San Diego Trip - Missions - Day 6

(Wednesday, November 11, 2009)

We left Vandenberg early and drove through Lompoc to Mission La Purissima Concepcion, generally called La Purissima.  This mission was founded in 1787 in a beautiful natural setting – a quiet wooded canyon set in the coastal hills.  The facility is a California State Historic Park and not a working Catholic Church.  Since we were there last (15 years ago with Ted and Ann), a new visitor’s center has been built on the grounds which focuses on the plight of the local Indians, who were caught between the Spanish padres and the soldiers.

Day 6 Pictures - Mission La Purissima Concepcion

This is the largest mission we have seen yet. It consists mainly of two churches, one older and larger with a packed dirt floor, abandoned because of water problems, and a newer smaller church with a wood plank floor.  The newer building has many beautiful primitive paintings, all fully restored.  The large courtyard is full of California native plants and trees and many fountains, along with an extensive water system which was set up for the mission when it was founded.  There were live farm animals pastured in the mission complex, the only time we saw this on our mission tour. (Most of the missions do not have enough room to do this).  There was also an Indian village site with a restored hogan and many hiking trails behind and above the mission site in the hills.  We did not have time to hike the trails, because our goal for today was four missions, and La Purissima was just the first.

Day 6 Pictures - Mission Santa Inez

We drove to the tourist village of Solvang, CA, a “Danish” town recreated near Santa Maria, CA.  Solvang, full of half-timbered houses, windmills, gift shops, restaurants and busloads of tourists, did not interest us, but Mission Santa Inez is located there at the edge of town. It is in a developed setting, overlooking not agricultural fields but a golf course and resort.  However, it has a huge parking lot with lots of room to spare for Big Mother and the Green Machine.  We had been here several times before, as it is a working Catholic Church and is fairly close to Ted and Ann’s house.  The buildings are all beautiful and fully restored, with extensive museum rooms and lovely gardens.  The interior of the church is beautifully decorated with a splendid altar background (reredos) of carved statues of saints and the holy family.

Day 6 Pictures - Mission Santa Barbara

We drove on down the coast to Santa Barbara, CA to Mission Santa Barbara,”The Queen of the Missions”.  On the way, Judy called ahead to ask if the parking lot at the mission was large enough to accommodate both of our vehicles.  She was informed by the docent, haughtily, that the parking lot was “huge.”  As it turned out, it was not huge, but it was big enough.  The mission is located on the front of the coastal range overlooking the town; an impressive setting, but the town has grown up around it and it is in the middle of a residential area now.  The last big wildfire that the Santa Barbara area had a few years ago came down from the hills almost to the edge of the mission.  They have pictures posted – it was very close, but the mission was spared.

The mission is a working parish church, patterned after an ancient Latin chapel in pre-Christian Rome.  It has twin bell towers, Doric columns and is very large and elegantly restored, full of historical items of the mission period.  The courtyard gardens are beautiful, planted artfully with cactus, bromeliads, palms and other desert-type plants and trees.  This was a very highly decorated mission in the European style, not in the primitive mission style.

As we drove down towards our fourth stop of the day, Mission Santa Buenaventura, we decided that it was too late in the day to be able to tour it effectively.  Also, it is located in Ventura, CA, a highly developed and congested area near LA.  Since we were driving Big Mother and towing the Green Machine, we never knew if an unfamiliar area would have enough room for us to park and turn around (we can’t back up while towing.)  So we decided to skip the Ventura mission for this trip and tour it some other time.  We drove on to Point Mugu Naval Air Station where we were to spend the night.  Our RV site turned out to be just yards away from the ocean, although since we were there for only one night, we didn’t get to spend much time on the beach.  The NAS RV Park looks like a great place to stay for an extended visit sometime in the future.