East Side Adventures

East Side Esplanade here we come!

I like to avoid all of the bike riders by walking off of the main walkway when I can - plus it smells far more interesting down here.

Hard to see in this photo, but you will notice that it is not completely grey today - we are experiencing a "sun break" for a few hours and I cannot tell you how fantastic this is. So fantastic that mama and I decided not to wait until our normal evening walkie time to run out and walk in the sunshine. This is a photo of the waterfront village, the part of the Rose Festival that I was walking through yesterday that was deserted. More intrepid folks wandering around today.

What's that? Some-thing or some-one is yelling at me.

It was this little bugger. He was singing and taunting me from his perch on the SE Washington sign. I thought he might try to "let loose" his frustration, so we didn't walk directly under him.

Mama didn't plan on us taking a dip in the dirty water, but hey, we were in the neighborhood so why not?

Splishing and a splashing means I'm gonna have to get a bath at home tonight... but who cares?

Looking handsome - ruggedly handsome.

It doesn't matter where I am, there will always be either a stick or a cone for me. This lovely piece of driftwood needs to be mine.

Mine Mine Mine

Can you hear me, Portland? THIS STICK IS MINE

Arrrrrrrrrrooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!

I mean, I'll carry it home (at least most of the way mama)... all of this walking has made me HUNGRY

Love,

Bogart

Raining on the Roses

When ya gotta go, you gotta go...

Ah, the many days of rain have put a damper on everything around here - even I am starting to grow weary of getting soaked every time I have to pee - and the Rose Festival is no exception.

The Fun Zone is not only not fun...

It's not educational either (you must MAINITAIN forward movement - what's mainitain?)

All of the rides look so sad - the Tiger Express isn't roaring, and the lumberjack bears aren't, well, lumberjacking.

And I think the water slide doesn't even need any added water to be slide-y.

The Fire Brigade is grounded - no one to save from fire in the rain...

And the Flying Tigers aren't flying either.

Motorcycles don't run really well in the rain.

We were looking for the live animal area - on the news this morning we saw that there are tigers and lions here - but I imagine because of the rain they were cuddling inside somewhere. Maybe another time...

Love,

Bogart

Rose-y Nose-y

Preparations are well under-way for the Portland Rose Festival coming up next week:

It looks like it's going to have all sorts of rides, events, and things for the humans to make themselves sick on.

I am not much for these sorts of things, they're usually really crowded and have lots of little children screaming.

I understand the appeal of the shiny, light-up things, but not of being thrown around and around right after eating greasy carnival food.

And of course, dogs don't like to fly (unless it's straight up in the air after a tasty pine cone, or I hear that frisbees also can induce some canine aire-time)...

One of these days we have to walk over the Steel Bridge - it's the coolest looking one here, but it's never been open for walkers whenever we've wanted to walk across. It's raining today, so maybe next weekend...

Your intrepid Rose Festival report - completed. More to come when it's actually in full swing!

Love,

Bogart

Fleet Week

Weekends in Portland + nice weather = FESTIVALS! The Rose Festival is here and that's the biggie, but on our way there we detoured to check out the Dragon Moon Festival:

Not much going on there. Shame. We thought that was going to be cool.

Ah well, take me to the river mama!

The Saturday Market was also happening, but they are foolish and do not allow dogs. No matter, I didn't want to go there anyway...

Fleet Week is when the navy and coast guard ships come to Portland. They really do look like big Tonka toys.

Mama had to be restrained from making "sea-men-in-portland" jokes. Out loud. Sometimes she's just embarrassing.

I must say that the boats are awfully cool. I could see myself at the helm of one of these babies, or on the top, with a long scarf and my doggles just looking cool...

Not one but TWO giant St. Bernard's. They look small in this photo but do not be fooled - there is a reason you can barely see their owner in between them.

Love,

Bogart