San Juan Mission...shall I tell the story behind the picture? Let's see. Oh yeah, I'm telling. Picture the scene, San Antonio, 4:00pm, walking back to the car after eating a rather dismal Mexican food dinner, already toured the Alamo, the kids are ready to go back to the motel and swim. We happen to walk by the Visitor Information Center, I love those places, I love the brochures, the glossy pictures, the maps of the cities. I love the thought of visiting all those interesting places, well, I get lured into the visitor center, because one of my goals was to visit one of the old Spanish missions while we were in San Antonio, they are literally 3, 8 and 11 miles from the Alamo. Well, I wasn't quite sure where I was going, so in my mind I forgot about it. But, lo and behold, the nice man at the visitor center gave me detailed directions and I determine we are heading that way. Bob is onboard and so is Tory, but not Abby. If you have ever argued with Abby you would remember it. Once she gets an idea in her head, she will not let it go. Well, she got the idea that if she complained, whined, begged, cried, yelled, or insulted she could get out of visiting this mission. The whole eight miles she did all of the above mentioned, plus shoving Tory, when Tory tells her, "Abby, just be quiet and let's see it." She even stooped to the level of making me sound like a raving lunatic.

Abby accuses, "Mom, why can't you just be normal? Why do we have to visit a bunch of stones?"

Tory defends, "Abby, this is normal, it's what parents do."

This, of course, leads to a shouting match and a shoving match in the middle seat of the van, because we have no backseat because we brought the bikes to ride around the campground. So, I can't even banish her to the backseat to whine, she has to do it from the middle seat of the van, right in my ear. But, Bob and I are indefatigable, we are going to see the mission. The closer we get, the more we realize that we aren't any longer in downtown San Antonio, but rather moving out to the barrios. We're talking barrios where nobody speaks English and they will strip your car in three minutes flat if left alone.

But, we shoulder on, stiff upper lip and all that. By this time of day it's 200 degrees in the sun and there are two lone Mesquite trees inside the mission walls. The mission is one of the most complete missions in that area, the outer walls are intact and in fact the church is still used today for services. It was so amazing to stand there and think that 400 years ago Spanish friars came and converted Indians who later helped to build the walls and the church we were looking at. The only jarring note...the Coke machine in one of the old Indian rooms, oh, and the JBL speakers in the corners of this 400 year old church.

Definitely worth all the heartache.