So, up to now I had been spending my time in the areas closer to the ocean, so I thought I should try heading up away from the ocean to see what was up there. Yes, up there as in it was pretty hilly!
I decided to walk past the Forest Theatre and into the Mission Trail Park. This post is going to be more photos than words I think, but anyway, here you go – first up is a view of the Forest Theatre – you can see the benches going up. Pretty cool venue and obviously all outside which is nice. (Yes, that’s my finger in the photo – too lazy to crop it!)
And here’s the entrance to the Mission Park Trail
It was really pretty and I felt very safe walking by myself alone, so that was a plus. I saw a few people along the way – I stopped a couple of women walking towards me and I asked if the trail looped around or if it was an out and back, and one of them said “if you keep going straight you’ll end up across the street from the mission.” And, I had been wanting to see the Mission! Great!!
Some nice Christmas decorations
I entered the park from Mountain View Ave and took kind of the straightest path to Rio Road.
And then I made it to the mission!
Our Lady of Bethlehem
Model for the statue of Father Junipero Serra that stands overlooking Hwy 280 in the bay area. I remember when I was in high school somebody hung a tire on his finger on the statue. And, amazing, I managed to drive by the statue on this trip too so that was cool!
And then a nice walk through the park back to town.
Next day I drove from Carmel to San Mateo. I stopped at San Juan Bautista so I’ll share of that stuff next. It was a quick stop so not a ton of photos, but, you get the idea!