Get to Know Portland’s Most Vibrant and Historic Neighborhoods Grab your walking shoes, and become an urban adventurer. Local author Becky Ohlsen guides you through 33 unique walking tours in this comprehensive guidebook. The self-guided tours highlight the Rose City’s many charms. Go beyond the obvious with tours that showcase hidden gardens, historic landmarks, award-winning restaurants, old-school taverns, oddball shops, and edgy warehouse galleries. Stroll past coffee shops that line the streets at the foot of an extinct volcano. Swing through an independent bookstore, and grab flavorful eats from one of the city’s food-cart “pods.” Cross bridges and graveyards, and wander a Smithsonian-honored boulevard. Each featured walk includes full-color photographs and detailed neighborhood maps, along with vital public transportation and parking details. Route summaries highlight points of interest on each tour, while tips on where to dine, have a drink, and shop help to ensure that you find the “can’t miss” locales. You’ll soak up history, stories, and trivia on your way to the best parks, shops, restaurants, and nightlife in Oregon. Portland's a great town for walking, especially if you aren't the type who melts in rain. Thecity is mostly flat, the blocks are much shorter than the usual length (which is really only ahelp for the ego, but still), and there are gorgeous parks and green spaces blanketing everysection of the city. (And it's true what they say about April showers--the flowers here inspring are unbelievable.) If you really aren't the Gene Kelly type, you'll find warm and cozybrewpubs, dive bars, coffee shops, and tea houses to duck into on nearly every block; I'verecommended several personal favorites in most of these walks.Some of the routes here are slightly hilly, and some include unpaved trails through thecity's urban forest, so do be prepared and choose your footwear wisely. (Also, unless you'rehere in August, bring an umbrella or a rain jacket. You'll probably hear people saying that"real" Portlanders refuse to use umbrellas, but that's a myth.) But Portland has yet anotheradvantage as a walker's paradise: its public transportation system is excellent, so if youwear yourself out, it's usually easy to catch a bus back toward the center of town frommost anywhere. Get to Know Portland's Most Vibrant and HistoricNeighborhoods Grab your walking shoes, and become an urban adventurer. Local author Becky Ohlsen guides you through 30 unique walking tours in this comprehensive guidebook. Go beyond the obvious with tours that showcase hidden gardens, historic landmarks, award-winning restaurants, old-school taverns,oddball shops, and edgy warehouse galleries. Stroll past coffee shops that line the streets at the foot of an extinct volcano. Swing through an independent bookstore, and grab flavorful eats from one of the city's food-cart "pods."Cross bridges and graveyards, and wander a Smithsonian-honored boulevard.You'll soak up history, stories, and trivia on your way to the best parks, shops,restaurants, and nightlife in Oregon. Inside You'll Find * 30 self-guided tours that highlight the Rose City's many charms * Tips on where to dine, have a drink, and shop * Clear neighborhood maps and vital public transportation and parking details * Trivia about architecture, local culture, and neighborhood history Find a route that appeals to you, and walk Portland! Becky Ohlsen has lived in Portland since 1995. She's a freelance writer and editor who has contributed to a variety of publications, including Willamette Week , The Oregonian , Portland Monthly , and Lonely Planet, for which she has written several guidebooks about Scandinavia and the Pacific Northwest. She has recently updated Backpacking Oregon , Best Tent Camping: Oregon and One Night Wilderness: Portland , all published by AdventureKEEN (Menasha Ridge and Wilderness Press). When she's not out walking, Becky can usually be found losing quarters to one of Portland's many excellent pinball machines. Stark-Belmont Heart of the Southeast BOUNDARIES: SE 60th Ave., SE Stark St., SE Belmont St., SE 20th Ave. - DISTANCE: 5 miles - DIFFICULTY: Easy (moderate if you include Mount Tabor) - PARKING: Free street parking - PUBLIC TRANSIT: TriMet Bus 15 runs along SE Belmont St. to and from downtown Where do ordinary, average Portlanders hang out? Well, there’s really no such thing as a typical Portlander, despite what a certain TV sketch-comedy series might have you believe, but this walk takes in a couple of residential neighborhoods that have a very Southeast Portland feel: moderate-size bungalows, nicely maintained yards with the occasional urban veggie farm or chicken coop, quiet tree-lined streets, chillaxed bars and restaurants where you can show up in jeans and not be looked at sideways. The houses are more modest as the street numbers get smaller (not counting one particularly ostentatious home we’ll see). This is a nice walk to do in late