One of the main things we wanted to do while "down south" was visit the San Buenaventura Mission. Both of the kids did their 4th grade report on that mission and we've been planning to visit, but never got around to it. Harv's Uncle Paul and his wife Carrie met up with us for a tour of the mission and it's grounds.
Buenaventura is famous for being the only mission with wooden bells.
Since we were actually staying in Santa Barbara, we couldn't pass up visiting the Santa Barbara Mission while we were there.
The next day we wandered through Solvang .
We had lunch,did some shopping,
and met some interesting people... And yes, we found yet another mission! Solvang is home to the Santa Ines Mission.
The next day we decided to go across the park from our hotel to visit the Santa Barbara Zoo.
It's a much smaller zoo than say L.A or San Diego, but they have over 500 animals and you only have to trek across 30 acres as opposed to 100 like the others.
We did spend some time actually on the beach, but it was very cold and windy so it was not nearly as much time as the kids would of liked.On our drive home we followed the "El Camino Real" (highway)
and watched the bells go by every mile or so to mark the path of the missions. So we decided to stop at one more mission on the way home. This one was the San Luis Obispo Mission.
We had a fabulous time!
