San Juan Capistrano Mission
Yesterday Auntie Rita, who lives in Dana Point which is in Southern California, took us to a Catholic Mission at San Juan Capistrano. It’s one of the 21 Missions that you can get to, all within a one day horse ride, from each other from Baja, Mexico to North of San Francisco.
It’s made of Adobe brick, which is mud from the ground and dried in the sun. It had a big church, that was badly damaged in an earthquake, many years ago, and lots of soldiers & native Americans died from being crushed by the falling rocks.
It had a fish pond with Koi, that we got to feed. We saw a chapel, which is a small church with a really tall gold alter and painted walls. There were song books that I read a harmony song, called Rest in Peace.
We saw the small rooms where the people slept, cooked & lived.
We spun a wheel to find out what our job would be if we lived back in those times. I would have been a candle maker, Jaxon a brick maker.
We got to weave a basket. Make an arrow head necklace with beads, the arrow head was obsidian a volcanic glass rock. We got to pan for gold and found big nuggets to keep.
We saw branding irons, that were used to mark the cows rear end so they could be told where they came from. Each mission had it’s own brand.
We learned about the different types of food the people ate, there weren’t any shops, so they had grow and hunt for all their food. They had an olive mill to squish olives for the oil. They used 2 rocks to grind up Acorns. In the garden they grew green vegetables, clover and roots. They hunted small snakes, crickets, gophers, squirrels, deer, fish, whale, seal and abalone. They had grapes, goose berries, oranges and lots of different fruit. They had a very large vat for squishing grapes to make wine.
Then all the people moved away and the mission was empty for a very long time and started to crumble and fall down. Then some people came and build a wall around it, and fixed it up, and charged 10 cents to go in and look around. It’s a lot more expensive today.
Dear Charley and Jaxon,
I love reading your posts about all the neat things you have done on your trip so far. Who would have thought that you would criss-cross the North American continent so many times since you left home!
Clearly Disneyland was a big hit. All those rides and a live show and best of all to celebrate Halloween until 10 at night. You actually managed to stay up past my bedtime! That is pretty impressive.
Your lovely report on the San Juan Capistrano Mission caught my attention. I enjoyed it very much because Uncle Bill and I visited the Santa Barbara Mission which is another one of the twenty-one missions in California. There is so much history and it is fascinating to learn about how people lived in the past.
So, precious little ones, take care and enjoy your travels with your wonderful parents. Miss you and I look forward to reading about all the new and exciting things that unfold in your journey.
Love and hugs,
Auntie Wanda