Rally- Justice for Renee Good

Friday January 24, 2026 - Elizabeth Caruthers Park, Portland, OR - Video clips of the Protest & March to the ICE facility for Renee Good & those shot in Portland, Oregon

SOUND ON🎧

CLICK HERE 👆

Rally & March - Dr. Martin L. King Jr. Day

Monday January 19, 2026 - Video & photos of the 12th Annual Reclaim MLK March to honor the life & achievements of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr at Peninsula Park, Portland, Oregon

SOUND ON🎧

CLICK HERE 👆

Rally & March for Renee Good

Friday January 9, 2026 - Elizabeth Caruthers Park, Portland, OR - Video clips of the Rally & March to the ICE facility for Renee Good & those shot in Portland, Oregon

SOUND ON🎧

CLICK HERE ☝

Curious - Santa Clones

CLICK HERE ☝

Now for something a little quirky. In an effort to brighten the holiday season, Chris Willis started a tradition of putting 400 vintage glowing Santa Clones in secret locations around downtown Portland, OR. The challenge was to have people try to find the Santas using a few clues where the Santas were hidden. The tradition has been going on for 10 years but this was my second year. This year’s clues were the following Haikus (Hai-clues).

•
Where cola once flowed,
the plant all but forgotten,
yet left us a splash
•
Carbonated waves,
a frothy sea of soda,
on a sandy shore.
•
Liquid silver face,
two seven near the zipper,
solve and hit paydirt.

Based on these Hai-clues, we were able to locate the Santa Clones in a vacant building near an old Pepsi-Cola bottling plant near a building named The Zipper on Sandy Blvd. 😎

Music - Portland Tuba Concert

Portland, Oregon Saturday December 13, 2025 - Video clips of the 34th Annual Tuba Christmas Concert at Pioneer Plaza in war ravaged Portland, Oregon. Over 300 tubas, sousaphones & euphoniums played Christmas melodies in one of the largest tuba concerts in the country.

SOUND ON🎧

CLICK HERE ☝

Portland - Bridge Stride

According to the Internet, the “Providence Bridge Pedal is a celebration of bridges and bicycling—a non-competitive, community bike ride over Portland’s Willamette River bridges. Beginning in 1996 when 7,500 people biked across the Fremont and Marquam bridges for the first time since they were built three decades earlier, Providence Bridge Pedal has become a signature event on Portland’s summer calendar.”

Today was my 4th time participating in the Providence Bridge Pedal. The first three times, I rode my bike, but this time Carol and I decided to do the Bridge Stride. The Bridge Stride is for pedestrians only and crosses two bridges, the Fremont Bridge and Steel Bridge.

Without a doubt, the highlight of the stride was standing on top of the Fremont bridge drinking free coffee and munching snacks while listening to the sound of Taiko drums.

Curious Cat Trail, Portland, OR

Spent an interesting and somewhat weird Saturday with friends looking for cat statues in downtown Portland, Oregon. Thirty-one cat statues were created by Laika Studios and setup throughout the downtown area in a joint effort to inspire people to visit the downtown area. The cat statues were modeled after the cat in the Oscar-nominated stop motion animated movie “Coraline” that was locally produced by Laika studios in 2009. We managed to find 9 of the 31 statues which, all things considered, seemed pretty good. The “Curious Cat Trail” will end October 13th, 2024 so, I guess there’s still time to find more 😸

Coraline's Curious Cat trail map

Curious Cat #3

Curious Cat #23

Curious Cat #11

Curious Cat #8

Curious Cat #13

Curious Cat #4

Curious Cat #19

Curious Cat #14

Happy Lunar New Year 2024

February 10, 2024 marked the first day of the Chinese New Year and Year of the Dragon. The Chinese New Year, also known as the Lunar New Year is China's most important festival. I don't normally celebrate the Chinese New Year but this year decided to check out the celebrations at the Lan Su Chinese Garden in Portland, Oregon. Portland has some pretty cool gardens and I'd have to say, Lan Su Chinese Garden is one of the coolest. This was my fourth time visiting the garden and first time during the Chinese New Year celebration. Some of the highlights included -

