Last Sunday we deemed it to be Nanny's day (that would be my mom) - so she got to pick the activities. Not being accustomed to deciding activities with us, it was a little challenging for her - but not to worry, we provided lots of guidance.
The first choice was a bit driven by Ethan - lunch at the In-n-Out Burger. Pretty much everyone has to do this at least once on their visit to Southern California. You need to know what all the rage is about, right?
Is it as good as everyone claims? I'm going to risk saying "no it isn't", although I am sure there are those who will tell me otherwise - tell me to keep my vegetarian-wannabe opinion to myself - what do I know about burgers anyway? Especially when I don't eat it with the secret sauce? They have to ruin the whole experience by posting the calories next to the items - it makes it super hard to order even one of each of the menu items (burger, fries, milkshake) - when you know you are going to top over 1200 calories with just the smallest of each of the choices.
But you're going to want to do it anyway. It's a SoCal bucket list item.
Next up was a visit to the Mission San Luis Rey east of Oceanside. This was probably selected because of my influence, to be honest. I have been wanting to visit here for some time (missed the Dia de los Muertos celebration!) and thought this might just be the opportunity to see it. Why I am so attracted to missions and other places of spiritual retreat? Hmm, not up for that kind of self-analysis on a Sunday morning.
Part of it is definitely the ties to history - the fact that in so many places around the world the places of worship tend to be the places that survive time, the places that are maintained, the places people want to keep - in spite of the forces of time and revolution that may want to knock them down. So I head to these places - in the Netherlands, in France, in Hawaii, throughout the US.
Rather than describe in detail the mission, I'll provide a bunch of pictures, with a comment here and there. I'd definitely recommend this for a day trip if you live around here. I'd also definitely recommend you borrow Ethan for your tour guide, as he learned just about everything there is to know about California missions in the 4th grade last year, and with his cuteness and sincere earnestness, draws the best information out of the volunteers.
I took the following shots in one of the inner courtyards. Note that all of these pictures were taken with my cellphone, so the quality isn't exactly there - but hopefully the feeling is. I, of course, made a huge spectacle of myself, banging one of the doors super loud while we were trying to move noiselessly around, enjoying the peaceful setting - my mom made some smart remark about me being the novitiate everyone else would roll their eyes about.... Thanks, mom. Maybe that's why I am so intrigued by these places - I would fit in so very poorly.
The mission is still actively used as a place of retreat, and even has real honest to goodness friars still living there. This courtyard area is part of the retreat area - take special notice of the large pepper tree in the background - the first pepper tree in America (the kinds of things they highlight are always interesting...).
That last photo was a picture of one of the stations of the cross - the first ever I'd seen outside.
The last area we visited on the property was the Lavanderia, where the neophytes took their laundry to wash and (I would suppose) enjoy the gardens.
After the little retreat to the mission, we headed to the coast and enjoyed strolling the Oceanside pier. Although we missed the day's official surf competition, we got to see the best-of-the-best showing off their skills on the north side of the pier.
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