Blaze just celebrated her 11th birthday a few days ago, so I decided to take her on an urban hike downtown today. She LOVED it. The nice thing about downtown, besides all of the fountains, is the lack of bad dogs. All of the dogs downtown are very well behaved and ignore other dogs. It is an ideal place to take Blaze,


We started our downtown trek on the Burnside bridge. The "Made in Oregon" sign once was the White Stag sign. There is a big controversy right now because there is a proposal to change the sign to read "University of Oregon", but that has made a lot of Portlander's a bit emotional. It was hard when it was changed from White Stag to Made in Oregon, but U of O? I can't see it happening. It is a piece of Portland. I think Blaze looks stunning below it.

 
Blaze and Elvis. Elvis has been around for YEARS. I remember when I was a teenager, he was outside the 24hr Church of Elvis playing songs. Although the 24hr Church of Elvis is gone, it's legend remains, as does this guy. I paid him a buck to allow Blaze to pose with him;)

 
Ahh, Blaze's favorite fountain. The kids, the women, the power of the fountain, they all create water droplets, Blaze's favorite thing in the whole universe.

 
Blaze is just so charming, she can get anyone to make water droplets for her. So nice of this lady to make Blaze happy.


Another water break. This is a fountain made famous by Gus Van Sant.


Blaze hanging in the shade of Umbrella Man at Pioneer Courthouse Square, "Portland's Living Room".

 
Diving for leaves in another fountain. She did not want to come out of this one.

 
Of course no trip to Saturday Market is complete without entering the food court. Blaze got some birthday ice cream.

I love Portland. I could not live any any other city. I am always reminded of Beverly Cleary's book "Fifteen" when I am downtown. The water fountains, the drinking fountains. Everyone is so friendly and it really is such a small city, or really, a big town. It is America's best kept secret. Blaze thinks Portland rocks too.