As I slowly begin to make my way back to Oregon, I'm shutting down the baseball portion of this trip. While it coincidentally coincided with the All-Star Break, three games in three days is a great road trip in itself and I am eagerly awaiting going back to Oregon. However, as we make our way north, there are opportunities to take in sights and sounds that usually evade a baseball road trip. The premise that baseball can complement other experiences to create a holistic event that adds to the allure. Today was one of those days.
The plan for today was fight the infamous "Carmeggedon" traffic in LA and make our way up to Fresno to see some family. It was going to take about six hours, give or take with the traffic, to head up into the Central Valley.
While the majority of today was spent mostly driving, I did have the opportunity to visit my eighth separate California Mission, Mission San Fernando Rey de España. Located in the posh LA suburb of San Fernando, Mission San Fernando is unlike any of the missions I had been to before. While we had to fight some brutal gridlock on the 405 to get there, the slight detour was well-worth the trip. Intermixing the missions and Baseball Road Trips has become quite commonplace as this is the second time this year that I have visited a mission while on a road trip.
Founded in 1797, it is easily the oldest building in the San Fernando Valley. The main convento building that is the most photographed part faces the street in front while the bulk of the complex is hidden behind it through a veil of palm and olive trees. The bucolic setting is fabulously restored and offers to the history buff, like myself, one of the best museums of California Mission history around
A couple things strike me as significant with this mission. First, there is almost no part of the original structure that was built in 1797. I'm sure if you were to look closely, you may find some old adobe brick of wood cross-members, but other than that, it is almost completely rebuilt. I infer that the reason is two-fold because of the substantive earthquake damage it has received during at history and that after the Spanish settlers had left the mission in the early 1800's much of the building was pilfered for the raw materials it had.
Secondly, I was rather surprised to see the grave of comedian Bob Hope at the mission. While his acts were a little before my time, and that I had to do some on-the-fly Wikipedia research, I asked myself "why would he have chosen to be buried in such a place?" Considering that San Fernnado is the next town up the freeway from Beverly Hills and that most deceased movie stars are buried there, I was asking that question of myself as I was coming up here. Maybe someone out there knows the answer, so let me know. It just seemed a little odd.
All in all, the mission was fantastic. While it wasn't my favorite mission, everything related to them is a matter of degrees. Once more, an off-the-beaten path destination added to the overall allure of the Baseball Road Trip.
After the mission, we made our way up to Fresno and spend the evening with my relatives who live there.
At around 11am, we'll be heading back to Oregon.
Always take on a 3-0 pitch ;)
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