Over the weekend we were in Southern California for a wedding. While there, we spent an afternoon in
San Juan Capistrano, home to some of the oldest buildings still in use in California. We wandered through the
Los Rios Street Historic District along the railroad. Huge trains rolled by tiny board and batten structures, some of which still house descendants of the orignal families. We had lunch in the
old train depot and then went over to the Mission. Built in the auspicious year of
1776,
Mission San Juan Capistrano became a bustling complex of adobe buildings and a large stone church. Tragically, the church was destroyed by an earthquake in 1812, killing the congregation. The church has been left as a ruin to memorialize the event but the adobe buildings are restored and the site "romantically" landscaped. Always a treat to visit examples of California's fragile Mission-Era history.
