The Mission Inn~

The Mission Inn in Riverside, California decorates with hundreds of lights during the holiday season. This year the dates for the Festival Of Lights were extended until January 8, which gave us the chance to visit close to my birthday! I'd been wanting to see the lights in person for several years.

this photo from Mission Inn website

We arrived in the late afternoon, parked, and walked around the pedestrian plaza lined with shops and businesses. We were surprised to find an outdoor ice skating rink open to visitors.

I liked having the chance to see everything by daylight~ I took a few photos before dusk for the contrast. There is a gift shop called Mrs. TiggyWinkles that I had been in almost 18 years ago, and it is still there. It is chock full of pretty home decor pieces, gift and novelty items.

There were food vendors selling mini donuts, almonds, kettle corn, cotton candy and gingerbread~

We had dinner alfresco at Las Campanas~ It was warm enough to sit under the palm trees without jackets.

While we were having dinner the moon rose and the sky grew darker. Suddenly the lights came on all over the Mission Inn!

Everything was aglow...it was magical!

Twilight gave way to inky night and the lights blazed~

We finished dining and strolled around the Mission Inn and even stopped in the Museum store to buy a few postcards.

There were also moving figures, or animatronics.

There were carriage rides, and the horses had lights in their manes!

Here are a few other photos I took~

We visited Casey's Cupcakes for desert~

I bought the dark chocolate cupcake and my husband got the milk chocolate. They were the best cupcakes I have ever purchased!

What a wonderful evening, and a great way to spread out my birthday celebration!