San Diego Trip - Missions - Day 5

(Tuesday, November 10, 2009)

Phinneus’ 15^th birthday is today.  We traveled south on Hwy 101 from Monterey to Soledad, a small town in the upper Salinas Valley, a rich agricultural region.  Mission Nuestra Senora de la Soledad is isolated out in the middle of vast farms and fields.  (Lots of Broccoli growing in November.)  Many farm workers were present, some working on production and packing lines set up right in the fields.  The mission is very small and primitively decorated, with many walls painted rather than stuccoed in a fancy style.  The mission church has been rebuilt; the ruins of the old mission lay behind it with a courtyard of natural plants in between.  The old mission was left abandoned, the whitewash gradually dissolving off of its outer walls, exposing the raw adobe mud bricks to the elements.  In time, most of the walls simply melted away, collapsing the wooden roofs.  The simple restoration is very nice, close to what the original must have been.

Day 5 Pictures - Soledad Mission (Mission Nuestra Senora de la Soledad)

We then drove to Mission San Antonio de Padua, located on Hunter-Liggett Army Base, about 26 miles from 101.  It is in a beautiful location, set along and above a creek against a tree-lined ridge.  The bell tower (campanaria) is very beautiful and the gardens are extensive and well done, with many rosebushes.  This is a working church as well as a base chapel with many beautiful paintings on the walls and around the arched doorways.  There is a large gathering area behind the mission down by the creek, with many picnic tables and barbeque grills and a small raised stage.  We are sure there are many parish gatherings held there, a delightful spot.

Day 5 Pictures - San Antonio Mission (Mission San Antonio de Padua)

We drove through miles of ranching country to Mission San Miguel Arcangel in San Miguel, CA, a small town close to 101.  The mission, visible from the freeway, has a small front courtyard with a fountain.  The large courtyard in back is largely roped off because San Miguel is a working seminary as well as a working church.  There are many interesting artifacts in the rooms that were open.  The interior of the church is decorated with primitive Indian paintings, some still unrestored, all simple and beautiful. 

We ran into another family that was touring the missions at the same time we were.  Both families were sort of on the same schedule for a few days and ended up at the same missions at the same times.  The family, from San Diego, was an older couple (like us) with a grown daughter and her husband.  They were traveling by car and staying in motels along the way.

Day 5 Pictures - San Miguel Mission

We had a fourth mission on the schedule today, in San Luis Obispo, but by the time we were finished at Mission San Miguel, it was too late to drive to SLO and still have time to tour the mission.  We had actually visited that mission a few times before, but we will go back some day and make it an actual part of this mission tour.

We drove to the Santa Maria/Lompoc, CA area, made it through the security check at a side gate (the main gate was closed to RV’s), and parked in the Vandenberg AFB Fam Camp.  We then had dinner with Ted and Ann Suchecki at an Italian restaurant in Lompoc.  It was great to see them again, but it was a very sad time.  David, their oldest son would have been 40 tomorrow.  He passed away last December 8 from cancer.  He had been married less than two years.  They are dealing with David’s passing as well as they can, but you never really get over a loss like that.