Memorial Day

I wanted a lazy Memorial Day and I wanted to get out of town, but with gas costing well over $4, we settled for a half-day trip to San Juan Bautista. It was a perfect day. We left in the afternoon, and drove 35 minutes to the little town. We went to the mission there. Tom and I both wondered what Addison would think of the trip since his ideas for Memorial Day were:

1. Go see Indiana Jones.




2. Go swimming.




3. Go to the park.




4. Attack Tom (this is a recurring theme around here).

The weather wasn't good enough for swimming, but too good to spend the day inside watching a movie. The park would have been too crowded, and he gets to attack Tom plenty. When we pulled up to the mission, we did get the expected, "Is this it?" remark... but he loved it. He was fascinated by the old kitchen, cemetary, and chapel. We spent almost an hour at the mission, and then spent the rest of the day shopping the antique shops around town. By town, I mean 4 block strip of main street. By shopping, I mean going to the 5 shops that were open on Memorial Day. By antique shops... well, I sort of mean antique shops, but I also mean little stores full of people's old and sometimes crappy stuff. There was a store that sold rocks and beads that Addison (ok... me and Tom, too) thought was pretty cool. He got a shark's tooth there and I got a purple rock. After I left the store with Tom looking at me like, "hmm... you just bought a purple rock the size of large peanut M&M", I decided the rock needed a purpose, and so it is a worry rock now. I'll have to start worrying more. After that, we went to the turbo antique store where I found a treasue (see tomorrow's blog). We had been there a while when it became obvious they were trying to close up. It was 5:00 on Memorial Day after all. We left and walked back down the street to find a place to eat. We followed our noses because something seriously smelled good, and it led us to someone's backyard barbecue, which we almost crashed because everything was closing! Finally, we found a Mexican restaurant called Jardines de San Juan. It was super cute and really good. As we were eating, a big group of people came in consisting of all of the shop owners from downtown. I guess that's where you go at 5:00 in San Juan Bautista.

We were tired enough by then and drove home stopping only at In-N-Out Burger for a vanilla shake for Addison. He was asleep by the time we got home (even though it was only 7:30). I wasn't ready for the long weekend to be over. I need more holidays like that.

For some reason, I only took pictures at the mission. I wish I had pictures of downtown San Juan Bautista. We'll have to go back.

This cactus extends about 6 feet above our heads. I had a picture of the whole thing, but somehow I deleted it.

I decided that it might be fun to look like I was drunk in all the pictures we took on Memorial Day. I think I pulled it off pretty well here in front of the baptistry.

Addison to Tom when he saw the baptistry: "How do people fit in those tiny little tubs?"

Tom thought that my "drunk picture" idea was so much fun that he decided to look like he was smelling something foul.... Well done, Thomas.

You know you wanted to see the rock.