Imagine a clear blue sky on a warm spring day.  Suddenly, the sky is filled with a swoop of swallows, joyfully flying and diving from the skies.  It’s March 19th, and the swallows have returned to San Juan Capistrano!

That was what I envisioned, anyway.  But reality has a way of dampening (literally) our expectations. 

Every year, on March 19th, swallows are supposed to return to San Juan Capistrano from their winter migration to Argentina.  I say “supposed to,” because they’re birds.  They do what they want, when they want.  

The lore is that March 19th is THE day.  The return of the swallows is an event I have heard about for years, have seen on TV, but have never witnessed for myself.  So I decided that this year, this March 19th, would be the day I would see the swallows return!

How to Get There?

San Juan Capistrano is a short distance from Los Angeles.  But in LA, distance isn’t measured by miles, but by time.  A drive to San Juan Capistrano can be nearly 2 hours – each way.  That’s much longer than I wanted to spend in my car.

Amtrak offers a much better solution – multiple trips between LA’s beautiful & historic Union Station and downtown San Diego, with a stop in San Juan Capistrano.  The trip is a little over 1 hour – perfect!  

But my dreams of a warm, sunny day?  Nope.  It was chilly, overcast and threatening rain.  But rain wasn’t going to ruin my day!  I was going to see the swallows! 

If they showed up.

The train ride down to San Juan Capistrano was easy and enjoyable.  Soon, I was standing on the platform in downtown San Juan Capistrano.  I arrived at 11:30 in the morning, and my train ride back was scheduled for 8:30 that evening.  So I had a full 9 hours to explore!

It was in that moment that I realized that, beyond getting to San Juan Capistrano and seeing the swallows, I had nothing at all planned.  And worst of all, I didn’t even know where the swallows were returning to.  The entire city?  Near the ocean?  Somewhere not near the train station?  I had no idea.  

I gazed up at the rain-swollen clouds, but no birds of any kind appeared.  8 hours and 57 minutes to go.  I pulled up my phone and started googling things to do in San Juan Capistrano.  

Los Rios Historic District

One “must see” place that appeared in all the articles was the Los Rios historic district of San Juan Capistrano.   And Los Rios was on the other side of the railroad tracks.  It was the perfect place to start.

Los Rios is the oldest, continually inhabited neighborhood in California.  It was born in the late 1700s, when mission Indians built 40 adobes as homes for themselves as they worked at the mission.

Today, only 3 of those original adobes still remain.  The Rios adobe is now the law offices of Stephen M. Rios.  

The Silvas adobe is an art/framing business.

The Montanez Adobe, built in 1794, is open as a museum.  It is a modest, 2 room adobe.  

Of more interest is the amazing woman the adobe is named after, Polonia Montanez.

Polonia was born circa 1829 and lived until 1917.  She was the town’s midwife, and helped birth many of the town’s children.  She grew herbs in her garden and treated women when they were sick.  

The mission didn’t always have a priest.  So in those periods when there was no priest at the mission, Polonia was the spiritual leader of the community, and she was responsible for teaching the children the ways of the church.

Most interestingly was that she owned the adobe that she lived in.

That sentence might not seem momentous, but it is, for the simple reason that women were not allowed to own property in the 19th century.  And yet, this adobe’s deed was in her name.

She was a leader in the community in all the ways that are important, and a force to be reckoned with.  

The tiny adobe showcased the home as it would have looked in Polonia’s day – an altar, herbs, spinning wheel, table and bed.  

Outside the adobe is a butterfly preserve, a natural preserve based on all the flowers that are grown in front of the house.  

Behind the house is a large, large cactus – between 2 and 3 stories in height.  I asked the docent how old the cactus was, but she didn’t know.

Next to the Montanez adobe was a pedestrian only park.  There were picnic tables and benches to enjoy, and a wall with historic photographs of the people and places that are important to San Juan Capistrano’s history.

One of the unique features of Los Rios is that all of these old historic houses are being used for business:  restaurants, tea shops, art galleries, a fortune teller, the law office, a coffee shop and so much more.  

These houses may be historic, but they are also being used for contemporary needs.

O’Neill Museum

One of the historic houses is the O’Neill Museum.  Unfortunately the museum wasn’t open, but the history of the house is quite interesting. 

The house was owned by Juan Dolores Garcia. When he married his love, he promised her a house like no other.  By today’s standards, it’s a lovely little house, but so like many other Victorian homes.

What makes this house unique is that, until this house was built, all of the homes in San Juan Capistrano were adobe.  This was one of the very first wooden houses in the town.

The Jail

Near the O’Neill Museum is a jail cell, an outdoor, small metal room, with open, vertical and horizontal strips of metal enclosing the cell.  The plaque said this cell was for “miscreants,” on their way to the larger, county jail.  It was the site of several jail breaks and 1 hanging.

Bueno Bueno

After touring the Los Rios Historic District, it started drizzling, and I was getting hungry. I went back across the railroad tracks to the non-historic part of town (which is still pretty historic) to find a place to eat.

There’s no shortage of restaurants, but for me, there’s nothing like a good Mexican restaurant. So I chose Bueno Bueno.

Bueno Bueno is a fast casual restaurant with tacos, burritos, enchiladas, salads, and especiales. I was lucky enough to get a seat by the fireplace, which was a perfect place to sit on a cold, dreary, drizzly day!

I chose the Enchiladas de la Casa — the house enchiladas — chips & salsa, and a Mexican coke. The enchiladas were made from homemade, corn tortillas, with 2 types of cheese: queso asadero and queso fresco. It’s covered with a tangy red sauce, sour creme and a little more queso asadero. It came with a side of black beans and fried rice. Can you say yum? It was delicious!

San Juan Capistrano Mission

One of the most well known attractions in San Juan Capistrano is the Mission, the 7th of 21 missions founded in California by Fr. Junipero Serra. I discovered that this is where the swallows would return to. Yay! I was in the right place to see them return!

Except, when I was getting my ticket to visit the mission, the clerk said, “If the swallows were going to come, they would be here by now. So don’t expect them to come this late in the day.”

I was soooo disheartened. Of course, I knew that it was possible that the swallows wouldn’t arrive — they’re birds, after all, and they don’t keep a calendar like I do. But I had hoped!

So I wandered around the mission. It is beautiful.

One of the most significant features is the ruins of the great stone church. The church began construction in 1797 and was completed in 1806. Six short years later, at 7:00 am, during the first morning service, an earthquake struck, bringing the stone church crumbling down and crushing 40 Native Americans. The church was never rebuilt, and the ruins remain.

The Swallows

It was late afternoon, and based on what the clerk at the mission had said, the swallows weren’t coming back. So I decided to try to get an earlier train back to LA.

I walked back to the train station to check the schedule. There were 3 trains scheduled before mine. The first one came … it was standing room only (no, thank you). The second one came, and didn’t even stop! The 3rd one said they would take me, but I would have to buy another ticket — they wouldn’t honor the one I had. Again, no, thank you.

The next train was mine, but it wasn’t coming for an hour and a half. So I decided to walk back to the mission to get some night shots.

I was filming the ruins from outside the mission, when it happened. The moment I had been hoping for!

The swallows started returning! And I was able to capture it on video.

I honestly can’t tell you how happy I was! From the gloomy, rainy day, to the disappointment of thinking they weren’t going to come, to not being able to get a train home early (and thank goodness for that!), to the absolute elation of knowing that everything had worked out!

As I watched the swallows return, in awe of this annual ritual, I was reminded that, even in the gloomiest of days, nature is an enduring promise of new beginnings. I walked back to the train station, waited from my train and then rode happily back to LA.