Caged Bird Travels: California Missions

11:41:00 AM Ariel Bloomfield 0 Comments

    I went on a trip with my aunt to the coast, more like a trip to the California missions. I have not been to the beach in about six years and when I first saw the sand I wished I could jump out and around barefoot. Unfortunately there wasn't enough time for us to do that.
      I've been to the missions before in fourth grade when the beauty of these didn't occur to me until I went back older, and along with the beauty of the places there is always the horror stories that don't tell anybody.
 
       The first mission we went to was San Juan Bautista, it's located right by the San Andres fault. I was amazed to find that the mission had Alfred Hitchcock's Death mask there, apparently he filmed his movie Vertigo there.When we went to the cemetery next to the cathedral, you can here the ominous silence. The term "silent as the grave" came to mind.
      Shortly after we left San Juan Bautista, we went up Monterey Bay and went the Fisherman's Wharf there. My Aunt was look for a specific place that she always went to. She didn't recognize is until she walked up to this place that she thought was it and turned out to be the right place. The place is called Liberty Fishing Co. and the food is really good; so good in fact we had a guest right outside the window, a very cute and friendly seagull who is named after one of their regulars. We had a amazing lunch, and we walked down to the beach after that, I was unable to take off my shoes, but we had fun running away from the water and I found a few mollusk shells. We walked away with salt water taffy before heading to Carmel.   
       Our next stop and final trip, before we went home was the Carmel Missions a few miles from Fisherman's Wharf. The Missions double as a school but luckily it was a Saturday. From the outside of the place it looked small but as you walk through it you begin to realize how big really is and all the oohss...and aahhs can come to mind compared to San Juan Bautista, they had a lot more people in History visit including Robert Louis Stevenson and the Pope. (Not the current one) When we got to the courtyard, the we had found a garden where there rose as big as our hands! They where going Artichokes from a single artichoke plant it was a amazing.
     In another courtyard by the entrance of the flower garden there is a tree there that was swarming with moths that seemed pretty to look at. I was amazed by the flowers there. While were we there we had seen this man with two German Shepherds they were huge! One of the dogs was four years old (who looked the size of a wolf.)and the other was four months. We talked to the owner who was from Germany as were the dogs too. (who were very friendly) Next thing we on way home. Around six o' clock we stopped at Casa de Fruita and got some really good sandwiches, and home to suffer from our dreams of wanting to touch feet in the sand and running away for a couple of hours out of the bus. Instead we got two or three out of the total eight we on the bus.
     So I'm going to save money to go back again and go where I want to go next time and hopefully be walking barefoot in the sand finally.