California Dreams - Day Four

I loved our room's little sitting area by the balcony. I spent good time here reading 'Death Comes for the Archbishop' by Willa Cather. It was a great book & seemed so fitting to the setting. The small mission parishes that we visited felt like we were seeing parts of the story. Our drive back down through the mountains was so different on Highway 101. Still incredible vistas but now with vineyards, open fields, & valleys. The lack of pouring rain helped make it even more gorgeous, too.

Hello, again, San Francisco! After dropping off our car, we hopped on the bus down to Mission Dolores. The Mission San Francisco de Asis is both the oldest building in San Francisco & the only remaining original mission founded by Blessed Junipero Serra in 1776.

The Church next door was destroyed in an earthquake & rebuilt years ago. Both were unique.

Inside the old mission where they still celebrate Mass.

The "new" Church is dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows.

There were carvings on the wall of each of the Seven Sorrows.

We could also walk through the cemetery where over 5000 parishoners are buried from the native Chinua indians to the earliest of immigrants to many of the priests who gave their lives here.

It was incredible to be there & stand where the many martyrs before were. The view from our hotel window included many building top "yards".

One more stroll down that crazy Lombard Street

We were pretty tired of travelling at this point, so we just walked down a few blocks to an Indian buffet for our last dinner in California. I'm a big buffet fan especially with foods that I don't know very well. I rediscovered gulab jamun as a delicious dessert that our friend Anand made for us years ago. Definitely getting that next time we're at The Oven. We headed back to the hotel & laughed watching 'Man vs. Food'. Hilarious. Not hilarious enough for us to ever get cable, but fun entertainment for us both to enjoy.