P52 - Bright - 8/52

The perfect way to enjoy bright sunshine-filled afternoon.

Downtown Church Tour

Last weekend, after several weeks of yucky, cold, rainy weather, the sun finally broke through the clouds and blessed us with a beautiful sunshiny day!  Lucky for us, we already had plans to be outside taking in the sights on a Downtown Churches tour sponsored by the City of San Antonio Office of Historic Preservation.  If you'd like to see a map of our route, click here.

We started at the Southwest School of Art, former home of the Ursuline Academy, a Catholic school for girls founded in the mid-1800s.

Even though the sun was shining, it was still a little chilly in the shade.

Next we walked to Central Christian Church, constructed in 1903.

Requisite picture in front of the church - wouldn't want to break tradition.

Our next stop was Madison Square Presbyterian.

The tour wasn't all churches.  We also passed a few other San Antonio landmarks like the El Tropicano hotel.

The massive First Baptist Church was located just across the river from the El Tropicano.

I loved the courtyard gates

and the crazy roofline.

We hit the half-way point near the First Church of Christ - Scientist,

before heading across the street to Grace Lutheran Church.  The congregation's historian gave us a quick run-down of the church's history then launched into several fascinating stories about his life growing up in the church (he was born in 1929, the same year the church was finished).

Our friend Amy joined us for the tour.  She's a traffic engineer and found this old signal box along our route.  So much detail in even the most mundane pieces of equipment.

A few blocks away, we found ourselves at First Presbyterian Church.

First Presbyterian was hosting a national conference, so we weren't able to go inside, we be did get to tour the inside of our next stop, St. Mark's Episcopal Church.  The sanitary has recently undergone a major restoration project, and the architects responsible for the restoration were on-hand to tell us all about their work.

Our second-to-last church was Travis Park United Methodist.  Our tour guides had several historic pictures of this tower, showing the growth of the spire over the years.

Travis Park United Methodist was located on the very edge of the forest skyscrapers that make up the heart of downtown,

and St. Mary's Catholic Church, surprisingly only the second Catholic church on this tour, was wedged neatly in between those same skyscrapers.

All-in-all the tour was a fantastic way to spend a Saturday morning.  We will definitely be on the look out for the next one.

P52 - Focused - 7/52

Focused:

Paradise - Eye Candy!

Every week, Sarah, our hostess at My Four Hens Photography, picks some of her favorite photos and features them in what she calls "Eye Candy".  After seeing the beautiful assortment of photographs posted by the participants for the last six weeks, I had accepted the fact that there was NO WAY my photographs were ever going to stand out in the crowd.  There are some seriously talented folks in the group.  Even my slightly compensative side was okay with this idea.  After all, I didn't even know that the Eye Candy list was a part of this exercise until I had already started.

However, apparently this week's picture stood out enough to make the list!!  Maybe it was the bright colors (lots of people seem to shy away from bright colors) or the lack of children as a subject (sooooo many pictures of adorable little kids every week).  Who knows?

Check out all the other's who were selected - especially the winner.  What an adorable little dog.

P52 - Paradise - 6/52

When Amy sent me a message with this week's P52 topic, my mind immediately scrolled through a list of pictures that would perfectly encapsulate my idea of Paradise:

An spring's evening picnic on the Champ de Mars,

A lazy weekend in the Italian Alps,

Enjoying a pint in an English pub with friends,

A hike with the pups on our beautiful island,

Or through the Swiss Alps (I think I have a thing for the Alps),

In the end, none of these were possible this week, so I had to settle for something that helps me escape in the here-and-now: veggies from this week's CSA.  The garden has always been one of my favorite everyday places and nothing helps me clear my mind like cooking a meal with ingredients as beautiful as these.  Paradise in South Texas, or something like that.

NeSmith Maternity Pictures

Last weekend I had the honor of taking maternity pictures for two of our friends.  They are both wonderful, fun-loving people, so hanging out with them for a few hours made for a great afternoon.

We went to my favorite San Antonio location, Mission San Jose.  I think the results were pretty terrific.  The entire gallery is in the Photography tab, but here are a few of my favorites.  Thanks for sharing NeSmith family!!

P52 - Noise - 5/52

On Friday night, we joined several of our friends for dinner downtown along the river; up the river, away from the crowds of tourists.  We ate Cajun food until we could hardly breathe.  Then, we walked it off on our way to a dark, noisy, 20s-themed bar called The Brooklynite.  I took this week's P52 picture while I was waiting for my "Too Tall for Fall" to be prepared.