No comments about Central Oregon Impressions (Impressions (Farcountry Press)).

No comments about Lumber Ghosts: A Travel Guide to the Historic Lumber Towns of the Pacific Northwest.

2 comments about Oregon'S Journey.

1. Spectcular text language, heartfelt, and friendship at its finest! The illustrations are beautiful. Duke and Oregon will steal your heart if the illustrations don't do it first! A teacher from Michigan.



2. Duke, a clown, realizes that his friend Oregon the bear needs to be free and so they set off on a roadtrip across America to the forested mountain regions of Oregon. Books as beautiful and evocative as this one are rare. The story is told simply, with an economy of style and capturing a wide range of nuance with very few words. It is a story of captivity and freedom, of prejudice and longing, a story of America and its diversity, both geographical and cultural. All of these messages come across in a story told to be delightful to children and poignant for their parents.
   
   The pictures complement the story perfectly. One of my favorite pictures (it is hard to pick) depicts Duke sitting on a motel bed while Oregon is surrounded with cheeseburgers -- many of them merely sketched to suggest the passage of time (and the consumption of burgers).

1 comments about Frommer's Irreverent Guide to Seattle & Portland.

1. This guide was the perfect companion to our trip to Portland and Seattle this summer. Devoid of all cheesy tourguide advice and tells it like it is - what's cool, what's just not worth the time, and what is not worth the expense. The only thing we found lacking was a comprehensive list of breakfast and lunch spots and things to do outside the downtown areas.

No comments about Frommer's Washington & Oregon (Frommer's Washington and Oregon).

1 comments about Crater Lake National Park Wild and Beautiful.

1. Having recently visited Crater Lake, I wanted a book that came close to capturing the beauty of this place. This is simply the best.

1 comments about Oregon High: A Climbing Guide to Nine Cascade Volcanoes.

1. This guidebook is old, hard to find, and often spendy but that doesn't change the fact that it's the best Oregon mountaineering guidebook you can get. It contains some pretty obscure routes and covers all the major peaks. This is as close as you can get in Oregon to a Beckey Guide (why couldn't Fred have made one for us? It's a shame).

1 comments about Moon Handbooks Coastal Oregon (Moon Handbooks : Coastal Oregon).

1. Read it before and used it during recent road trip along Highway 101. Accommodation suggestions for smaller towns were particularly useful and accurate.
   
   Makes suggestions for all types of travellers and is a well rounded collection of information.

3 comments about Frommer's Irreverent Guide to Seattle & Portland, 1st Edition (Irreverent).

1. Though I appreciated its humor, this book was a little lacking on some of the basic necessities in living in Portland. The sections dedicated to parks and recreation, for example, don't mention as much as you would want. On the other hand, it gives excellent background, trivia, and local interest facts. It's a fun book, but if you want something a little meatier, I recommend the City Smart Guidebook of Portland by Linda Nygaard.



2. Being a long-time Seattle-dweller, and even longer-time Western Washington native, this book irritates me. The author hasn't spent enough time in Seattle to truly appreciate the wonderful things about the city, not to mention he consistently dates both himself and the text by referring to events/people/places that are no longer in rapid use in the Seattle vernacular/mindset. Seattle is about MORE than coffee, grunge (ugh.. could that irritating phase have passed more quickly?), Microsoft, Boeing and rain. I'd recommend the Fodor's and Lonely Planet series to anyone who really wants a good feel for the city. Fodor's may be snooty, but at leats it's up-to-date instead of dated.



3. I very recently relocated to Portland, and getting prepared for my move I went searching for guidebooks. Since the title word "Irreverent" caught my eye, I was thinking this book would be a great "insider's look" to Portland and its quirks.

   Now that I am living in Portland, I found that this text lacks severely in the "insider's look" aspect. I would especially NOT recommend this for younger people like myself. This "insider's look" is definitely not geared towards my generation. For example, the flannel and torn up jeans look is so outdated, yet the author writes about Portland fashion like it's a crime to not look like you just rolled out of bed. For much better insider's info, pick up a free Willamette Week when you get to Portland.

   This guidebook does have its merits. It is written more personally than many guidebooks, it's easy to follow, and it has its humorous moments. However, you can find better (and free) technical info (where to stay, how to get where you want to go, best bets for visitors, etc.) at the Portland visitor's website, or at Pioneer Square in downtown Portland. For a good guidebook for "Generation X", and those about to relocate to the Pacific Northwest, I would highly recommend Best Places Portland. It provides much more detail and I find that the price guidelines are super helpful for people like me living on a limited budget.

   Had I relied solely on Frommer's Irreverent Guide to guide me through Portland, I believe I would have been completely lost upon getting here. Save your money for a movie and a beer at a McMenamins theater.

1 comments about Around Mt Hood in Easy Stages.

1. This is a useful little guidebook, rating segments of the Timberline Trail and showing an elevation profile for each segment. Nice for those of us who prefer to select our trail segments with more downs than ups when possible! Each segment has a concise summary of what you can expect to find in terms of scenery and river crossings (not to be taken lightly on Mt Hood; these aren't little babbling mountain brooks, they're raging torrents that can roll hundred pound boulders with ease). For those who are doing car shuttles, each trail is also described for clockwise and for counterclockwise hiking (relative to the entire circle of the mountain). This also creates the only disadvantage to the book, that is, it's twice as long as it needs to be due to repeating the same information in reverse sequence. Backpackers would do well to photocopy only the relevant portion and leave the book at home. The authors also suggest the preferred direction for each trail segment, which is useful. This book is worth the price.