Oregon Trip Report

The longer blog post all about my Oregon trip- as promised!

Lizzie and I left on Tuesday evening (1/15/08) for Portland, about a 3.5 hour flight from Dallas. We flew American and it was GREAT- the evening flight (departing at 9:25) was fairly empty and I had a row to myself. Lizzie is small enough to ride in an under-seat carrier (and probably will remain so)- there was a (very oversized) Silky Terrier on the row ahead of us who was 14″ and probably 25 pounds. BIG boy. Lizzie did GREAT getting through the airport and was slept through most of the flight- I woke her up about 2 hours in and gave her some ice cubes to munch on- I knew she was thirsty (and hungry) but we still had a way to go.) She was THRILLED to see the grass when we landed- I headed straight out to the pickup area as soon as we got off the plane, then circled back in to pick up my checked baggage. My friend Emily met me with her daughter, Dea, and Cardigans Traum and Galaxy in tow.

Emily’s been a friend of mine for almost 7 years- my corgi Indy is the same age as her Traum and we got involved in the breed at the same time. Galaxy is her 9 month old puppy and was being shown for the second time at the Rose City Classic- one of the specialties is a Supported Entry for the national breed club- so there was TOUGH competition on all the days. The Rose City Classic is a HUGE dog show- 5 days of shows including some 20-odd breed specialties, obedience, agility, and rally competition. It’s filmed to be aired on Animal Planet every year and the group ring is huge and very plush because of that. (Photo to the left is Emmy showing Galaxy on Friday in the v. swanky ring!)

Because Rose City is so big, there are TONS of spectators and it’s a very big deal show to vend at. There are 60-odd vendors selling everything from dog show supplies like leashes and treats to toys, crates, kennel flooring, every manner of grooming tool, and most importantly for us, gifty things for dog lovers. Emily is a fellow artisan and does DARLING dog breed pins sculpted out of polymer clay. When I started making my pendants, we’d talked about vending together at this show, but the waiting list was REALLY long. We got on the waiting list in October of 2006, just after my first art show, and were told it would probably take us 4-5 years to actually make it to the invitation stage. On December 27th, we got a call- they’d had a space open up, were we interested in vending? HECK YEAH! So we scrambled and I painted like a mad thing for 3 weeks to get enough inventory for the show! We recruited two of Emily’s friends- fellow sculptor Amy and general crafty-lady Marion, who makes super-yummy homemade doggy treats, scarves, and checkbook covers.