Vacation V: Mission San Luis Rey

San Luis Del Rey Mission: There are a lot of people who plan (a lot) for family trips. My wife used to be one of them and then we stated going to family camp up in Michigan and with me having a job there just was not much time for anything else. Now we have a son in college and Sandy has come to the belated realization that the best chance we have for spending any time with our children is on vacation. So we skipped the traditional Thanksgiving at home and traveled to southern California to see friends and play in the ocean a little. That was far as planning went. Other then Thanksgiving at the Tiemann’s and Pat swimming with the dolphins (not the Miami Dolphins 0-12 at this sitting) we had-nothing planned.

Playing in the ocean was to be a big part of the trip and we new the Pacific was cold and we brought wet suits to facilitate our cavorting. No one on the other hand told me that it would be cloudy and windy and generally not conducive to beach frolicking. So we had some time to kill and with no plans and no proper I.D. to get back into the country (thank you homeland security) from Mexico I cam up with a plan. A mere four miles from oceanside California where we were currently residing was a Mission called San luis Rey. Firing up the laptop I learned that there were something like 21 such Missions up and down the coast and that they had a long history. As I have noted before following the laws of physics, Beckers at rest will tend to remain at rest. The troubling part is that beckers in motion will tend to find a way to remain again at rest as soon as possible...preferably with a television on... with cable...and some Cheetos.

But... my wife was sick of this behavior having spent the previous day with two of my progeny as the eldest and I went on a five hour CD buying excursion at Amoeba records in L.A. So... thinking quickly and knowing my kids would not tolerate the 34 minute drive to the Mission at Capistrano I prevailed upon them to humor me and go to the one just four miles away. I sweetened the offer with a run by Starbucks and Mc Donalds and it was a done deal.

It really was a short drive and just on the eastern outskirts of Oceanside a large white Cathedral sits on a hill flanked by a cemetery and a retreat center. The place was large white stucco and looked fairly impressive. We walked in and got the family fare of 20 bucks getting a discount off the hefty 6 dollar regular admission and quickly were standing in dim rooms looking at religious artifacts, innumerable statues of St. Francis of Assisi (my favorite Catholic Saint) and various old pottery. It was underwhelming and moved quickly to a corridor with scenes from the old mission behind glass in a troubling life size diorama. The next room had several pieces of statuary (St Francis again) and two carpeted wooden benches to sit in front of a TV and watch a bad videotape of the Missions History. Let me summarize... started in late 1700’s changed hands a lot of time...no one cared...fell into disrepair and looted by locals...deeded back to local indians...rebuilt in late 40’s under a grant from Hearst foundation. That is what I got out of it but for a great history check out:

http://www.sandiegohistory.org/collections/missions/sanluisrey.htmhttp://www.sandiegohistory.org/collections/missions/sanluisrey.htm

After watching the video we exited into a Courtyard, to the left and shut off from us the retreat center grounds. We walked through a little courtyard with a fountain and a statue of St. Francis into a very dark room with 4 or 5 pieces of art... all of which were big, bloody, religious and reproduced. From there we got to go to the cathedral or Church or whatever and it was pretty cool. All stucco and wood, big with big wooden benches. Still used for worship. Lots of candles, not too much stained glass (none) it was interesting to wonder around. there were a number of paintings (Fresco’s?) on the wall and although we could identify Jesus, Mary and Joseph there were several people including one female that we could not positively I.D. There was also a nice rendering of St. Francis of Assisi.

From there we wondered into the cemetery with a lot of graves of people who had been dead for a long time and several from people recently passed away. There also was a cellar where it appeared all the priests who had served there had been buried. it was nicely landscaped and peaceful and I concluded that I could rest comfortably there if need be but that being a Lutheran the dead Catholics might be offended. You know how those people are. We left the cemetery and went at my daughters insistence to the gift shop where we had a remarkably good time buying:

1. A T-Shirt for Jon (very tasteful outline of Mission on red background)
2. A tortoise and silver cross for me
3. A St. Michael (my favorite Archangel) trading card that when you held it in different directions shows him standing on a rock or crushing a demon with his foot.
4. A shot glass
5. Some crap for Laura’s friends

All in all it was amusing although my wife said we were disrespectful. When I finished paying Jon took me excitedly by the hand and pointed me towards California first and oldest pepper tree. This was not nearly as exciting as it sounds. the family gratefully got back into the mini-van the cultural and historical portion of the family vacation having taken almost an hour and a half (including Starbucks) and now blessedly behind us.