The District comprises the oldest neighborhood in Orange County and includes three adobe homes built  in 1794 for Mission families. Among other significant features of the District are the numerous single-wall board and batten homes erected circa 1887 to 1910. Most homes are private residences. However, some provide specialty retail,  restaurant, and commercial services. For information, contact the Chamber of Commerce at (949) 493-4700. 

On a visit to the district, a group of girlfriends met and dined on a gourmet lunch in gardens near the mission. Strolling into a shop (formerly a house) along the small, quaint row of shops and stores in the Los Rios District, we entered a brand new store, a neatly-painted building surrounded by flowering vegetation. Inside we observed cards, collectibles and a variety of items of interest mostly to women.

"Someone died here," said Diane, my friend. Diane's Catholicism never gets in the way of her ability to sense ghosts.  The shop owner her Diane's astonished comment that was meant for me alone, and came rushing over with a frantic look and scared eyes. 

"We had this cleansed by a priest before we opened the business," the owner spoke as if pleading for Diane to change her mind.  We attempted to move on, but the woman was clearly disturbed by this revelation that others, too, could sense at least one ghostly presence in her store.

Los Rios Historic District is known for its ghosts.  While the Native Americans don't bat an eye at the thought that spirits reside here (this is where they built the mission for the Spanish settlers), today's inhabitants sometimes face challenges in rectifying their sense of the world and the reality that flies in the face of knowledge as they see it.

What's interesting to this writer my ghost encounters when traveling with other writers. We try to be unbiased in our reports, but sometimes the coincidences that occur are hard to dismiss. We mostly don't publish these stories in print publications, but our corroborative encounters without pre-discussion or knowledge of each other's beliefs in reincarnation, ghosts and religion make our shared experiences memorable.