Walking Downtown

Yesterday after I dropped Gideon and Gabriel off at kindergarten, I drove downtown and took a walk. It was a beautiful day and I spent about 40 minutes walking around the historic part of my city.

I parked outside the old post office, which I've always wanted to photograph, so I started there. I love the older buildings in this part of my city.

I guess this is an employees only area.

I turned around and walked one block to one of the Catholic churches that grace downtown.

This church's grounds are compltely fenced with wrought iron. The gates are padlocked. I'm not sure if they want to keep people out or in...

This is just a back door to a local establishment.

And a rose in little flower bed.

More of the church from the other side. It takes up an entire block.

I was excited to see that one of the gates had been left open so I walked into their courtyard to take a look.

A sign on the wall proclaims this the entrance to the pastor's office.

I continued to walk and took these outside the tower building.

A little hole in the wall Italian Restraunt.

Another Catholic church. No fence on this one. They have been very kind to me and allowed me to use their building as a background for portrait sessions.

These may look like houses, but their actually offices.

The heart of Vancouver.

My last stop was a place known as the Academy. It was Catholic boarding school. The school part is now used as offices and you can rent the chapel for weddings.

The dormitories, however have fallen victim to the signs of abandonment.

Curling vines cover more than half the building.

I love this chipped paint. I did a close-up to use as a texture.

I realized as I was taking photos of broken windows and trailing vines that I had never actually taken a shot of the whole building. So I backed up and I leave you with these two shots of The Academy.