San Juan Capistrano | French Californian

San Juan Capistrano

You’ve probably figured out by now that my favorite thing to photograph is the world around me. But ever since I moved back to California, I’ve been lacking inspiration. The reason for that? I just don’t live in grand, historic Europe anymore! It’s no longer possible for me to simply wander the streets of Paris or other European cities, always finding something incredible to photograph. Instead, I have to seek out specific boutiques, restaurants or little pockets of charm, and bring myself to them via the congested and stressful freeways of Southern California. It’s been a challenge, since I have a bit of driving anxiety, but I find the the more I brave the roads, the less intimidated I feel. With every trip my anxiety levels drop a little.

I’ve been making an effort to explore locally, but a little while ago, I visited Balboa Island in Newport Beach, and was totally underwhelmed – apparently it’s a really popular place to visit, but aside from some cute houses and the original frozen banana stand that inspired the one in Arrested Development, I was left feeling completely unimpressed.

After that “failed” adventure (I left without having taken a single photograph because I found nothing inspiring), I was somewhat reluctant to explore again, but yesterday I was bored and restless and decided to revisit San Juan Capistrano on a whim, since it’s only 25 minutes away from home. The city is best known for its beautiful historic mission, which I visited earlier this year. This time, I wanted to see what else the city has to offer. Here’s what I found!

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The Santa Barbara Mission by French Californian

Discovering California History at the Santa Barbara Mission

 

On my last trip to California, my Mom had the fabulous idea to visit Santa Barbara for a few days. I’ve visited many times, since it’s only about 3 hours away from my hometown, but the only things I remember about Santa Barbara are the zoo – which, if I remember correctly, was famous for its giraffe with a crooked neck – the beach, and shopping on State Street. For this trip, since we’re all a bit more grown up, we decided to check out what else the city has to offer, so we headed to the Santa Barbara Mission.

The only knowledge I had about Missions in California came from a school project I did in 3rd or 4th grade, so I was long overdue for a refresher. The Missions are some of the oldest structures along the California coastline, built by a Spanish order of Franciscan friars in an effort to spread Christianity to the Native Americans. There are 21 of them, and the Santa Barbra Mission was established in 1786, although after a major earthquake in 1812, it had to be rebuilt.

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