Today is the day. I launch my new little “project” by highlighting a new neighborhood in Clark County, WA each week. As I mentioned last week I’m sure it will morph as time goes on and I get into a normal routine. Let me get right to it. I figured that I might as well start with one of our oldest neighborhoods in Vancouver, WA.

Arnada neighborhood

Arnada is one of our oldest neighborhoods in downtown Vancouver and one of my favorites too. It is bounded on the east side by I-5, on the south by 15th Street, Main Street is the western boundary and Fourth Plain tops it off on the north. Here’s a little video snapshot of Arnada.

Please check back throughout this week as I share about this great neighborhood.

Day 251 of 365…

Looking for an elegant meal with a casual feel downtown Vancouver around Esther Short Park? Then you should stop in and enjoy Gray’s At The Park in the Hilton. This bistro and bar has a beautiful decor and serves some wonderful food. They are open for breakfast, lunch, dinner plus Happy Hour time. I love this short description from their website…

The ultimate destination for adventurous Northwest cuisine. Gray’s is bringing something new to the table – rich, imaginative dishes full of flavor and color. Fresh, seasonal and local ingredients combine to create tastes that surprise and delight. Unexpected wines, service that’s a cut above and a stunning setting that glows with style and warmth. Gray’s thrills the senses with a total dining experience.

Today I enjoyed a Grilled Chicken Melt stacked on an English muffin. It was served with a tempura avocado slice, tomato, lettuce and white cheddar plus fries. It was excellent. The tempura avocado was a great touch on top as was the jalapeno ranch they served with it.

Gray’s At The Park also has a great private dining room that is perfect for a group up to 16 people. Make sure to call to reserve it for your next office meeting or small lunch or dinner party.

Gray’s At The Park is located at 301 West 6th Street, Vancouver, WA, 98660 and can be reached at 360-828-4343. You can also connect to Gray’s At The Park on Facebook.

Day 249 of 365…

What do you get when you mix an art gallery owner and wine enthusiast in Vancouver, WA? You get Niche Wine Bar! Niche is a wonderful new wine bar located downtown on Main Street just above Evergreen. This place is very chic with its comfortable furniture and cool artwork.

The owner of Niche Wine Bar also owns the adjoining Angst Gallery which will create some great rotating artwork for its guests. I’ll look forward to seeing how the art inside transitions.

This place is just what the name implies, a wine bar. You’ll find a very nice bar where you can order from a couple dozen different bottles by the glass or half glass. They also offer 140 different bottles you can purchase. You’ll also find a variety of appetizers to compliment your wine selection. If you’re looking for an after business hours WiFi location downtown, this is a great one.

Niche Wine Bar is located at 1013 Main Street, Vancouver, WA, 98660 and can be reached at 360-980-8352. You can also connect to Niche – a wine and art bar on Facebook.

Day 238 of 365…

What’s in a name? Everything if your name is Treat! How much simpler can it get. The name says it all. Looking for a treat? Come in to Treat!

At Treat you’ll find an amazing array of freshly made cupcakes each day. You will also find on occasion some fabulous brownies and various baked goods. You definitely need to head in and enjoy some of their goodies. The decor in here is very contemporary and has a great vibe to it. You’ll find some wonderful flavors of cupcakes like peanut butter, coconut, triple chocolate, red velvet, and today I enjoyed the mint chocolate chip cupcake. It was so good.

My first experience enjoying the tasty treats of Treat was at the Salmon Creek Farmers Market this summer. That day I enjoyed a wonderful brownie!

Treat is located on the corner of Columbia and Evergreen in downtown Vancouver, WA and you can reach them at 360-750-0811. You can connect to Treat on Facebook as well.

Day 230 of 365…

It was recently brought to my attention that I have not yet shared any Vancouver, WA Thai restaurants. To be honest, I was surprised to hear this and even more surprised to realize it was true! Well, today I fix this oversight… The restaurant I’ll be highlighting is Tiger’s Garden Laotian and Thai Cuisine in downtown Vancouver.

