Missions | KatysBlog

My daughter Jessica, friends Laura Biche, her sister Cathie Ferris, and I are continuing our quest to visit all of the California Missions. In 2015-2016, we visited seven Missions (listed north to south, with the order of establishment in parenthesis):

Mission San Francisco Solano, (#21) in Sonoma
Mission San Rafael Arcángel, (#20) in San Rafael
Mission San Francisco de Asís (“Mission Dolores”, #6), in San Francisco
Mission Santa Clara de Asís, (#8) in Santa Clara
San Juan Bautista, (#15) in San Juan Bautista
Nuestra Senora de Soledad, (#13) in Soledad
San Antonio de Padua, (#3) in Jolon

Last weekend starting from San Jose, we visited six more Missions, plus another visit to San Juan Bautista since we had dinner in town:

Mission San Miguel Arcángel, (#16) in San Miguel
Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, (#5) in San Luis Obispo
Mission La Purísima Concepción, (#11) near Lompoc
Mission Santa Inés, (#19) in Solvang
Mission Santa Barbara, (#10) in Santa Barbara
Mission San Buenaventura, (#9) in Ventura

Since we were traveling on a Sunday, we attended services at Mission San Buenaventura. Many of the missions are still in active use by the Catholic Church. A few are public museums. We have eight more Missions to visit, in two trips: one to Southern California and the other near where we live in Northern California:

Southern California

Mission San Fernando Rey de España, (#17) in Mission Hills (Los Angeles)
Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, (#4) in San Gabriel
Mission San Juan Capistrano, (#7) in San Juan Capistrano
Mission San Luis Rey de Francia, (#18) in Oceanside
Mission San Diego de Alcalá, (#1) in San Diego

Northern California

Mission Santa Cruz, (#12) in Santa Cruz
Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, (#2) in Carmel
Mission San José, (#14) in Fremont

Pictures of Mission San Miguel Arcángel:

Pictures of Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa:

Pictures of Mission La Purísima Concepción:

Pictures of Mission Santa Inés:

Pictures of Mission Santa Barbara:

Pictures of Mission San Buenaventura:

Mission San Juan Bautista:

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Images Copyright 2017 by Katy Dickinson

Laura Biche and Jessica Dickinson Goodman and I enjoyed a girls’ road trip on Saturday – part of our long-term “Visit All the California Missions” project. We went to San Antonio de Padua (Jolon), Nuestra Senora de Soledad (Soledad), and San Juan Bautista (in San Juan Bautista) – and ate ice cream twice! Along the way, we also visited the Saint Luke’s Episcopal Church (near Jolon – on the Fort Hunter Liggett Army Base) and other sights of interest.

An odd thing we noticed: all three missions we visited had what looked like the exact same bronze statue honoring Saint Junipero Serra (who founded 9 of the 21 missions). It will be interesting to see if the rest of the missions have the same one.