“Too much is just about right” at the amazing, annual Festival of Lights at the Mission Inn in Riverside, about an hour or so east of L.A.
Welcome to the Mission Inn! You can take a family photo or just sit for a while on one of the benches.
The hotel itself is beautiful, but the addition of dozens of animated characters around the building and an enormous fireworks display really pushes the Festival of Lights over the top.
Across the street from the Mission Inn is an antique Mall filled with Christmas ornaments like these nutcrackers. Why pay retail?
Not wanting to drive out there after dark to see the fireworks, I went the day after the Festival began and discovered that the city of Riverside is a very charming place, filled with Victorian cottages, parks, interesting architecture, a museum, and even a statue of Mahatma Gandi in the downtown shopping plaza.
Don’t want to drive? You can reach Riverside on a Metro Link train (not the local neighborhood Metro Rail) from Union Station in downtown Los Angeles. It takes a couple of hours on the train.
Animatronic carolers on the front of the historic Mission Inn in Riverside.A huge branch of mistletoe is rightinside the archway at the entry. There was a lot of kissing going on when I was there. This archway was modeled after the front of the historic San Gabriel Mission near downtown Los Angeles.
Animatronic characters are positioned on the balconies all around the Mission Inn rooms. I wonder what the reaction is of guests when they look out the window to see “someone” on their balcony.Of course I want cannons with my elves, a robot, and a snowman! I wonder what this area looks like when Christmas is over and the cannons remain.Elves were tucked into spaces along the walkway.Everywhere there is a little space at the Mission Inn there are elves. I suspect these may be animated, too, but they were just cute elves when I visited.Two live parrots in a cage just outside the doors to the Mission Inn. There is also parrot artwork here and there throughout the building. Someone likes parrots!
Marble and crystal show the way to the lobby from the Mission Inn entrance . One wall along the entry is dedicated to portraits of U.S. Presidents. A selected group of U.S. Presidents. George W Bush made the wall, but Obama and Trump did not. Richard Nixon is on a totally separate wall–all by himself. I checked online and perhaps the portraits are of the Presidents who visited the Inn.Looking out to the central courtyard from the hotel lobby. Decorations were everywhere!This fountain has been turned off and decorated for Christmas. More animatronic figures were stationed on the upper walkways around this central courtyard. The Spanish Mission Revival architecture of the Mission Inn is somewhat obscured by all the trees in front of the hotel. Duane and Kelly Roberts rescued this historic building from demolition in 1992 and restored it. “Thank you” to them!
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