I’ve eaten here several times and always enjoyed it. The food is always flavorful and fresh and today was no different. I’ve tried some of their curry dishes and different noodle dishes which are all great. However, I’m a sucker for pineapple and almost always go back to their Sweet & Sour Stir Fry with squid (you can get other meats if you aren’t a squid fan). The sweet and sour with pineapple, cucumber and all the mixed veggies is a light, refreshing meal.

Tiger’s Garden is located at 312 W 8th Street, Vancouver, WA 98660 and can be reached at 360-693-9585. They also have a full bar and Happy Hour in addition to full lunch and dinner service.

Day 167 of 365…

THIS Friday and Saturday is Downtown Vancouver’s Annual Festival of the Arts known as Art In The Heart. This FREE event will get under way at 5:30pm Friday. It is insane how many things are taking place during these two days. You will be able to explore 13 of the downtown art galleries, there will be a beer garden outside the main stage area in Turtle Place (which was just highlighted a couple days ago on this site). There will be street art and vendors, live music on 8 different stages. About 30 local restaurants downtown Vancouver will be open providing a huge variety of choices to eat.

The main stage will feature Hit Explosion at 8pm Friday. Hit Explosion performs 70′s disco and funk dance classics. Sounds like it will be a groovy good time!

You can see the entire Art In The Heart Event Map by clicking that link. Again the main stage is at Turtle Place on 7th and Main but most of the activities take place between Broadway and Columbia and 6th and 12th Streets (with a couple places outside that perimeter). You can also connect with the Vancouver Downtown Association on Facebook.

Day 165 of 365…

Have you seen that huge mural on the wall at 7th Street between Main Street and Washington Street Downtown Vancouver? The place that has that interesting fountain made out of old bus parts and signs? Wonder what it is? Well, it’s called Turtle Place and it’s our very own urban park made out of all recycled materials. This happens to be the old C-Tran bus mall. It is actually still owned by C-Tran but is open for the public to enjoy.

If you’re wandering around downtown I’d suggest you stop in and enjoy the fountain (it’s pretty cool with all it’s different features). There are also a bunch of benches and recycled concrete slabs to sit and relax on. The name Turtle Place is actually historic in nature. You can read the story right here or when you go to Turtle Place yourself while out exploring.

Day 120 of 365…

I love The Academy. You know that beautiful all brick three story building downtown Vancouver right along the I-5 freeway. Did you know that once was the tallest building West of the Mississippi River? It was originally known as Providence Academy (aka House of Providence) and was completed in 1873. It was an orphanage, a school, and the offices for the Sisters of Providence mission. The Academy was designed and built by Mother Joseph and the bricks were all made by our very own Hidden Brick Company.

The Academy has been home to many many things throughout its history. It was a hospital (raise your hand if you know someone who was born here), it’s housed many restaurants (I still miss Spaghetti Warehouse), lots of businesses are run in this building and of course The Chapel. Many a wedding has taken place in this historic building. There are some cool places within The Academy that I’ll be sharing as this “365 Things” project continues. In the mean time, head over there yourself and see if you can’t find some on your own.

If you haven’t wandered around The Academy I would recommend you do it. This is also an extremely popular place for local photographers to do photo shoots. I’m especially fond of the old smoke stack out back. There’s even been a rumor or two about a possible “haunting” of a friendly nature. I’ll let you decide for yourself.

The Academy is located at 400 E Evergreen Blvd, Vancouver, WA 98660 and you can reach it at 360-696-4884. Below the video I’ll post a few favorite photos I’ve taken around the campus.

Update:

Day 118 of 365…

Are you a local photographer? Are you a local photography hobbyist? Do you own a camera and like to make photos? Does your phone have a camera on it? If you fall into any of these categories and you’d like to meet fellow photo enthusiasts from all different skill levels I’d love to tell you all about an event coming in July.

