Mission of San Juan Capistrano

The Missions of San Juan Capistrano is a California Landmark and dates back to the 1700s.  There are lovely gardens that range from beautiful variegated roses to sedum to cacti.  The gardens are weaved throughout the Mission. 






 
If you're into history this is a great place to visit which takes roughly about 2+ hours to completely go through.  You are given a complimentary audio device that allows you to push numbers which correspond to the historical information of the Missions.



Original kitchens
I found the ruins of the original church the most interesting.  It was destroyed by an earthquake in the very early 1800s. 
The gorgeous old original fountain that had the perfect sound.



The extremely small doorways to the church and the Missions continue to crack me up.  We as humans have evolved with better nutrition medicine etc. There is an abundance of gorgeous wood doors in the Missions, please see below.  










 The Mission of San Juan Capistrano is located downtown in Capistrano, California.  There is an old legend of the Swallows of Capistrano. FR O'Sullivan welcomed the little birds to reside at the Missions and a song was later made about it.  These little birds migrate all the way to Argentina and return yearly to nest in the Missions.





This Trumpet Flower Vine was spectacular!  The blooms were the size of my hand.














They had me at wine.  San Juan Capistrano Missions was the birthplace of wine in California.  The Missions had two wine vats made out of bricks to stomp the grapes.  How fun does that sound?  From the vats, the juice drained down to where the magic happened.  Grapes were crushed and made into sacramental wine for the Eucharist.  The first wines were made in the early 1700s in the Missions in California.  This inevitably gave birth to one of the largest wine industries in the world. Way to go Monks!






          A corner cabinet inside the original church




An Orange Tree, there are lots of these in California.

Parking can be found around the block for free.  
The entrance into the missions is $18 USD for adults, this includes your audio tour device.


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