A holiday trip to downtown

 Hiya Blog World - 

Little Fox and Navy here.  Just us two today since Cocoa Beanie booked a cheese tour of the pacific northwest and is out traveling to different creameries and tasting all sorts of cheese. 

We decided to head out to Portland's living room (aka Pioneer Courthouse Square) and the Christmas tree is all lit up.  

So much public art in town, this one is a hat sculpture.  It's called "Will Martin's Hat" and Will Martin was leader of the team that won the design contest for Pioneer Courthouse Square in 1980.  There were over 160 submissions - way to go Will!

The Benson Hotel does an amazing job every year for Christmas.  The tree is well decorated but we always come for the Gingerbread display. 

This years masterpiece is Germany's Eltz Castle. All the gingerbread is homemade (over 50 pounds).

Next stop is a pop up store in the lobby of another fancy hotel.  The stores were pretty quiet but had some cool stuff.  In the basement of the hotel they had free arcade games, we played a round of Rocky and Bullwinkle Pinball.  So fun. Our score was in the millions!

Finally, a few more stops around town and we came across the Portland Therapy Llama who was out and about. A long line for therapy so we enjoyed the fireplace and the fake snow.

Onward team.  Where too next? 

Summertime exploring

 Hiya Blog World,
Little Fox, Navy and Cocoa Beanie here.  Today, I decided take take my esteemed guests on a hike to one of Portland's most famous homes.  Pittock Mansion.  Built in 1914, 46 rooms, and sits on 46 acres of prime land.  The flowers on the property are amazing.  Sequoia is off to the left enjoying a well needed break from our hike on the grass. 

What a day and what a garden.

The house is pretty amazing too.  It took 5 years to build and has many luxuries.  Central vacuum system, elevator, intercoms, indirect lighting etc.  The house was owned by the family until they wanted to sell it in the 1950s and there were no interested buyers.  Severe damage from a storm and no interested buyers provided the City of Portland with a perfect opportunity to save the house.  In 1965 (after a 15 month renovation) the house opened back up as a museum and park. 

Hard to beat the weather today - of course you can drive up here and park but us stuffies are hardy and we decided to park for free and hike 2 miles up.

Off to our next adventure

Exploring downtown at the Doggie Dash

 

What a gorgeous weekend we had.  Today's Saturday (yeah, I know post dated blog....) and it's time for the yearly doggie dash in downtown.   You can see the "Portland Oregon" sign in the background. It had many previous slogans but the stag has been on top of that sign for a long long time.

Navy really took to this part of the walk.  He loves the bridges, the water, and the path along the water.  Probably reminds him of his time at sea. 

Besides doggie dashers (that's us) there were a ton of people out.  Bikers, walkers, runners and many dogs. 

Downtown did not disapoint.  That big pink tower to the right, guess what it's nickname is...

Yep, it's Big Pink. Now we are on the other side of theriver looking east.  

Finally, one last shot of all of us (great picture eh) but the Hawthorne Bridge looks good.  Did you know that Hawthorne ran one of the first insane asylums in Portland?

Cocoa has found something interesting....

Ah yes, Mill Ends Park, the World's smallest park.  This park has quite the history, it started as a creative writing project by a journalist in 1946.  He would often describe the lives of leprechauns who resided at the park. According to Fagan (the journalists, this was the only leprechaun colony east of Ireland and the department of transportation actually had to move the park on the rebuild of the road, Mill Ends Park now resides 6 inches west of its previous location).  For those of you who are dying to know, its 452 square inches (0.00007205784 acres). 

Exploring the City of Roses

 Good Morning Blog World.  Little Fox here and today I'm taking Navy and Cocoa around town.  First stop is to visit historic Union Station (built in 1890).  Union Stations are scattered around the US and the idea behind it is that more than one train company shared the station vs. a specific station for a a specific RR company.  Anyway, the "Go by train" sign is a local landmark. 

Just got to cross this fence. 

A few more blocks. We made it, time to go inside. 

Cocoa and I went to explore while Navy wanted to just take in the grandeur of the station.

There is a cool walking bridge over the tracks.  You can see some of the bridges our town is famous for. 

Another bridge (actually, we are waiting for a freight train to pass so we can continue our walk).  My goal is to take the guests to the waterfront to see the cherry trees in bloom. 

