Welcome to La Purisima--now go away!

Our visit to La Purisima Mission began with an odd encounter, or lack thereof.

We drove into the park at 3:55 and noted that it was open until 5 p.m. Cool. That gave us an hour. So we paid our $5 (with senior discount...otherwise $6) parking fee and headed for the visitor center to get oriented.

As we approached the doors of the visitor center, a uniformed state park employee approached the doors from the inside and quickly locked them shut. No eye contact. No word of apology. Just locked the doors, turned, and walked away. She could not have been more than eight feet away from us.

Turns out that the visitors center closes at 4 p.m., which is not noted at the entrance.

We still enjoyed our visit, and took full advantage of the remaining hour to see as much of the mission as possible.

But we also left with a definite feeling of antipathy towards that faceless, nameless state park employee who stood six feet from us and locked the doors in our face. Somebody missed the basic good manners class she should have taken in the third grade--before the class on the California Missions.