Mission at San Juan Capistrano

So what do you think of the new look? We decided it was time for a change so we asked Jennifer to show us some options. Edmund wanted one with birds in flight but I thought this one fit more with our blog's theme. Dante pretended not to be interested but I spied him peeking around the corner more than once. The young always think they are so clever!

However, I did not begin this post to tell you that our blog has a new background. I imagine you've already determined that for yourselves. I believe I have mentioned previously that Jennifer has a rather large number of relatives. They are forever getting underfoot. In any event, they all decided to come for a visit and the entire group went on numerous adventurers in the surrounding area. My feline compatriots have already written about a few of these and I shall be adding another one to the list: namely, the Mission at San Juan Capistrano.

The Mission at San Juan Capistrano was founded by a group of Franciscans in the late 1700's. It has been through many changes since then and most, if not all, of the original Mission buildings are no longer visible. The architectural of the remaining structures is quite beautiful, as you can see.

The grounds have been beautifully landscaped as well and feature native and non-native plants.

Although the Mission is now largely a living museum, mass is still held in its Serra Chapel. Jennifer did not wish to use flash photography in a church, so I am afraid there are no usable pictures of it for me to post. However, she did take a lovely shot of a side alter dedicated to Saint Peregrine.

Peregrine, as you may know, is the patron saint of cancer sufferers. Why, exactly, the Mission features a prayer room dedicated to this particular saint was not made clear to me.

I could not post about San Capistrano without mentioning the annual arrival of the swallows every March who build nests under the eves of the Mission buildings. As Jennifer neglected to take a single photograph of either a swallow or its nest, I am forced to post one from an Internet source.

This is the first time in the history of this blog that we have used someone else's photograph. The dear girl really must learn to be more observant.

She did, however, capture some lovely pictures of the fish in the Mission's fountains. There was a sign that forbade putting one's hands in the water as it might harm the fish and aquatic plants. It said nothing about paws, however.

Here fishy, fishy, fishy...

Look it how big that fish is! And that's just it's back! Whoa! I like to eat fishies, especially the kind that comes in a can, but I think maybe this fish could eat me. O.o

Spanky says that it isn't a fish. He says it's a whale and it most definitely does not eat kitties. I don't know, though. It lives in the water and has fins and a tail and last time I checked that's what fishies have. Also, it has to eat something. It's not going to live off of little flakes like the goldfish we had did. Dante just told me that I don't have to worry cause we're too far away from the water to worry about any fish that doesn't come in a can. Yay! Tuna fish! :D

Oh right. I'm supposed to be posting about the not-fish.

So, to see the big not-fish, Mommy and her family had to go on the ocean in a boat. I don't know why they wanted to go near that much water but sometimes humans are strange like that (even my Mommy). They wanted to see a whale but whales don't always tell people where they are going to be. You just have to be lucky enough to catch them.

They saw all sorts of cool stuff! Like dolphins!

Spanky says those are also not fish even if they look like fish. They are different not-fish than whales. So confusing! Why can't I just call them all fish? It would make things easier.

And then they saw a whale. Right by the boat!

Even though it's gray like me, it's called a blue whale. Blue whales are the biggest not-fish of all! Spanky says that they're the biggest mammals, too. When I asked him what a mammal was he told me that I was a mammal and so was Mommy and so was the Monster. Which is just silly. I don't look anything like the Monster! Also, I do not have fins like the not-fish (but I do have a tail).

Mommy also took some video of the whales and the dolphins. Since she was on the water, the camera goes up and down a lot but it's still pretty cool. You might also want to turn off the sound unless you want to hear Mommy and her sister talk about if the camera is on or not.

Dolphins!


Whale!