Mission of the Valley
Before Rachel left Friday night, we visited one more mission that day. We went to one nearby in the San Fernando Valley called Mission San Fernando Rey de Espana. It was really pretty and the lawns were very well manicured. This time we had plenty of time to tour the place. It was really interesting to see.
Here’s an interesting quote from Wikipedia, “The goal of the missions was, above all, to become self-sufficient in relatively short order. Farming, therefore, was the most important industry of any mission. Prior to the establishment of the missions, the native peoples knew only how to utilize bone, seashells, bush, and wood for building, tool making, weapons, and so forth. The missionaries discovered that the Indians, who regarded labor as degrading to the masculine sex, had to be taught industry in order to learn how to be self-supportive. The result was the establishment of a great manual training school that comprised agriculture, the mechanical arts, and the raising and care of livestock.”
Denmark or California?
The other day we took Rachel over to Solvang. It was founded by Danes in 1911 and now has a population of approximately 5,283. It’s this cute little town with lots of Danish influence. Lots of cute shops, restaurants, bakeries and other cute places. I just thought it was cute!
The fire dept. with a (fireman) hanging from the tree
We also headed over to the Santa Ines Mission. There are 21 missions total in California. If you haven’t heard of the missions in California, Wikipedia explains what they are really well. Check it out here. They are really old and interesting buildings. Usually you can take a tour of the grounds, but this one was closing, so we took some outside pictures.
Happy girl in the car
Since it was jut about sunset and we weren’t too far from the beach, we thought we might be able to get some good pictures at the closest beach we could find.
5 minutes down the road, one tired baby
Santa Monica
We arrived in Santa Monica and headed for the Pier. As we were walking down to the beach, a fog was rolling in. So these first couple pictures we took weren’t very clear. It was cool, but felt good on a hot day.
Keira loved the water!
Route 66 souvenirs, Santa Monica is where it ends
Next we walked over to the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium. It’s pretty small, but it’s cheap and there are hands on tanks where you can feel the sea creatures. Really cool for the kids. Ok and the adults. 🙂
In the small aquarium, this small shark in the corner was poking his head out of the water
Violet touching some sea creatures
This thing felt like velvet, it was so soft around the edge
Next, we headed back up on the pier to take a walk around, and we saw these really pretty birds just sitting there hanging out.
The bird guy just comes over and hands Violet this bird to hold like a baby
Keira didn’t like it very much, not too sure the bird did either
Turns out the birds name was also Violet, the guy was happy to finally meet a little girl with the same name
Her happiness in this pic lasted about 5 seconds, then she started crying. She does not like her hair being messed with.
The bird was hanging on the guys tooth. This is the bird guy, can you tell?
Petting another pretty bird
Down the pier a bit is the Pacific Park. It’s a tiny amusement park on the Pier. Micah, Rachel and Violet took a ride on the ferris wheel.
View from the ferris wheel
View of the end of the pier from the park
After we walked around on the pier the fog had cleared off, so we headed back down to the water. Violet loved it! She was having fun running back and forth in and out of the water.
After playing for a bit in the sand and water, we ate at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company restaurant. Yummy food right on the pier, perfect.
From the movie, Forrest Gump. Great movie, fun restaurant.
Next we drove over to Third Street Promenade. They have the street closed off to cars, and its a fun cute place to walk down. There are a bunch of shops and restaurants and there are usually lots of performers, trying to make some money.
Keira loves coffee too!
Then we ended the night with some coffee! A good day!
Six Sandowiches 