Portland City Walks: Twenty Explorations In and Around Town [Paperback]

Laura O. Foster (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 2008

From the inspired creator of the beloved Portland Hill Walks comes a rich collection of twenty eye-opening walks exploring the backstreets and back stories of the neighborhoods of Portland and five nearby towns. Laura Foster's new walking routes are easy to follow, self-guided, and accessible by public transportation. They also include plenty of snacks and offbeat treasures along the way. From Goose Hollow to Garden Home, Laurelhurst to Lake Oswego, Forest Grove to Vancouver, walks range in length from 2 to 6 miles, with alternate loops for flexibility. Want to explore architecture and engineering? Walks include a centuries-old farmhouse nestled in a city neighborhood and a track made from 20,000 Nike athletic shoes. Interested in the stories of historic Portland businesses? Walks include fun facts about Captain John Couch, William Lair Hill, Fred Meyer, Guy Carr, and Michael Powell. Portland City Walks lets readers peel back the layers of history as they walk the stories of a city's neighborhoods and experience its joys as never before.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“In the 20 walks in her new book she skillfully combines neighborhood history and architectural description with keen observations guaranteed to capture a walker’s imagination.” (Oregonian )

About the Author

Laura O. Foster writes about Portland, Oregon and the towns around it. In her books, readers take long walks into urban neighborhoods: through streetcar districts and parks, up and down stairways, beyond dead-ends, along river beaches, atop volcanic peaks and anywhere that a curious person would want to explore. She crafts routes designed to get urban walkers to places others often miss exploring, and her walks weaves geology, architecture, history, ethnobotany and horticulture into a story about each place. Every walk also passes through a local commercial district where coffee, beer, books, and other joys of urban exploring will be found. She designs her routes so that each one makes for a small urban holiday, good for locals and visitors too, who want to get beyond the tourist highlights of one of the nation's most walkable cities.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Timber Press (October 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0881928852
• ISBN-13: 978-0881928853
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #162,546 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #13 in Books > Travel > United States > States > Oregon

More About the Author

Laura O. Foster writes about Portland, Oregon and the towns around it. In her books, readers take long walks into urban neighborhoods: through streetcar districts and parks, up and down stairways, beyond dead-ends, along river beaches, atop volcanic peaks and anywhere that a curious person would want to explore. She crafts routes designed to get urban walkers to places others often miss exploring, and her walks weaves geology, architecture, history, ethnobotany and horticulture into a story about each place. Every walk also passes through a local commercial district where coffee, beer, books, and other joys of urban exploring will be found. She designs her routes so that each one makes for a small urban holiday, good for locals and visitors too, who want to get beyond the tourist highlights of one of the nation's most walkable cities.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's Portland Hill Walks-- Without the Hills!, October 29, 2008

By 

Steve W. Bonds (Beaverton, OR) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Portland City Walks: Twenty Explorations In and Around Town (Paperback)

Much like her earlier book, Portland Hill Walks, this is much more than a list of scenic strolls through Portland and its suburbs. She gives an amazing amount of detail on the history of the locations, architecture of its buildings, and other interesting bits of trivia that even us locals don't know! She will even get down to the history behind a single house which might otherwise not even be noticed while walking by it.

Even better, without the hills these walks are more accessible to beginners.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Laura smacks a Grand Slam outta the park again!, March 21, 2009

By 

J. Forrest - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Portland City Walks: Twenty Explorations In and Around Town (Paperback)

Laura Foster has put out two fantastic books about Portland walks. This is her latest one and it's terrific. The walk descriptions are like little history and architecture lessons. The neighborhoods she selected are mostly SE and NE Portland. Inner SE is well represented: Buckman, Laurelhurst, Ladds Addition, Sellwood, Sullivan's Gulch. Check it out all you urban explorers!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb Companion for Discovering Portland, October 24, 2009

By 

Donald A. Beech (Rochester, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Portland City Walks: Twenty Explorations In and Around Town (Paperback)

Can't say enough about this volume and Laura Foster's earlier Portland Hill Walks: Twenty Explorations in Parks and Neighborhoods. As a two-week vacation traveler to Portland this past summer, these two books were constantly with me along the way on my numerous walks and hikes throughout the city. Portland is blessed with some wonderfully unique neighborhoods, each with layers of fascinating history and replete with charm and character. And thanks to the city's outstanding public transit system, the majority of these hikes are easily accessible without a car. Foster's books offer such interesting details of history, architecture, cultural and physical geography, as well as many individuals important to the development of Portland's neighborhoods over the years. These are such well-researched and detailed volumes that the reader comes away from these neighborhood encounters sensing that the homes and streets have been friends for years. I will use both of these books whenever I return to Portland in the years to come...there is still so much to learn about this great American city! I'm also certain that Portland natives could learn a good deal from making use of these. Thank you, Laura Foster, for two of the best urban walking guides I have ever found!