The San Diego Mission

This is one of those places that I have wanted to go to for years and just never made it - well we did last week. The original mission site was down by Old Town and when the priests wanted more room for fields, it was moved 6 miles inland. This is the site we visited; it is the one that has been restored. Unlike Mission San Luis Rey, much of this mission fell into ruin and what we see today is a product of detailed restoration. These pictures in the museum show what it may have been like when the Jesuit Missionaries landed in the 1700's and established this mission.

And when they decided to go looking inland for another site.

What first struck me on the cloudy day we visited was how much the bell tower looked like an old toy I had; a bell set with which I am sure I drove the family crazy. I think my neice Julie has it now; she enjoyed playing with it when she was little, too.

The picture above shows the gardens in the front of the church and a statue of the founding father. In the rear gardens, I admired the statues and flowers, especially the one of St. Francis.

This bell is the only one that remains from the first mission; note the crown on the top. This church, which has 4 services every weekend, is a basilica and that is the reason for the "tent" structure over the pulpit.

The Jesus figure that adorns the altar has no arms; it was found this way in the old mission and no one knows what happened to the arms but they decided to use it anyway. Look really carefully inside this crown; there is a Madonna and child figurine. (No flash photography is allowed in these old settings and it is tough to get a close up using only natural lighting.)

This elaborate crown was designed to showcase that Madonna and child which kept appearing in various places. The whole thing is at least 3 feet tall.

I ran out of batteries so there are not as many pictures as I would have liked... good reason to go back next year.