In my continuing attempts to see nearby sights before I hit the road, I’ve gone to a couple of the local missions.  First was Mission Carmel.

 

 

 

 

 

When I arrived, the door was open, but they were not letting anyone in yet.  Maybe they had to finish sweeping the floor or something.  I really have no idea.  So, instead of going into the main chapel, I strolled around back to look at the sights, figuring I’d get back to the chapel later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a picture of the mission as it stood in (I believe) the mid 1700’s.  It is said to be the only one of the California missions to have its original bell tower dome….

 

 

….and it appears to be a nice place for a crow to perch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was a museum area which held a variety of artifacts.  I like this crown.  It reminds me of a pierced tin can.  Beautiful work.

 

 

This is a comb for the hair…. that is about a foot wide!  It was huge!

 

 

 

This mission apparently was the site of the first library in California….and still is!

 

 

 

 

I like the berries from a pepper tree draped on the chandelier.

 

 

 

 

Gorgeous. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This bed is made from rawhide strips and still holding up after all this time.  Amazing.

 

There is quite a large courtyard at the back of the chapel.

 

 

 

A view of the rolling hills behind the mission grounds.
Now, my title says, “Mission Carmel (sorta….)” because after I’d strolled through the grounds and the museum areas and the courtyard, I strolled out to my car and left…..completely forgetting to return back to the chapel to see inside.  Brilliant.

On to Mission San Juan Bautista….

I’d told someone at work that I was thinking about driving out to see Mission San Juan Bautista (California’s largest mission).  She said, “You know that’s where they filmed Vertigo, don’t you?”  Well, no, I didn’t know that.  So, before heading out there I decided to watch the movie again (it had been decades since I’d seen it), so I could be sure to see the same sights that Jimmy Stewart and Alfred Hitchcock had seen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a quick sketch I did (with the movie paused) of certain angles of the church in one dramatic scene of the movie.  I wanted to go there, find those angles and take pictures.

Fat chance.

 

I walked all around, taking pictures, hoping to find those particular structures….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…not to be found.  So, I went to the gift shop and asked a man about it and he said basically that Hitchcock liked the look of a certain tower he’d seen when he first saw the mission way back in the 1940’s.  But when he went back years later to film the movie, the tower he liked so much had been torn down due to dry rot.  There’s pretty much nothing there now that was in the movie.  There were only a few scenes shot on site – everything else was shot in a movie studio in Hollywood.  Drat.

 

At least this time I remembered to go into the chapel.

 

 

 

 

 

There was a museum here as well.  This is a grinding stone.  Quite large and very smooth in the bowl.

 

 

 

I like the name of this book:

“Systema Vegetabilium”

 

 

This book was beautiful and enormous!  About 3′ high by 4′ wide or so.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was an odd sort of chapel (I suppose) off to the side of the main church.

 

Back outside and on the way to the stables, a pretty little ‘window.’

 

In the movie, Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak had a conversation in the stables.  It was already set up at that time for tourism, so there was a fake horse in the scene and I think it was this one….

…well, I’m saying it was.  Heck, I wanted to see something from the movie!

 

There were also a number of buggies in the stables.  I really liked this one with the wicker seats.

 

There were concrete benches with these pretty tiles inlaid in them.

Looking out toward Highway 101 from Mission San Juan Bautista.