Following an Impulse

There's something magical about chasing a great idea on the spur of the moment - following something into the unknown and seeing where it takes you.  My entire world has always been governed by plans - planning for my majors in school, planning for my job, planning my life.  Plans certainly get you from Point A to Point B more efficiently than just flying by the seat of your pants (in theory), but sometimes, exercising the willpower and discipline to follow through on a plan is just exhausting and can feel like a chore in itself.

To be sure, I went into this weekend with plenty of plans: beach volleyball, dinner with friends, and errands.  And despite having consistently planned and set aside time to devote to photography for each of the past 3 weekends, I didn't actually go into this past weekend with explicit plans to do any photography at all.

But I literally woke up on Sunday morning with the random desire to go take pictures at Mission San Juan Capistrano... and something about just following that impulse (maybe the instant gratification?) because I wanted to and could... was just so damn satisfying.  Not to mention, I got to give my right brain some exercise and get some creative thinking in, which was much needed after a long week of flexing my left brain.

I love that it's specifically a civil engineering landmark... I wonder if there are others designated around Orange County

Interesting fact I didn't learn during the 4th grade curriculum on missions... Abraham Lincoln actually signed a proclamation in March 1865 which restored ownership of the Mission proper to the Catholic Church after some 20 years being owned by a private owner following a questionable auction

From the other side of the arches - adobe brick really does keep rooms cool during the summer.  Despite fairly hot while I was there, all of the rooms were easily 10-15 degrees cooler

The famous Mission bells

The near bell was damaged during an earthquake in 1812, which also took down The Great Stone Church - pretty incredible to think about what else was going on in the world at the time

One of the arches of The Great Stone Church - didn't see any swallows though (who build their mud nests in the arches), which apparently have been dwindling in number in recent years.  Did meet a nice couple from Argentina who had come to visit since that's where the swallows actually migrate from and got to practice some Spanish with them

Make a wish!

Monster koi in one of the ponds - this little girl threw a cheerio in the pond... not sure cheerios are part of a fish diet but it was funny when the big gold fish unknowingly swam up under the cheerio in the mad dash to eat it

Bloop

Hours to Date: 11 - woooo 0.11% complete!!