California Gold: The Mission of San Juan Capistrano

The Mission Historical Placard

I am fascinated with the California Mission system. I'm captivated with the idea of non-American societies existing on land that today we can hardly think of as anything but American. Spanish Catholics building churches and compounds to house local indigenous tribes in modern day Orange County certainly fits this bill. All of this may have well been a million miles from General Washington and his Continentals who were busy with their own land battles at that same time. The Mission system history makes for a strong foundation to California's rich post-contact legacy.

The mission at San Juan Capistrano was founded in 1776 by Spanish Catholics of the Franciscan Order. It was named for Giovanni da Capistrano, a 15th-century "warrior priest" and Crusader. None of the Spaniards involved in the construction of the mission concerned themselves much about the war taking place on the eastern side of the continent. They were doing the Lord's work, training priests, converting heathens, and attempting to expand the powers of a weakening Spain. San Juan Capistrano has the distinction of being home to the oldest building in California still in use, the Serra Chapel built in 1782. It is the only extant structure where it has been documented that Junipero Serra, founder of the first nine California missions, celebrated Mass.

A part of the original cemetery used

for workers on the mission.

Interesting tidbit: The criolla grape, or "Mission grape," was first planted at San Juan Capistrano in 1779. By 1783 the first wine produced in Alta California was from the Mission's winery, a precursor to the state's future wine power.

The natives kept at the mission were the Juaneño or Acjachemen tribe, a tribe who resided throughout present-day San Diego and Orange Counties. At the mission they grew wheat and barley and tended to sheep and goats, all while saying prayers and bowing to the Mission Fathers. In the mid-1800s, the Mission entered a period of gradual and crumbling decline after Mexican government secularization. After California became a state in 1850, efforts were made to restore the Mission to its former state. To this day, restoration efforts continue. During my visit there were several support buildings surrounded by scaffolding where stone walls were being re-plastered.

Looking up through the smoke hole

inside an Indian hut.

The mission was number 7 in the chain of 21 missions created. It was originally designed in the shape of a cross similar to many Catholic churches today. The church once held seven domes and a bell tower so tall it could be seen from ten miles away. Ivy covers the broken walls today. Faded willows sway over the running fountain in the quadrangle and a bevy of flowers fill the mission gardens. Walking into the chapel, my eyes were drawn to the artwork on the walls and the gilded altarpiece before the pews.

"Each year on St. Joseph's Day, March 19," one of the local tour guides said, "the mission celebrates the return of the cliff swallows from Argentina with a traditional Mexican fiesta."

The ivy-covered exterior.

A Mexican fiesta in a Spanish Mission that was once supported by people of the Acjachemen Nation. And today it is a wealthy part of the US. History sure spins a tangled web.

Inside Serra's Chapel.

Strolling around the pleasant courtyard.

"In this Holy Place lie the bodies of those who built the Mission. May their
souls rest in peace."
The graves of the early friars.

I have my camera. And my thick socks. I'm ready to go.

California Gold: Huntington Beach, Surf City USA

Bonfires on the beach.
Image from Surf City USA.

There is something about surfing that has always spoken to me. Something about the crashing waves, the briny water, being drenched in the sun and air one moment and then submerged in a dark void the next. Then climbing out on the sand like a prehistoric beast looking to collapse in blissful exhaustion. Southern California is the capital of surfing in the United States. Hawaii would be a close second, but the California surf culture has a rock beat in its soul as opposed to a ukulele. This puts it over the edge in my humble opinion. Ukuleles are nice, but surfing should be done with high reverb and drums on the soundtrack.

The main drag of Huntington beach.
Image from Beach Cities.

If Southern California is the capital of American surfing, then Huntington Beach is its thumping heart. The Orange County beach community is fully geared for supporting the sport and lifestyle of surfing. The beachfront contains the Surfing Walk of Fame. Surf supply shops line the streets. Fish taco joints are in abundance. ESPN2 shows up a few times a year to record various tour competitions boasting many of the best surfers in the world. The waves are consistent and beautiful. The weather is a dream. The entire vibe is mellow, calm, and smells of rum punch and seared ahi.

During my first few years of living in California, I spent a lot of time in Huntington Beach. I surfed, I hung with friends, I went to bad rock shows, gorged on tacos and beer, and surfed some more. I wasn't good, but it was fun. I loved the culture. It was relaxing, far removed from the problems of the rest of the world. When my parents came out to visit me in my new homeland I couldn't wait to take them on a tour of Surf Mecca.

Mom and I outside the Ruby's on
the pier.

We walked down Main Street past Hurricanes Bar & Grill, Sugar Shack, Fred's, and Perqs. We crossed PCH and continued out to the Huntington Beach Pier. The waves lapped up against the pillars like gentle fish. The sun was high and mighty. Ruby's at the end of the pier looked like an island oasis. We stopped in for lunch, consumed burgers and old-fashioned chocolate malts that arrive at your table in a glass with the excess in a silver mixing cup. The kind of malted that really sticks to your ribs.

Huntington Beach is a great place to let days slip away pleasantly like daffodils floating along a bubbling brook. The beach calls, the waves beckon, the laid-back restaurants sing their siren song. Before you know it, the sun is going down one more time and your shoulders and nose have got a little bit of a burn.

Image of the pier from Surf City USA. 

With my mom across PCH and Main Street.

California Gold: The Crystal Cathedral of Garden Grove, Orange County

Visitors at the gate.

The building is spectacular by any definition. It has changed hands recently as well as its name, but the common descriptor is still used: The Crystal Cathedral. It's a symbol of 1980s mega-church televangelism due to Robert H. Schuller's weekly TV program (Hour of Power) that used to be so popular during the Reagan Era.

On a visit to Southern California to see me, my parents wanted to make a quick visit to the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove. Any excuse to travel south to Orange County is fine by me so we went together to find visions we had only seen on TV when living back east. We walked around the grounds, admiring the shining structures and posing for photos next to the statues and outdoor figures. This was Religious Tourism. Or maybe Tourism as Religion. Either way, the place felt lonely since it was a weekday afternoon and no service was in session.

You might think that's a
film burn from the end
of the roll, but it's actually
spirits descending upon the
building in judgment.

The ghosts of those big television productions, loud choirs, and holiday spectaculars were long gone. It felt more like a gilded monastery at this point. Quiet and regal. The cathedral-like spikes rise up like organ pipes to the sky, or crystals from a wing of Superman's Fortress of Solitude.

The reflective glass building was designed by postmodern American architect Philip Johnson. It was completed in 1980 and seats around 2800 people. It is also the largest glass building in the world and houses one of the largest musical instruments in the world, the Hazel Wright Memorial organ.

Until 2013, the building had been the principal place of worship for Crystal Cathedral Ministries founded by Robert H. Schuller. In 2010, Crystal Cathedral Ministries filed for bankruptcy (the Lord's punishment for some misguided deeds perhaps?) and in 2012 they sold the building and its adjacent campus to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange for use as the diocese's new cathedral. The building's interior is now being renovated to make way for the Roman Catholic liturgy and is due to re-open later this year. It will then be consecrated and formally renamed Christ Cathedral and become the seat of the Diocese of Orange.

Me and Mary and a robotic-looking
Christ-child.

My parents enjoyed the visit, but still preferred their more modest evangelical church in Kentucky. They left Orange County learning that California isn't all Godless and wicked. There are some truly honest and devout followers on the West Coast...and the Crystal Cathedral is here as well.

My mother posing with the Good Shepherd.

Beautiful walkways go around and beneath the structures.

Me and dad posing at the entryway towards the main building.

"Dad, the camera's this way!"