Between 2014 and 2018, I made multiple trips to California. I travelled twice to San Diego to visit a friend and sharpen my surfing skills in 2014 and 2016. In December 2017, I took a surf safari, hitting popular surfing beaches on the California Coast from Santa Barbara to Santa Cruz, driving up Highway 1 until I arrived in Monterrey Bay. Along the way, I stopped at Morro Bay, a beautiful place near San Luis Obispo. It is known for its prominent Morro Rock, that juts out of the ocean like a mini Rock of Gibraltar. It is also known for great surf. I surfed Cayucos Pier, just north of Morro Bay. It is a great break.
During that surf trip, I also visited six historic California missions. In its colonial territories in North American, the Spanish colonial government and Catholic Church established 21 outposts throughout coastal and western California, starting first in San Diego and then all the way north to San Francisco. I visited in order: San Juan Bautista, San Miguel Arcángel, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Carmel, and Santa Cruz missions. This was in addition to visiting two missions in San Deigo on my earlier trips there. Collectively, the missions tell a story of the state’s transition from thousands of years of habitation by Native Americans, to conquest and ultimately cultural destruction at the hands of first Spain, then briefly Mexico, and finally the United States.
I also took a wonderful side trip to the arch druids of nature, the redwoods of Northwest California on an Oregon coast adventure. I wandered in awe amid these giants of nature at Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, outside of Crescent City, California.
Keywords: California Tourism, California Beaches, Tourism California, California Missions, San Juan Bautista Mission, San Miguel Arcángel Mission, Santa Barbara, Mission, San Luis Obispo, Carmel, San Luis Rey Mission, Santa Cruz Surfing, Morro Bay, and Santa Cruz missions, Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, Redwoods California, Redwoods Photographs, Santa Barbara Mission