.