![\"DSC01097\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/DSC01097.jpg\")
<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>I lived in San Clemente for several years and made more than a few trips into neighboring San Juan Capistrano or SJC as it\u2019s colloquially known, so this week I thought I would return to Capistrano to see the returning of the swallows.\u00a0 Unfortunately I was about 8 months late or 4 months early, depending on your perspective; either way I missed their annual spring landing date by a good margin.\u00a0 They leave Capistrano in October, so I managed to miss them completely.\u00a0 My unceremonious arrival in SJC was in stark juxtaposition to the celebration the swallows get when they arrive every year exactly on March 19th \u00a0<\/sup>– St. Joseph\u2019s Day, the city\u2019s biggest celebration of the year. Actually there are a few \u2018scout swallows\u2019 that arrive a few days early, probably to dust off furniture, turn on the utilities and things like that.\u00a0 The cliff swallows must arrive exhausted as they\u2019ve come from Goya, Argentina, where they\u2019ve spent the winter.\u00a0 The round trip the swallows make every year is an astonishing 12,000 miles!\u00a0 I tried to find out how long it takes them, to no avail \u2013 I guess it depends of whether their connecting flight goes through Dallas or Mexico City.<\/p>\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Once the birds arrive, then they just mostly crap on everything, so they lose quite a bit of their charm, however the Mission at San Juan \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0While in SJC I wanted to return to an old haunt, the \u2018El Adobe\u2019, a famous Mexican restaurant just down the street from the mission.\u00a0 This is the Chef: \u201cMr. President, would you like to come back to the kitchen and create your own tamales?\u201d<\/p>\n Nixon: (jowls flapping) \u201cI\u2019m not a cook\u201d<\/p>\n I had one more stop before I left town, \u2018The Vintage\u2019, a bar and restaurant, created from real train cars, just across the street from the mission.\u00a0 It used to be called \u2018The Depot\u2019, as it\u2019s where Amtrak makes its SJC stop.\u00a0 I went into the bar and had a beer and toasted to the time Linda, my best friend, Don and I sang on stage there in 1981, which seems like 12,000 miles ago.<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0It was a memorable return to Capistrano.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bob Sparrow \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I lived in San Clemente for several years and made more than a few trips into neighboring San Juan Capistrano or SJC as it\u2019s colloquially known, so this week I thought I would return to Capistrano … read more<\/a>Capistrano does not.\u00a0 It is the oldest building in California with construction starting in 1776, however a major earthquake leveled most of it in 1812.\u00a0 The grounds are beautiful and its history is fascinating, for which you can be thankful I won\u2019t go into great detail here.\u00a0 But I will give you the short version: The Spanish claimed the land from the Acjachemen Indians, descendants from Asians who came over from Russia and first called dibs on California about 15,000 years ago \u2013 I\u2019m guessing the traffic and smog wasn\u2019t that big a problem back then.\u00a0 The Spanish moved them out and colonized California, in part with \u2018Missions\u2019 which held the paradoxical position of being both religious centers and military outposts. \u00a0In all there were 21 missions dotting the coast of California from San Diego to Sonoma, built to be \u2018a day\u2019s walk apart\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0 Ultimately Spain was too far away to control the territory; so when neighboring Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821 they moved in while Spain wasn\u2019t looking.\u00a0 America won the \u2018pink slip\u2019 to California after the Mexican-American War concluded in 1848 and subsequently the white folks rushed to California looking for gold – statehood followed in 1850.\u00a0 The mission is filled with details of these stories and many more, along with a good many artifacts.\u00a0 It was a great learning experience, and while I think California History is a require subject in all California elementary schools, what I mostly learned was that I was NOT smarter than a 5th<\/sup> grader.<\/p>\n<\/a> restaurant frequented numerous times and made famous by President Richard Nixon, when he was working at the \u2018Western White House\u2019 in San Clemente. \u00a0There is a picture of Nixon and the chef hanging in the foyer of the restaurant where I imaged the conversation between them went like this:<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n