On The Road

I love this unique view of Prague that I doubt we would see in any guidebook!

It was six months ago yesterday that we lost Alain.  I like to think that he would be pleased that On The Road lives on, and I have a feeling that Alain would have particularly loved this quirky set of photos from Gin & Tonic.

In case anyone wants to revisit our memorial to Alain:   Fly Away Home

Gin & Tonic

Was sorting through my (many) photos and came across a set from a visit to Prague one summer a few years back. I’ve loved Prague for years, but so, unfortunately, have lots of other people, and it’s really overrun with drunk tourists, at least Staré Město (Old town.) I much prefer Malá Strana anyway, (the other side of the river). And I won’t bore you with pics of the Charles Bridge or the Prague Castle which you’ve seen a million times. Note that a couple of years after my visit, there was a huge flood on the Vltava, and I haven’t been back since, so I don’t know how they’ve rebuilt.

On The Road – Gin & Tonic – Prague, SummerPost + Comments (34)

River rafting in Oregon – so beautiful!  Part one is today; we’ll have part two in the morning tomorrow.  ~WaterGirl

TheOtherHank

I liked submitting my pictures from a Green River rafting trip, so I went back to the well and found pictures from our first family rafting trip. This one was a 5 day trip on the Rogue River in the south western corner of Oregon (the nearest town of any size is Grants Pass). This is the river where I worked the last couple seasons I did guiding. This particular trip was rather small, three gear boats, three inflatable kayaks and no more than 12 passengers. It was also a bit rainy for the first few days of the trip.

The Rogue River was in the first group of rivers to be designated Wild and Scenic back in the 60s. This means that there can be no development (or hunting) within a (I believe) a half-mile of the high water mark of the river within the Wild and Scenic section. There are a couple lodges that were there before the designation, so they got grandfathered in. The Wild and Scenic section is bounded by two Class IV rapids that are impassable to motor boats: Rainy Falls and Blossom Bar. Above Rainy and below Blossom jet boats are allowed, including giant ones that hold 50 people can can planing along in 18″ of water.

On The Road – TheOtherHank – Rogue River RaftingPost + Comments (20)

I had no idea that Amsterdam was so beautiful, and so charming!  ~WaterGirl

MissWimsey

Here’s my suggestion for Paris After Dark: Amsterdam After Dark! No worries my trip was rated G. I was traveling alone so I didn’t do anything too risky.

After my trip to Paris in August 2019, I took a train to Amsterdam, where I spent three nights before returning back home. Just like in Paris, where I took a day trip to Normandy, I also scheduled a day trip that combined a visit to Kinderdijk, an UNESCO World Heritage Site featuring well-preserved windmills dating as far back as the 1700s, and The Hague. Over two and a half days, I squeezed in a visit to the Anne Frank House, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague.

On The Road – MissWimsey – AmsterdamPost + Comments (17)

Route 66!  I cannot see that sign without thinking of Kookie.  I adored him, but I had no idea that he received 15,000 fan letters.  A week!  But I digress.  Some night skies from Bill today.  No, not that kind!  ~WaterGirl

🐾BillinGlendaleCA

I got together with a few other photographers to photograph the sunset at the Santa Monica Pier. I visited the pier a few times in college (a quick ride on the Big Blue Bus from campus), but this was only my second trip there in the last 40 years (the other being at the urging of beloved commenter Baud to see what the ocean would look like in IR). I drove out to Santa Monica and arrived in town early only to make a wrong turn trying to find parking and ended up drive a couple of miles north on PCH. I doubled back and parked at the City Hall parking structure and was only a few minutes late (I wasn’t the only one with trouble finding parking).

We started out on the pier, just shooting whatever looked interesting as we waited for sunset and heading for the sand. I positioned my tripod and camera so that I’d have the setting sun right over the end of the pier and then moved a bit to get the sun just off the pier. After the sun set the lights (solar powered) on the attractions on the pier lit adding an accent to the orange and red skies. Most of the shots of the sunset were shot using exposure bracketing to produce a orange sun and a properly exposed foreground and combined using either exposure blending or Aurora HDR.

[Shameless plug] All of the phots that you see here in my “On the Road” submissions are available for purchase at my webstore at https://www.billinglendaleca.com/.  If you like these photos and want to see more, consider becoming a patron at my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BillinGlendaleCA
[/Shameless plug]

On The Road – 🐾BillinGlendaleCA – Sunset by the PierPost + Comments (33)

Beaches, sunsets, water.  I’m in heaven.  ~WaterGirl

P.S.  Omnes, beware of clown below.

way2blue

Friends invited us to join them at their time-share near Cabos San Lucas in July 2017.  I hadn’t been to Baja since the early 1980s and was disheartened by how much Cabo had been overdeveloped in the meantime.  Alas.  After our week there, my husband & I headed north to Todos Santos, a place I’d long wanted to visit.

On The Road – way2blue – Baja Sur, MexicoPost + Comments (13)

Captain C in Japan

I took the shinkansen (bullet train) down to Kyoto on a Thursday afternoon.  I arrived at night, and walked from the train station to my hotel (one of the things I looked for in my Kyoto and Osaka hotels was proximity to a useful train station).  I had two full days (three nights), the first of which was earmarked for the Philosopher’s Path and nearby temples and shrines, and the second for the Kyoto Railway Museum.  This set is from the first part of the first day.

On The Road – Captain C Goes to Japan: Kyoto 1Post + Comments (15)

What a charming collection of photos!  I assume there will be more because of the title; I surely hope so!  ~WaterGirl

Steve from Mendocino

Mendocino is a town of roughly 1,000 people supplemented in the summer by easily that many tourists.  Much of the tourism is driven by people from central parts of the state escaping the crushing heat.  Locals complain about the cold overcast summer days, but eventually I figured out that that is a relief to people fleeing 120 degree temperatures.  The tourists tend to walk down the center of commercial streets, gaping at the sights while locals try to drive to their destinations.  We all breathe a sigh of relief when the tourists go home and we can just hang out.

The town is stretched out along the bluff just north of where Big River hits the ocean.  Most years, some tourist will get too close to the edge of a cliff and have the ground collapse beneath them or else stand on a rock near the edge of the ocean and be swept away by a rogue wave.  The coast is beautiful, but dangerous if you don’t use your head.

On The Road – Steve from Mendocino – First set of Mendocino photosPost + Comments (43)