I recently finished reading a book called All the Gallant Men, a fascinating memoir by Donald Stratton, who was serving aboard the USS Arizona at the time of the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. He survived the ship’s sinking but suffered serious burns; and while he and his fellow survivors were initially treated in Hawaii, they were later transferred first […]
As I began watching this final episode of Huell’s California Mission series I expected something completely different. When I first saw the title “Art of the Missions,” I had imagined a tour of some surviving pieces of religious art — paintings of the Virgin, stained glass windows, tile mosaics. But even though I had it completely wrong, this turned out […]
Some of the sights Huell finds as he explores the gardens of Mission La Purísima Concepción may seem a bit familiar if you’ve been following my recent Friday series, in which I’ve shared slides my mom shot there back in the early 1980s. And later this week my images will include some from the garden area. I’m really glad that […]
The “forgotten” 22nd Mission, San Antonio de Pala, was built in 1816 and serves the people of the Pala Village. Huell learns quite a lot about the history of the mission and the reservation, including a visit to a portion of the mission that is home to the Vivian Banks Charter School; the school is unique in being a public […]
Huell winds up his tour of the 21 missions this week by visiting San Francisco de Asis, San Rafael Arcangel, and San Francisco Solano — all in the San Francisco Bay area. You may recall the Mission San Francisco de Asis from an episode I featured in October 2018; during that visit Huell learned that this mission contains one of […]
Each of the 21 missions has its own story of creation, neglect and perhaps destruction, and finally rescue and reconstruction in some form. This week’s three missions have gone through some very dramatic changes; both Mission Santa Cruz and Mission San Jose were replaced by more modern buildings back in the 1800s. In fact, San Jose’s mission building wasn’t reconstructed […]
This week, Huell visits three beautiful and diverse missions, all very special places with flavors of historic California. Coming up on Friday, I’ll have a few slides of these three missions which were shot by my mom in the early 1980s. Huell visits these Missions in this episode: Soledad San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo San Juan Bautista (Click on the […]
Huell visits these three Missions in this episode: San Diego de Alcala, San Luis Rey de Francia, San Juan Capistrano (Click on the linked image below to see the video.)
Huell visits these Missions in this episode: San Luis Obispo de Tolosa San Miguel Arcangel San Antonio de Padua (Click on the linked image below to see the video.)