On Saturday, July 24th, 2010 Vancouver photographer Aaron Hockley will be our guide for Scott Kelby’s 3rd Annual Worldwide Photo Walk. This is exciting for me since I really enjoy getting out and shooting fun, interesting pics of our downtown Vancouver area and I enjoy meeting new people. This years photo walk will begin in Esther Short Park at the Salmon Run Bell Tower (in the SE corner of the park) at 10AM.

This is a limited space event! There are a total of 50 spaces available and at the time of writing this there are 35 (now 30) (now 18) (now 11) (now 5) (Zero) spaces available. You MUST register in advance for this FREE Downtown Vancouver, WA photo walk. I’d highly recommend signing up soon if you want to attend.

This is a great opportunity to explore, have some fun photographing downtown Vancouver, meet some fellow photo enthusiasts, learn some new photo tips, share each others photos, meet the host of 365 Things To Do In Vancouver, WA and maybe even grab a bite to eat when we’re done at Vancouver Farmers Market! Plan at least two hours for the photo walk.

Here are some random Main Street and downtown Vancouver shots of mine from different solo walks…

Day 102 of 365…

Today I stopped in to see one of my friends Michael Beirwagen play in his band “Those Guys”. Let me say, they are all great guys and wonderful to listen to! “Those Guys” were playing at Gouger Cellars Winery. I hadn’t decided on what I was going to cover for today’s “Thing To Do” but after arriving I had no question…

With a story like this how can you not love these guys?

I first met Bonnie and later met Gary during this wine tasting event. They are both wonderful! As I’ve said here over and over, you really need to say hi to the owners of our local businesses. They are so great and have so much to share. Gary and Bonnie were no different. One of Bonnie’s passions is her business Brownies From Heaven. These delectable truffle brownies are amazing! They are quite appropriately named. Gary loves the art of crafting wine. The following is from their site.

Gary Gougér’s passion for winemaking began as an amateur, but after being awarded numerous international Gold medals he decided it was time to ‘go pro.’ This journey took him to Australia where he trained at one of the world’s finest winemaking schools, which in combination with his chemistry background brought his wines to a whole new level.

I had a wonderful afternoon at Gouger Cellars listening to the live music, enjoying some amazing appetizers and specialty balsamic vinegars and sipping on their Mine, Mine, Mine “dessert wine” (aka Port). They are open Friday, Saturday and Sunday every week for tasting. I’d really recommend you go in and enjoy an afternoon or evening with them. You won’t regret it.

Gouger Cellars Winery is located at 1812 Washington Street, Vancouver, WA 98660 and can be reached at 360.909.4707. They can also be found on Facebook.

What a beautiful day we’re having! The sun is out, it’s starting to get warmer. It is the perfect evening to head out of your house and get downtown Vancouver. What’s happening downtown? I’m glad you asked…

Day 17 of 365…

Since today is the first Friday of the month, it’s First Friday Artwalk time! First Friday is a monthly event to try and help draw people into downtown to experience some of the cool art galleries and restaurants we have. Artwalk features over a half dozen art galleries plus a jeweler and glass blower. If you get yourself to the intersection of Evergreen and Main Street you’ll be right in the main heart of the event. There are a few places down along 6th Street and Main as well. Everything is open from 5PM until 9PM and many of the galleries have some refreshments as well. In addition to the galleries over a dozen of the downtown restaurants are open as well so go grab some dinner from one.

As I mentioned in Day 16 you can also check out The Magenta Theaters Tribute to British Humour tonight. It is a FREE 15 minutes series of Monty Python skits and they will begin the first of many performances tonight at 6PM.

You can also take advantage of specials provided by Ice Cream Renaissance and Vancouver Pizza as well. Click through to see what each is offering the fans of “365 Things”.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get ready to head downtown to watch some glass blowing, look at some art, enjoy this beautiful night and laugh at some good ol Monty Python humour at The Magenta Theater. Who knows, maybe I’ll even wander over to Esther Short Park as well…