Easin' Along

In a previous post, I informed Easin’ Along readers about the two-week vacation Helen and I enjoyed on the beach in San Onofre, CA. We had been busy driving across the country and spending quality time with our son’s family, including our precious grandchildren. We took advantage of the opportunity to do what we do best: sit in a beach chair while reading and watching dozens of surfers.

Near the end of the second week, I suggested we “do something.” There are many attractions, restaurants, and shopping venues to visit, but I had no interest in that. We drove to nearby San Clemente occasionally for propane and diesel fuel, where I observed several signs pointing to Mission San Juan Capistrano, a short 14 miles from the campground. We made plans to go the next day.

The town of San Jan Capistrano is small and charming, and it reeks of history. We found parking near the Mission and walked to the ticket station, just inside the front door. Tickets were $30, but thanks to 1) being old and 2) being Veterans with ID cards, we managed to whittle the price of admission down to $15. Sometimes, “old” has its advantages.

Before this visit, the only thing I knew about San Juan Capistrano was its reputation for the swallows that returned there around the same time every year. There was much more to swallow than birds.

Founded in 1776 by Padre Junípero Serra, the Mission is the seventh in a chain of 21 missions established in Alta, California, to Christianize and civilize the Indians. The Acjachemen (Ah-HAWSH-eh-men) were the Native Americans who lived in the area of Mission San Juan Capistrano before the Spanish arrived in 1776. The Acjachemen are also known as the Juaneno people. 

Helen and I walked into the Mission Courtyard, a green and elegantly landscaped space surrounded by the Serra Chapel, gathering rooms, and the quarters of the property owners who arrived in the mid-19th century.

Serra Chapel is a grand structure and the only place Father Serra, the Mission founder, said mass and performed baptisms. On the left wall of Serra Chapel was a portrait of Saint John Capistrano, the Mission’s namesake, who lived in Italy during the 13th century. In the front pews, many visitors sat while offering silent prayer.

Shortly after the Mission’s founding, construction began on the Great Stone Church. Construction finished in 1806, but during the earthquake of 1812, the Great Stone Church fell to the ground and was never rebuilt. Two original bells from the Great Stone Church remain on the property and ring daily. Two of the oldest bells are also on display but no longer used due to cracking.

In 1845, the Mission, valued at over $54,000, was auctioned to John Forster, Governor Pio Pico’s brother-in-law, for $710. For the next 20 years, the Mission was a private ranch property of the Forster family. Eventually, Mr. Forster would own 250,000 acres across three counties. Rooms, including the dining room Mr. Forster and his family used, were open to visitors.

Several ladies were engaged in a demonstration of ancient tribal basket weaving along the inside wall of the courtyard. One lady spent several minutes with us explaining the techniques for producing various sizes of baskets.

San Juan Capistrano achieved nationwide attention in 1939 when NBC Radio played the song “When the Swallows Return to Capistrano” to a live national audience. Interest in the birds attracted attention to the area.

The famous cliff swallows of San Juan Capistrano leave town every year in a swirling mass near the Day of San Juan (October 23). They head for their winter vacation spot 6,000 miles south in Goya, Corrientes, Argentina. Each year, they return on or about March 19 – St. Joseph Day.

Now, the swallows are nesting farther from the center of town, and visitors no longer see clouds of swallows descending on the Mission as they once did. Still, the swallows are Capistrano’s most famous citizens. The birds are well-known, well-loved, and protected here. The city is, by law, a bird sanctuary. A volunteer guide at the Mission pointed out some nests in the eaves and overhangs of some buildings around the Courtyard.

We enjoyed our visit to the Mission immensely and spent some time driving through the historic area of the town before returning to the campground at San Onofre Beach. Our beach chairs were where we left them.

We’re Easin’ Along.

Helen and I don’t consider RV travel a vacation. We view it as living our lives in a variety of locations. Some of those locations are amazing, but we have all the chores that are part of our everyday routine. There’s laundry, cleaning, cooking, trash disposal, and I could go on–you get my drift

In many of those delightful locations, we visit local attractions, treat ourselves to a nice meal at a local restaurant, or shop for fresh seafood and vegetables at local markets. Our most recent campground is in Seal Beach, CA, and we made the short drive to Long Beach, CA, for the Sunday Farmer’s Market at the Marina. The vegetable displays included fresh vegetables of every variety, which were impossible to pass up. We did pass on fresh eggs–they were too pricey for our food budget. (Click on the images to view)

After two weeks of camping at Seal Beach, we moved down the coast to San Onofre Recreational Beach, one of two oceanfront campgrounds on Marine Base Camp Pendelton. We camped at San Onofre for several days last summer and vowed to return. San Onofre is a beautiful campground, and the campsites are on the beach. The picture below illustrates how close we were to the waterfront. Our red truck is in the upper portion of the image.

