We have visited several of the California missions in our travels and, since there is one about 12 miles from where we are now, we are heading over there to see it today. But, first there’s the small matter of breakfast and we know of a small restaurant about a block from the campground. We were wondering how the place paid its bills since we were the only ones there for a while but shortly in came about 4 other couples. Unfortunately, I prefer my food and coffee hot rather than tepid but tepid was how it all came. Maybe we’ll find another restaurant in the future.
The mission is the San Luis Obispo de Tolosa named for Saint Louis, Bishop of Tousouse, and is in - get this - San Luis Obispo, California or SLO as the locals call it. As you know, the mission system in California was established both for political and for religious reasons. The religious reasons are obvious but the Spanish also wanted to protect their lands in California in the face of Russion and British interest in them. Missions seemed to be the best cheapest answer to establishing Spanish presence and Father Junipero Serra set about to build a chain of missions from the the Mexican border to San Francisco and the mission in San Luis Obispo was one of them.
The mission was started in 1772, the fifth in the chain of missions, with the help of local tribes of the Chumash nation. The goal of all the missions was to turn the Indians into Christian citizens of the Spanish empire and the mission communities into self-governing towns. Mexico revolted and the Spanish were replaced by the Mexican government. Eventually, Mexico lost California to the expanding nation of America.
However, throughout this the mission remained and, through it was in private hands for a while and even served as a jail, it functioned as a parish church and the town grew up around it. It is still a Catholic Church for the town and, while we were there, the Catholic elementary school was practicing for the Easter ceremonies coming up soon.
Inside were beautiful painted stencils all around the sanctuary. Our docent told us later that they were painted by an artist from Hollywood who does work for Disney.
We walked around by ourselves for a bit and then took the docent guided tour led by one of the local bell ringers. Because we were the only ones on the tour, we got a pretty extensive tour of the church. When the guide asked if we would you like to see the choir loft we said yes. What a great view of the church below.
When he asked if we’d like to see the bell tower, we answered, heck yes. Here are 5 bells, each with a name and a pitch. Here is Carlos with a D pitch, 26.56” in diameter and a weight of 429 lbs.
When the guide asked if we would like to go up into the bell tower, we said yes again. Gary then asked how they rang the bells. The guild picked up 3 long straps, each attached to a bell,
backed up to show how he rang them and then gave us this little ditty that he says to himself to get the rhythm right.
The beans are done
The beans are done
If you don’t come now
You won’t get none.
Probably this has been used tby generations of bellringers to get the sound and rhythm right.
And, the organ with its pipes. We obviously got a very special tour.
After we toured the mission and its library, we headed over to Bubblegum Alley where the local college kids have been sticking their gum for ages. For about 50 years, the local students have been sticking their gum up here and, even though the city has tried to scrub the walls clean, the gum seems to mysteriously appear again. Might have something to do with the penny gum machine conveniently placed right around the corner.
We met a young family there who had bought some penny gum in the machine and were hard at work making it ready to add to the colorful art work in the alley. Here’s the young kid. He chewed his gum and stuck it up so fast that I didn’t even have time to get the camera ready. But he posed for me when I was ready. That yellow wad is his - it’s his wad and he’s stickin’ to it.
Because it’s a college town and off the beaten path, it’s quaint, well kept, has built a walking path along the river bank and is just a very pleasant town to walk through. It has an Apple store, it has a Barnes and Noble, a Costco, and tons of little shoppes selling art work and clothing and whatever. We walked around and found the Frank Lloyd Wright designed medical office
and several Craftsmen homes.
Not too far from the beach, surrounded by vineyards, it even has some hiking around it. Do I sound like the local Visitor’s Bureau? Well, we enjoyed the town a lot. On Thursday, we even journeyed back for the local farmer’s market.
Saw this item in the news. Certainly not an item we see often in Des Moines. I wonder what the pot delivery man was on.
On the way home, we stopped at Doc Bernstein’s Ice Cream shop. What a town institution. He makes his own right there, often taking customer suggestions. He admitted that the lager flavored ice cream was not his best and is not offered. Wednesday nights he tries out new combinations and on Tuesdays he has an all-you-can-eat ice cream night. WOW! Something to put on the calendar. However, we both knew how much we like ice cream and how much we always wan to get our money’s worth that we did not even chance going. We feared what we might do.
Here’s what we did get: I have a scoop of Raspberry Merlot Chocolate Chip and a scoop of S’mores. Gary has a scoop of chocolate chip and a scoop of Maple Walnut. This was enough for us.
Dinner and then a walk along the beach.
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