This weekend, I got a bee in my bonnet to have a little adventure. At first, I thought I'd drive into San Francisco, then a friend suggested I take the train...but in the end, I wanted to do something a little different. In my...mission...to see all of the California Missions, I hadn't yet been to San Rafael, and, in fact, I was curious about the city of San Rafael, which I've heard is lovely.
So my plan was set. I'd head off to San Rafael, see the mission then...well, whatever. I'd figure that out later.
Normally when I go on my little adventures, I wake up really early, have a leisurely breakfast, play on Facebook, etc. Not quite what happened this morning. A very strange dream (in which my former boss, the one I'm
working on forgiving this year, bit me. Yes. Bit me. In anger. On my hand.) woke me at 3:30. Obviously, getting maliciously bitten, even in a dream, is disturbing, and then a few noises from somewhere else in the house creeped me out to the point where I was awake enough to realize I had to use the bathroom. You know how it goes. Then you're awake, etc.
I did fall back asleep, but instead of getting up at 6:00, I got up a little after 7:00. I wanted to hit the road by 8:30, and managed to do this. I left at 8:20, got about a mile from my house, noticed that everything was blurry, and realized that while my outfit was super-cute and my makeup was perfect, I had forgotten to put my contact lenses in.
Ooops.
Ten minutes later, I had my vision back, and set off once more.
The drive to San Rafael was lovely. It was early enough that traffic was light on Interstate 80, and when I turned off near Vallejo to take Highway 37, I was able to just relax and enjoy the scenery (which is gorgeous). I reached San Rafael in great time, easily found my way to the mission, and then killed a bit of time before it opened by wandering around the old downtown area, taking pictures, sipping hot chocolate at the altar of St. Arbuck's, and enjoying a gorgeous morning.
(I'll just insert here that I adore my new camera. Love, love, love.)
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| The newer church, next to the mission. |
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| The main street in downtown San Rafael. |
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| I adore old theaters. So photogenic! |
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| A bar/restaurant. I took a lot of sign pics today. |
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| Cute shoes, no? (They left me with blisters, unfortunately.) |
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| Life is not complete without a ginormous pink/purple hedgehog. |
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| The theater from another angle. |
By this time, the mission was open, so off I went. Mission San Rafael is a very small mission--it was never as large as the more southern missions in the state--and the current building is a reproduction of the original, built in 1949. Still, it was worth a visit, and I've now seen all of the Northern California missions.
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| Father Sera...a familiar fixture at all missions. |
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| The newer church. Pink! |
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| Taken without flash--my Nikon would have turned out dark and blurry. |
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Looking back towards the main street (one block down the hill from the
street in front of the mission). |
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Cali Swimmy (of course he came along!) was so disappointed that there
were no fountains for paddling. |
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| Old and new. |
After visiting the mission, I hopped back in Rosie Pro and headed south on Highway 101 towards San Francisco...but turned off to catch the very crowded Highway 1 north along California's gorgeous coast...which will be highlighted in Part 2.
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