San Francisco - Day 5 - The Mission District

Sunday, 14th of December 2008

Not much in the way of photos for today, sometimes it is better to enjoy the moment rather than view it all through the lens for enjoyment later. I guess that is the paradox of taking photos.

Sunday morning - we took off to the Mission District. It is a predominantly Latino community and has a bustling neighbourhood feel with a lot going on and all manner of people wandering around.

Our main reason for coming here was to visit the Mission San Francisco de Asís, a Spanish mission founded in 1776. Even if you don't visit the mission, it's a still a fascinating place to check out.

Mission San Francisco de Asís (side view)


Now, I'm not a religious person, but I was blown away by the history, architecture and overall feel of the mission. Well worth checking out if you are ever in San Fran.

That roof is amazing!


Wall relief


Murals


Jesus x3


Very impressive!


Prayer time...


As we wandered through the Mission we came across a Sunday morning mass going on inside the basilica - this was impressive to poke our head in on to see the huge chamber full of people. We stayed well back in the shadows and observed for a minute or so (no photos of course).

Stick with me kid


Mosaic mural


Bows, arrows and foxes...


We also wandered through the historic graveyard within the mission. There are houses which run right next to the graveyard; I can't imagine living so close to a graveyard with that much history.

Statue in the graveyard


The last tribute of love


A hut (Indian hut - maybe?)


After completing our visit, we left through the gift shop. This was a recurring theme of our trip - every single tourist attraction ALWAYS exits through the gift shop...to do it any other way would be criminal).

After leaving the Mission, we wondered around the Mission district, put up with the rain, had some Vietnamese for lunch, spent some time in a few second stores/thrift shops (that was a lot of fun...lots of interesting people).

I was obsessed with finding good second hand book stores to look for Doctor Who books (to get those last few I've been hunting for). Finding very little (probably due to not looking in the right place) I did end up purchasing a copy of the graphic novel Watchmen which has been made into a movie and is coming out sometime this year. If you haven't heard about the movie, don't worry, there will be adverts EVERYWHERE when it is finally released. Very simply, Watchmen is about superheroes and gives a very realistic portrayal. Time magazine voted it into their top 100 pieces of literature ever. It's really good. I hope the movie can match the novel - guess we will see later this year.

After we returned to Barry's, she made up for the not so great Mexican food of a few days back by driving us back to the Mission District to El Farolito (averaging 4 and a half stars on yelp) and we got some really good Mexican food. When the queue goes out the door, you know you're going to get something fantastic. I had a Shrimp burrito (what is with me and burritos…I guess it is something I can easily say!) Yep, Barry did us proud...awesome food.

Barry than whisked us back to hers and we thought it an opportune time to look at our flight plan in more detail. It was then that we discovered we had miscalculated and were flying out on Monday evening rather than Tuesday evening as we had first thought. This meant that Monday would be our last day in SF. One day left...it's not enough. Damn.