Get out in the sunshine and enjoy your last summer days at the Willamette River for Riverfest 2009.

Photo by Tom Carroll

Saturday, August 22, will be a big day at the South Waterfront. So put on your walking shoes and take a stroll down the waterfront, hop on your bike, or take the Streetcar. The South Waterfont Festival will begin at 11AM with fun, festivites, and music. Join The Pampered Pooch for their Open House hosted from 10AM to 4PM ,where your pooch can bob for a tennis ball in the kiddy pool outside. Plus, any dog that participates receives a goodie bag with home made dog cookies, a certificate for 10% off a grooming appointment, and your pup can even keep it’s tennis ball.

Please feel free to visit our riverside apartment living here at The Ardea. Where your pets are always welcomed!

Summer is still here! Don’t miss Movies on the Green at Cyan/PDX apartments. This weeks series featuring the 80’s classic, Romancing the Stone, Friday, August 14, 2009  . The festivities will begin at 7pm and the movie will start at 8PM. Drinks and appetizers will be provided.  Be sure to bring along a blanket or lawn chair for the turf field, invite friends, kick off your shoes, sit back and relax, and enjoy the show. Cyan/PDX is located at 1720 SW 4th Ave.

The Ardea

First Thursday

August 6, 2009

Wine and Hors d’oeuvres: 5PM

Streetcars to downtown and the Pearl District: every 13 minutes

 There is no better place to begin and end your First Thursday gallery hopping than right here at The Ardea.  First of all, there’s plenty of parking and it’s free! Or, you can walk in, bike in, kayak in and streetcar in.  No more hassle driving around hunting for a spot and missing valuable moments of checking out the exhibitions and of getting your share of the hors d’oeuvres.

 Speaking of wine and hors d’oeuvres, after you park, your first sip of fine wine and a bite of delicious food awaits you in the beautiful courtyard of the Ardea under cool breezes from the river flowing just a few steps away.

 Once you’re relaxed, step on to the streetcar and head into downtown and the Pearl District, getting on and off whenever the spirit moves you.

 When you’re all done, step aboard the streetcar and return to the Ardea. Take a stroll along the river as the sunsets, the water a perfect drop back for reminiscing about the art, the food, and the city.

 If you want to take a tour of the apartments, we’ll be happy to show you around. It’s breathtaking riverfront apartment living with unparalleled concierge service, you’re close to the city, and closer to nature.  When you live at the Ardea you can keep your dog, your kayak, your fine pinot and your must see film list.  Life is short. When you show up here, we’re ready to make sure that you do the living and we do the work. Just show up. We’ll take care of the rest.

The Ardea is a building of pet lovers.  We’ve got dogs, cats, fish, who knows maybe even Sasquatch is living in a unit.  But with all of this four legged activity also comes the need for accessories. 

Leashes, collars, toys, you name it, they are simply one of little items we pick up and work through their life until they are so tired and tattered they become unusable.  But it’s these smaller, less often considered items where reuse and reappropriation of recycled materials can make a big difference in our disposable culture lifestyle.

Enter Cycle Dog, a new Portland based business which takes recycled bicycle tubes and repurposes them for leashes and collars.  I first saw them over at the Multnomah County Bike Fair that ended Pedalpalooza and their merch tent was completely surrounded.  It’s a great concept, with a steady supply of no longer usable bike tubes out there especially in this city, they are finding a great use for an item which normally makes its way to a landfill.  Be sure to look at some examples after the jump.

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We love pets at the Ardea, and pets love us! We’ve got a dedicated watering bowl outside for your pooch, some treats behind the desk, and a whole lot of room for them to run and catch and swim. Each month our dog-loving, treat-giving concierges will highlight a resident canine. The lucky pup will get a treat just for them.

photo by Cortney Kerr

BISCUIT

Biscuit, as you might imagine, is a yellow lab. She is five years old and divides her time between her home in the John Ross and her pied a terre at the Ardea. Before moving to South Waterfront she enjoyed life in the suburbs. She’ll tell you that the adjustment that she feared the most was the dreaded elevator. But,  come to find out, she LOVES it. Every time it stops, she waits excitedly for the door to open to see who of her friends is about to enjoy the relief that only a little walk can provide. Turns out, all the SOWA pooches are on somewhat the same schedule. Someone should study that! Anyhow, there is a veritable doggie extravaganza in the park and down at the river. Balls are being thrown, hello sniffs are happening, licks abound. Biscuit particularly loves the concierges and heads straight over to greet them upon coming and going. She says it has nothing whatsoever to do with the treats…she likes their personalities.

Biscuit does not miss her former life at all. She’ll tell you how much more relaxed the humans are in her life— what with not having to mow the lawn, clean out the gutters, weed the garden, shovel the snow… well, you get it.

Biscuit says, “come on down!” She’s the one in the Coach collar heading for the nearest ball!

A few words about Animal Enrichment by Greg Fishback, CPDT

Not that I particularly want to date myself, but 30 years ago fewer people had dogs and few apartment buildings  and rental properties accepted pets with the possible exception of fish.   We did not have strictly enforced leash laws, dogs ran loose and formed little neighborhood packs, they tormented the neighborhood cats and chased people on bicycles and there were surprisingly few problems caused by this behavior. Basically they were just being dogs!

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