• Large-scale lanterns including pandas and dragons
• Newly remodeled Chinese teahouse
• Live music played on a two-stringed Chinese Erhu
• Lion dances (missed this one)

Things I Learned On This Day (#TILOTD) –

• Lan Su Chinese Garden "is a walled Chinese garden enclosing a full city block, roughly 40,000 square feet (4,000 m2) in the Chinatown area of the Old Town Chinatown neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, United States. The garden is influenced by many of the famous classical gardens in Suzhou."  
• The Chinese New Year, is based on the Chinese calendar and uses a 12-year cycle of animal signs to represent each Chinese year. The twelve animals that represent each year of the Chinese zodiac are: the Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig, in that order. The animals are associated with various characteristics, such as luck, wealth, and good fortune. After every 12 years, the Zodiac Animals in the Chinese Calendar repeat themselves with a new Element each year. This amalgamation of twelve animals with five different elements goes on for a period of 60 years, creating 60 unique combinations.
• 
  I was born in the year of the dragon! 
  

Portland Waterfront Blues Festival

Pics & vids from the 36th annual Portland Waterfront Blues Festival July 2, 2023. Hard to believe the last time I went to the Portland Waterfront Blues Festival was 2010. The WFB Festival is a four-day annual event that first started in 1988 and is the largest blues festival west of the Mississippi River. This year included legendary Buddy Guy, Shemeka Copeland and one of my favorites, Rick Estrin & The Nightcats. Was a good day and thankfully, not too hot. Also got to use my somewhat new Insta360 camera and take some 360-degree photos and videos (links below).

Larry & me at the 36th annual WFB Festival

Portland WFB Festival (Click for 360 degree view)

Rick Estrin & The Nightcats - Video

Shemeka Copeland - Video

Portland Japanese Garden - Fall Colors

The Portland Japanese Garden is a favorite of mine, especially in the Fall when the colors are spectacular. According to Wikipedia, The Portland Japanese Garden is a traditional Japanese garden occupying 12 acres, located within Washington Park in the West Hills of Portland, Oregon. In 1958, Portland became a sister city of Sapporo, Japan.

This inspired Portland business leaders and public officials to create a Japanese garden in Portland. The Japanese Garden is built into a forested hillside in Washington Park on land that was previously the site of Portland's zoo until 1959. The garden was opened to the public in 1967. 

 In a study conducted in 2013 by the Journal of Japanese Gardening, it was deemed the finest public Japanese garden in North America out of more than 300 such gardens surveyed by Japanese garden experts. 

The former Japanese ambassador to the U.S., Nobuo Matsunaga, said in 1988 that the garden was “the most beautiful and authentic Japanese garden in the world outside Japan. 

The 12-acre (4.9 ha) Portland Japanese Garden is composed of the following eight garden spaces plus a Cultural Village -
• The Strolling Pond Garden.

• The Natural Garden.

• The Sand and Stone Garden.

• The Flat Garden.

• The Tea Garden.

• The Entry Garden.

• The Ellie M. Hill Bonsai Terrace.

• The Tsubo-Niwa.

Cherry Blossoms - Haiku

Cherry trees along Tom McCall Waterfront, Portland, OR 

Portland, Oregon comes alive around mid-April to May when the cherry trees bloom. The most famous group of cherry trees are located on the northern end of the Tom McCall Waterfront Park in the Japanese American Historical Plaza. These 100 Akebono cherry trees were donated in 1990 by the Japanese Grain Importers Association and were planted as a memorial to the 120,000 men, women and children who were held in internment against their will during World War II. 

Cherry blossoms along Tom McCall Waterfront, Portland, OR

Following are a couple haiku to celebrate spring and flowering of the cherry trees.

Cherry blossoms bring

Thoughts of rejuvenation

And life's brevity

Sakura petals

Like so many of life's dreams
Scatter to the wind