E and I attended the San Diego Homeschool Expo downtown today. After we finished selecting school books for next year, we drove three blocks from the Expo at Golden Hall and passed by the building in which I used to work. Back then, the entire building was owned by Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich Publishers, Inc., and I worked for HBJ in the bookstore in the basement right after graduation from college and again after grad school. Just as I was leaving the bookstore to start teaching at Point Loma, we found out that the bookstore was being closed and that the publishing company was moving to a nearby skyscraper. This may not be a tall building in the San Diego skyline, but it's a personal favorite of mine, both for the architecture, the paint job (looks like a birthday cake!), and for several pleasant years spent in a bookstore with 50,000 titles, the second-largest bookstore in San Diego at the time (before B&N and Borders, etc.).
First Presbyterian Church, built in 1898, is also a downtown landmark. Vera, Johanna, and I attended church here while we were neighbors, and we used to sneak in (late) and sit right in front of the GORGEOUS stained glass windows in the second shot. Best of all, Vera was married here, with Johanna and I as attendants and E as flower girl. It was extremely appropriate to take part in an 1890's style wedding in an 1890's church! Remind Vera to post a photo of her wedding dress; it's truly a work of ART.
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