Lake Elsinore & San Juan Capistrano, CA (2/3/2018)

I moved last week to an area north of San Diego in a broad valley that lies between two mountain ranges.  There are several large lakes here, so I'll try to check them out over the next few days.  One of them, Lake Elsinore, is a natural lake that was originally a tourist destination, but now has a population of more than 55,000 living in the town around its shores. 

On Saturday, I drove over the narrow, twisty road to the west side of the mountains to visit the town and mission of San Juan Capistrano.  My family visited this mission in 1979, when the town was small and the mission had little visitation.  Since then, the town has grown and the huge increase in tourism has sparked the development of all the usual tourist places, such as gift shops, art galleries and restaurants.

The mission,  founded in 1776 by Father Junipero Serra (same as Mission San Diego De Alcala), was the seventh of the Spanish missions in California.  It may be the best known and most popular of all, and it is certainly the largest.  It was fascinating to tour the grounds and see all the displays of how they lived is this place so many years ago.

They built aquaducts of stone to transfer rainwater to large cisterns for storage.

They had an area dedicated to making adobe bricks for construction, some square and some diamond-shaped.

There was a large outdoor kitchen to meet the cooking needs for a large group of residents.

They tanned hides in large vats to provide leather for many uses.

Among the residents were soldiers who lived in these barracks.

The grounds are well-maintained, with lots of trees and shrubs to add texture and color to the experience.

The room known as "Serra's Church was built in 1782 and is recognized as the oldest building in California still in use.

A new church was built in 1806 only to be mostly destroyed by an earthquake in 1812.

Two of its bells were cracked beyond repair and are now on display.

In 1986, yet another new church was built, allowing the original mission buildings to be used strictly for tours.  The new church is quite beautiful, as befits a church with its heritage.  It is patterned after the 1806 church, though not an exact replica.  The interior designer hand-painted much of the artwork that adorns the walls.