For Valentine's Day Hubby and I decided to go to a town nearby that has one of the old Missions that are such a rich part of California history. Of course, along the way we cruised through any other town that looked charming, which was basically all of them.

We saw some lovely homes in the most serene settings. Mountains to the right, mountains to the left. Vineyards and orchards in between. Thinking we'd love to live in one of these enchanting, out of the way places, we pulled out a flyer from a for sale sign posted on a verdant vacant lot. Only $599K.

OK, back to being a tourist! The sun was casting the most glorious light on everything. The yellow mustard, a favorite sight from my childhood, was starting to turn some of the fields and vineyard floors a fluorescent yellow. That's how we know spring is here.

When we got to the town with the mission, I naively assumed it would be in a noticeable or conspicuous spot. Not so. We finally drew out the map, as we have yet to get a GPS. Turns out that the mission was in a sweet plaza area with a park and cute shops all around.

We didn't go into any shops but we did have a picnic lunch in the park. We would have liked to spend a lot more time there but it was time to pick our daughter up. We promised ourselves that we would return again soon. I can't wait!