Second Sunday

On the second Sunday of every month, Main Street in downtown (specifically in the Over-the-Rhine section) shuts down for a sort of street festival. There's food, fresh-squeezed lemonade, music, and lots of vendors. My friend, Emily, who runs Stop Traffick Fashion, has started setting up a tent to sell the awesome products she has made by survivors of human trafficking. Today after church and a quick lunch out, we went down to see Emily. She took this adorable picture of Cate in a doorway on her iPhone. I love it! Cate just naturally posed this way, taking it all in.
For those of you not familiar with the Over-the-Rhine area of downtown, it used to be the place you didn't want to be. The place where you rolled up your car windows, locked the doors, and didn't make eye contact with anyone on the street. Over the past few years though, it has started to make a comeback. Cute little galleries and boutiques are moving in and events like Second Sundays are helping to revive the neighborhood. Architects and contractors are slowly renovating buildings and gradually, more people are coming. Incidentally, Findley Market (which we frequent on Saturday mornings in the summers), is also in Over-the-Rhine. We still get looks from some of our friends and coworkers when we talk about going voluntarily to this part of downtown without "packin' heat" or pepper spray or something, but we love it. I love the revival taking place down there and I feel safe there (disclaimer: during the day...I still want to walk down there as a woman alone at night). I think there are more "dangerous" areas of our city than Over-the-Rhine-- areas that are mentioned more frequently on the news. So if you're in our area, don't be afraid of this cool, little, gem of a neighborhood in our city that's quietly but quickly making a comeback.

~Melody :-)