Twenty-One Missions

My wife is determined to visit all 21 California missions and today we got two closer to that goal. We were picking up our son and daughter-in-law at LAX because they are going to be visiting for a couple of days. We decided it would be a good opportunity to see the two missions in Los Angeles that we had yet to visit. The San Gabriel one was a big disappointment as it was closed due to an arson fire last year (even though the website stated they were open everyday at 9:00 am). Our second stop, at Mission San Fernando Rey de España, totally made our time in the car worthwhile. Well preserved grounds, good museum, and informative video presentation kept us engaged for well longer than we expected. A bonus was discovering that the entertainer Bob Hope and his wife are both buried on the property in the aptly named Bob Hope Memorial Garden. Only four of the missions shown here remain on our list.