Walking Downtown

One of the things I love most about my adopted city is its beautiful and vibrant Downtown area. It's one of the things that drew me to the city on my first visits. Downtown La Crosse is one of the largest historic districts in the state, with beautifully preserved nineteenth century buildings and a bustling restaurant, bar and retail scene. The area has suffered from the Recession, especially along Fifth Ave., but it is still hustling along, and is a one stop destination if you're into shopping and eating locally. While it can get a little wild after dark on the weekends--this is a three college town with more bars than churches-- I love walking around on warm weather evenings, especially in the Spring when people first start to get out. The air is full of the smell of fried food and people eating outside. The bar doors are thrown open wide, spilling music and the smell of beer out onto the sidewalk.

The other day I had a meeting a couple of hours after work. It was a vanilla sky spring evening, so instead of going home and coming back downtown, I took an aimless walk.



The Batavian Building, originally a bank, is now an office building. Check out the interior here.



Looking east on Main toward the Cathedral of St. Joseph the Workman. Here's a similar view on a postcard from 1905.



Many of the buildings are businesses on the ground floor with apartments or offices on the upper floors. Also, many of the buildings feature the name of the original owner on top, some with a date. I wonder who started that particular trend. It's pretty cool, especially when the same family still owns the building.



Some colorful facades on Third St.



More Third St. The Library is a great place to grab a drink if you can get in before the college crowd.



No downtown is complete without an independent record store. Deaf Ear Records has great selection and pricing on CDs and vinyl. There's also a smoke shop on the second floor.



Pearl Street Books is one of my favorite places to spend an afternoon. I only took a quick peek, though, since I'm desperately trying to save money. Used books are a dangerous temptation.



Next door is Jules', which I've featured before. Premium coffee and chai are things you have to do without when you're trying to be thrifty as well.



More outside looking in. I feel like such a creeper taking pictures of strangers, and I'm shy about approaching people. Buildings are much easier to capture. All Glazed Up is a relatively new paint-your-own pottery studio. We used to do this frequently at a studio in Jonesboro when Maya was little, but it's been awhile. We may have to try our hand at it again soon when we feel like we're running low on condiment dishes and coffee mugs.



I ended up on a bench in Riverside Park, watching the sunset while a man played his ukulele on the bench next to me. I fled when the mosquitoes arrived, but it was nice to just sit and be still for awhile. There was a moment when the light really turned that I felt the temperature drop and the wind shift. One of those moments you miss when you're going going going.



Coming back from the park with the light almost gone.