Laura O. Foster writes about Portland, Oregon, and the nearby Columbia River Gorge National Scenic area. She crafts routes that take you away from the tourist destinations and along the beaches, peaks, bike trails, back streets and stairs of the Pacific Northwest. Her books weave geology, architecture, history, ethnobotany and horticulture into a story about each place. For her Portland books, she designs her routes so that each urban excursion is a small holiday, good for locals and visitors too, who want to get beyond the tourist highlights of one of the nation's most walkable cities.For longer vacations, Columbia Gorge Getaways offers 12 pre-planned, multi-day itineraries, each centered on one of the historic riverfront towns of the gorge, a place like no other on the continent. Each tour tells you where to go to eat, drink, stay, play and discover. All you have to do is open the book and have a blast in the gorge.