A Rainy Day in Our Beautiful City

Anne started in-person classes at her dance studio this week. They dance in masks within taped off squares to maintain social distancing. For safety, the classes are much smaller than last year's. There are many other rules they need to follow during these COVID times, but Anne is so very happy to be back in the studio. Anne is taking one class a day, four days a week. She is still maintaining two online dance classes, as well. Because her classes are only a bit over an hour each day, there is no reason for me to go home during her class. I have decided to return to walking 2 to 3  miles during her class time each day (at least until it gets dark in a few weeks).

In recent years she has been in classes for many hours and I returned home. I forgot how much I enjoyed walking around our beautiful city. It is really so refreshing to me (even while wearing a mask on the crowded streets). Our city is one of the only cities in America that didn't declare bankruptcy during the Great Depression and proudly paid all of their debts in full. This took them many decades and so they were not able to afford the urban renewal projects that swept much of the country during the forties through sixties, which often involved tearing down whole city blocks and modernizing them. For that reason, our city is filled with buildings from the late 1800's through the 1940's. In fact, we have the second most Art Deco buildings in the country (Miami has the most).

Everywhere you look there are beautiful old buildings with so much detail. You just don't see that attention for detail these days. I am so glad our city decided to save these lovely pieces of history.

When new buildings or stairwells are added, they are built to peacefully fit in with the rest of the city. Also, artists often add to the beauty of the city with the many murals that can be found everywhere.

I see new things all of the time, such as little statues or emblems that I never noticed before. There are just many tiny details on every building.

All these photos were taken in a three block radius. I think I will walk just a few blocks at a time (several times each walk), so I can see things that I have missed in the past. It should be a fun fall project.

The sign above is outside the church where our children were baptized. I love the reminder during this hard year. We are still so very blessed.

Other Highlights ~ Tim got to attend a virtual camp for brain injured adults this week. He especially enjoyed the cooking day and the virtual field trip day.

Elijah has been invited to a socially distant birthday party. I am happy that he is getting this opportunity.

Anne completed all of her reading assignments for English. The rest of her year will be devoted to essay writing and research papers.

Blessings, Dawn