San Diego - Day One

Greetings from San Diego! Here are some pics from yesterday's travels. Our first stop was Mission San Diego de Alcala. It was the first mission established by Blessed Junipero Serra in what was to become the State of California. Much like his spiritual father Francis, Fr. Serra was *TINY* (see the life-size statue of him below). The Mission has a fascinating history; after suffering through a period of secularization under Mexican rule followed by one of U.S. military occupation, the Mission was finally deeded back to the Church by President Lincoln during the Civil War. After seeing the Mission we got some lunch and then headed over to the San Diego Museum of Natural History. While it seems rather puny compared to the AMNH, it does have some really nice models/displays of dinosaurs and various ancient mammals. The museum is situated right within lovely Balboa Park, so we strolled around there for a while after we were done looking at the exhibits. All the imitation Spanish Baroque architecture is a nice touch. We tried to get into the botanical gardens (see the last photo), but it had already closed; perhaps another day?