Santa Clara Mission

(My continuing summer 'field trip' series.)

Santa Clara Mission is a part of Santa Clara University, the oldest college in California and is the only college in the state to be the successor of a Spanish Mission.

Founded in 1777 by Father Junipero Serra, this was the 8th mission out of the 21 CA Missions. This was the first mission built in honor of a woman, Clare of Assisi, the founder of the order of the Poor Clares.

Okay.. after four different mission visits, they pretty much look the same. The difference about this one was that it is now a prestigious university. And the place where one of my cousins and his wife married over 15 years ago. I vaguely remembered coordinating this wedding (my memory fades as I age). But my husband gently reminded me of a few details and it came back. This mission is on a beautiful flower-filled campus and it looks like a wonderful college to attend. (Note: I noticed that I did not see a prominent cemetery. I guess it would freak some students out if there was one on campus huh?)

Front of the Mission

Sanctuary

All of them fit into this little adobe window.

The 5 Musketeers: ages 7, 8, 10, 10 &13

One of the biggest tree trunks I have ever seen!

We picnic lunched on the lawn. It was a beautiful day! They had delicious food served at the Grill too.

Mission San Jose

(My continuing summer 'field trip' series.)

California Missions were the places that J. and Emily wanted to visit this summer. Since completing fourth grade, they both got the 'Mission bug' and wanted to check out more of them. (If you didn't know, California Missions is a key unit in fourth grade curriculum).

So we went to the closest Mission to our house. Right down the street from our school is Mission San Jose. We always wondered why we didn't just have a field trip to this Mission rather than going all the way down to the Carmel or San Juan Bautista Missions. Well after visiting it, I now know why.

Mission San Jose was founded by Father Fermin Francisco de Lasuen. This is the 14th of the 21 Spanish Missions in California. It was founded to secure Spain's claim to this land and to teach the native people Christianity and the Spanish way of life. It is also home to St. Joseph Catholic Church.

This mission was a self-sustaining village occupied by local natives, the Ohlone Indians. Thousands of cattle roamed the mission ranges and acres of wheat and other crops were planted and harvested under the direction of the padres.

This Mission was quite small and did not have a lot of artifacts and restored rooms of what a mission could have looked like. But it was still quite interesting knowing what was on this land a long time ago.

The front of the Mission

1868 Earthquake destroyed the adobe church and many nearby buildings.

All the doorways are so narrow and low; the people must have been really little back then.

Sanctuary

Old cemeteries fascinate me. I even took a class about them in college. There is so much history there. The kids looked for the oldest tombstone. I think this one was it. She was only 26 years old. How sad. :(