Before we get to the trees Navy wanted a picture or two by the river.  The convention center is in the background (the two green towers)

We made it!  The cherry trees are in bloom. 

These trees were a gift from Japan to Portland and planted in 1990. 

The country of Japan donated these trees to Portland for the dedication of the Japanese American Historical Plaza. 

There are about 13 engraved stones that tell the story of many of Oregon's Japanese. 

The stones talk about the internment camps the Japanese were sent to during WWII and honor the Japanese American soldiers who fought in that same war. 

Onward, this gang is hungry. 

On the way to lunch we found a nice little park. 

The gang is always up for posing with outdoor art. 

Cocoa gets to choose the dining option today.  Who can go wrong with ice cream and coffee. 

We ended up at Cosmic Bliss an ice cream company that started in Eugene and makes dairy free and dairy ice cream.  Navy is waiting to enjoy his two scoops (one dairy based chocolates peanut butter and one scoop of dairy free cherry amaretto). The patience Navy has is amazing being that I and Cocoa already ate our ice cream before any pictures could be taken. 

Where are we off to next??

A quick downtown exploration

 Hiya Gang,
Baxter here today.  The weather has been so cooperative and downtown is so festive for the holidays it seemed like a natural activity.

First up is checking out the Christmas displays at the fancy hotels.  This is a nice tree. 

Every year the baking crew at the Benson Hotel do an elaborate gingerbread scene.  This is by far my favorite.  

Anyone recognize this castle?

Pioneer Courthouse looks majestic. 

The cities tree is decked out to the nines.

Of course no trip to downtown would be complete without visiting the roommates favorite public art. 

Hope your holiday preparations are going smoothly. 

A Portland Adventure

Sandy here:  So many things go on in town over the summer.  Festivals, food carts, special events, and so much more.  The weather is great, the people are out and this fox and bear are ready to explore.  We have our bus pass and we're ready to go.

Our adventure today begins on MAX.  MAX is light rail and one of the best ways to get downtown.

Our first stop is at Goose Hollow.  Yes, there were many geese back in the day but not so much anymore.

Anyway, we decided to walk up to the Rose Garden to see the famous roses.  Yes, there is a bus but we decided to walk since today was so nice.

So many nice views along the route

The rose garden is a test garden.  Lots of cool roses and it's  one of the best places in town when the flowers are blooming.

 I bet you Jerry would love this garden.

 It's a popular place today.

 Hammie Red

 These yellow roses are cool

Portland is known as the City of Roses.  Back in 1889 the Rose Society of Portland was founded and in 1906 a local businessman decided to plant roses in front of his business as a decoration.  He always snipped a few to take home in the summer and encouraged other business people to do the same and the rest is history.

Portland is home to the Park Blocks.  A couple mile strip of park in the middle of the city.  A nice and quiet place to relax.

Relaxing is over, time to explore.  LF has taken me to the Pioneer Courthouse Square.

 In the 80s they were going to turn this lot into a parking garage instead it's a cool park. Concerns, festivals, and Christmas tree lightings happen here.

 These statues really call to me. 

This bear and fox need a lunch break.  Pizza and salad are on the menu.

Portland's Union Station is the rail hub for the area.  It's an old building but in really good shape.  

From this terminal you can take a train to Canada, all the way east to Chicago, or all the way south to Los Angeles.  

Heading south toward the Willamette River.  Another cool park, called Waterfront Park. 

All sorts of people hang out at the park.  It's beary lively.

See those bridges?

  Another name for Portland is Bridge City.  Make sense. 


LF is taking me on a unique bridge. 

 It's only open to walkers, bikers, public transportation and emergency services.  It's the newest bridge in town.

 It's called Tilikum Crossing, AKA the Peoples' Bridge.

It's the first new bridge to cross the Willamette River since 1973.  It's one of the only bridges in the United States that is open to walkers, bikers, public transportation and emergency vehicles.

There are some great views on the Tilikum Crossing bridge. 

The Hawthorne Bridge is an old bridge but beary useful. 

 Busses, cars, trucks, walkers, and bikes use this bridge daily.  Vacationing stuffies also use the bridge.

 We caught MAX on the way home.    Hopefully, we can  come back and explore the east side of town another time.

It was a great adventure today.  We walked quite a distance and when we got home Baxter had a special treat for all of us.