My fun job with City Institute is one I truly enjoy because I get to share my city with visitors and locals alike. I have been giving tours of my beautiful city since 2009, and I love it more and more after every tour. I get to meet people from all different places and walks of life. Most of them are interested in learning more about the city, some are interested in moving here, and some are here to gain a greater understanding for the nuances and intricacies of our great city’s story.
The tour I did on Sunday was a collaboration with the newly opened Sepia Coffee shop on E. Grand and Hastings for a camera and coffee themed walkabout through the North End neighborhood. Participants started with a conversation featuring a couple of Sepia’s partners about coffee and equity in specialty coffee roasters. This was not like our typical tour structure, but it was laid back and fluid. The weather was beautiful, tons of sunshine, and great company. As we started our walk, everyone began to go off to take their photos of whatever they desired or were in search of specifically. I enjoyed seeing the neighborhood from a different perspective. Although, I have walked this neighborhood before, nothing like a different perspective seeing things that I had never seen before.
Something else I love about doing our tours is that we encourage people to talk to the local businesses or events we may pass by on our walks. This particular day, there was a festival going on at the Tangent Gallery. Honestly, all I saw was Tacos and I was intrigued. Some of our guests were from other cities, so we got a lot of interesting questions about the local businesses and event spaces in the neighborhood, and it was a great conversation. As we continued on and everyone took tons of photos, we had more interesting and engaging conversations about everything from local artisans to the status of the process and status of open land uses in the city.
There were guests with professional and high quality cameras, but skill level was not really a focus. I am by no means a professional, nor do I have professional equipment. I was armed with my simple iPhone. Here are some of my favorite shots I took on the walk.
