I'm not sure why I felt the obsession to visit Santa Monica pier, but I did. In retrospect, I think it might have been from watching NCIS:LA with my mother (who is a groupie) - it seems in every episode after they have caught the requisite terrible-person-trying-to-blow-up-innocent-civilians-villain, the NCIS team takes a break to banter and drink beer with the Santa Monica pier in the background, while the sun picturesquely sets, setting everything to a complexion-favoring orange glow. Whatever the genesis, the obsession was there, and my in-laws graciously offered to battle LA traffic (which was just as bad as they warned it would be) to get us there.
On the way we were able to see Emma's great-grandmother (always a treat) and to introduce Emma to In-n-Out (this reference just caused anyone who grew up in CA to lick their lips longingly; those readers not so lucky to have sampled In-n-Out wares will have to trust my word that they make a mean burger). Just to keep us on our toes, Emma decided to swallow a penny at great-grandma's house, but is none the worse for wear.
The Santa Monica area is actually quite cute. While the pier ended up giving me slight Coney Island flashbacks (which is in no way a complement - Chris & I visited once while we lived in NYC and I found it grungy, mobbed and over-priced), it was actually quite well-maintained and managed to retain some bit of local cultural flavor even amidst the touristy shops and rigged carnival games. The 3rd Street Boulevard offers an interesting mix of restaurants, trendy clothing, and water-spouting boxwood-bush-made dinosaur fountain sculptures (no, really). We paid for our folly by sitting in 90 minutes of traffic on the way home with an over-tired baby shifting deliriously from belly laughs to red-faced tears, but still worth it to experience the area at least once.
I am here officially skipping over a visit to the Orange County fair - while enjoyable, it being almost identical to every other county fair in the country, I won't try your patience with stories of pig races, pastry competitions, and fried food bonanazas - except to note that I found the idea of fried White Castle burgers to be perhaps the most nausea-inducing sign I have ever seen.
We checked out San Juan Capistrano the following day. This was my first experience with a California mission, I was surprised to see a well-maintained building (I had imagine picturesque but crumbling ruins, somehow). The mission was built over 200 years ago as one of the Alta California missions set up to bring the Catholic faith to the native people groups. Every March 19th, the Mission celebrates the return of the swallows (also made famous by the 1940 song When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano):
When the swallows come back to Capistrano
That's the day you promised to come back to me
When you whispered, farewell in Capistrano
Was the day the swallows flew out to the sea
That's the day you promised to come back to me
When you whispered, farewell in Capistrano
Was the day the swallows flew out to the sea
All the mission bells will ring, the chapel choir will sing
The happiness you bring will live in my memory
When the swallows come back to Capistrano
Thats the day I pray that youll come back to me
The happiness you bring will live in my memory
When the swallows come back to Capistrano
Thats the day I pray that youll come back to me
While actual artifacts at Capistrano are somewhat limited - most of the structure has been rebuilt - some of the original areas remain, and the mission as a whole retains a peaceful, contemplative air that I think must have been there when it was founded so many years ago.
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