My youngest son and I have decided to take road trips to visit all the old missions in California. It was a whim at one point but now we've started and our adventure has begun.

This last weekend we hit Mission San Jose (which oddly enough isn't in San Jose, but nearby Fremont), Mission San Rafael and Mission San Francisco de Solano in Sonoma. He's only 8 but he has a good eye for photos and he's an excellent dining companion, once he remembers to eat with his mouth closed.

As a 4th grader in the California school system, my joy was building a sugar cube mission with my father. We chose San Juan Capistrano and I'm pretty sure my results were a little sad but I've always had some kind of connection to these beautiful buildings with olive trees and figs. In my day, we were taught that the Indians were happy go lucky assistants to the missionaries. I'm glad Nico knows the beauty of the missions is a double edged sword.

With our last stop being Sonoma, we of course had to visit the Bram shop and be tempted by the clay pots and infectious enthusiasm of Ash and Shelley.

It seems I wasn't able to go away empty handed! You just want to rub the belly of this pot and you know good beans are coming.

They don't have many and it's not on the web, so I think you'll need to call them if you want one for yourself.