Helen and I decided to make this stop as much of a vacation as possible. We ventured out rarely and let everything in front of us serve as our entertainment. It was a good call, but we had to endure two days of heavy rain before our vacation began.

Once the skies cleared, a company of Marines moved in for a heavy dose of exercise on the sandy beach. They began with sit-ups with arms interlocked, then started doing push-ups in a chain of men with legs extended over the shoulders of the Marines behind. They also ran sprints carrying another Marine on their backs. I was exhausted just watching the drill.

Another element of our daily entertainment included dozens of surfers riding the waves. They arrived before sunrise and remained long after the sun went down. Most of them were very skilled and fun to watch as they scooted through water tunnels to the shoreline.

We spent our days walking, reading, cooking some great seafood, and generally taking it easy until about 5:30 every afternoon when the real entertainment began. Our trailer sat on our campsite in a manner that afforded an unobstructed view of the sunset, and those sunsets were stunning. I attached a 70-200 mm zoom lens to my camera and captured the dazzling spectacle almost every evening. I have shared some of the more dramatic ones below.

By now, I’m confident I have lulled everyone to sleep with our semi-lazy lifestyle, but that captures much of our stay here—and we loved it. We did take one side trip to San Juan Capistrano, which I’ll share in the next post. For now, I’m off to my nap.

We’re Easin’ Along and loving it!

We landed at Seabreeze RV Resort, a Navy campground in Seal Beach, CA. After a strong push across the country, it was fabulous to land in one campground and remain there for sixteen nights. Equally fantastic was the chance to be around our son and his family, who live 20 miles north of the campground.

Before arriving at Seal Beach, we experienced issues with our bedroom slide extending and retracting. The slide finally gave out at our stop at Fort Irwin, CA, and we could not get it to retract. Seal Beach was 200 miles away, and I would drive with the slide extended, but Helen had a better idea. Our route would take us through Barstow, CA, and she successfully located an RV Mobile repair technician (Fred) who would meet us in the Barstow Home Depot parking lot to investigate the problem. Fred reworked the wiring on the slide motor and had us on the road to Seal Beach in an hour and a half.

In the early days at Seal Beach, we used some time for repair and maintenance. One of our pantry shelves had fallen and needed some reworking. The trim around our front window had separated from the wall, and I reattached that. The heating element in our water burned out. I bought the last one available at Camping World and replaced it (thanks to a YouTube video).

A few days after arriving, we visited Justin’s neighborhood, where our granddaughter, Abby, and her friends stood for pictures after dressing up for the Winter Formal hosted by her High School. The young ladies were gorgeous, and the young men were strikingly handsome. The students gathered in a local park while their parents (and grandparents) took picture after picture.

Our Grandson, Carter, played in a two-day volleyball tournament conveniently held in Seal Beach. Helen and I felt fortunate to have the opportunity to watch the action. Carter’s team won more games than they lost, and Carter played very well. 

Helen and I don’t go out for meals very often, but when we’re in Southern California, I insist we visit Hennessey’s Irish Pub in Hermosa Beach. Carter and I each had the Dubliner Gourmet Burger.

I also insist I have my annual picture of Abby and me seated together, which we did this time. Abby doesn’t appear to be relishing the moment, but she probably had a lot on her mind. Her high school cheerleading team was on their way to Orlando for the National High School Cheerleading competition as the defending National Champions. This year, the team competed hard and took home the Bronze Medal. Third in the nation is still an outstanding accomplishment.

Southern California’s weather has been unusually wet and cold, and we spent much of the first week indoors. I can’t complain much about the rain because it is badly needed here, and thankfully, a lot of it fell in the Pacific Palisades area, where most of the wildfire damage occurred earlier in January.

Finally, the sun broke through, and we drove to Seal Beach’s historic downtown area to walk past the shops and onto the pier. The day was gorgeous, and the surfers were out in droves—most were excellent, and all were wearing wet suits. I have no idea what the water temperature was that day, but I’m confident it was very cold.

The Seal Beach Pier is nearly a half-mile long, with a large viewing area at the end. Many ships rested in the water, awaiting their turn to dock at the Port of Long Beach. One ship, moored way offshore, stood between me and Catalina Island. The words of the song by the Four Preps ran through my head:

“Twenty-six miles across the Sea, Santa Catalina is waiting for me…”

The song became an earworm and stuck with me all afternoon. If you want to make it your earworm, too, here’s a link to the lyrics:

https://genius.com/The-four-preps-26-miles-santa-catalina-lyrics

Enjoy your day…we’re Easin’ Along.