We’ve just released our first book of travel photography, Prague: A Photographic Guide. The book is available only on the iBookstore or in iTunes, for viewing on an iPad. If you download it, please take a moment to rate it, even if you don’t have time to write a review.

You can also browse an extensive gallery of Prague photos on the Bay Images website. Here’s a synopsis of the book: A stroll through Prague can make you feel like you’ve stepped back in time and when you walk down its narrow cobblestone streets, you see centuries of history, architecture, and culture. Prague: A Photographic Guide recreates the city experience with a stunning photographic tour of the best known historical and cultural sites. With more than 100 high resolution, retina display-ready photographs, readers can tour Old Town Square and see the Astronomical clock, walk through the solemn Old Jewish Cemetery, and enter the majestic Saint Vitus Cathedral.

Travelers can use this book to help plan a trip or bring back memories of a visit to the city. Photographers can gain inspiration from the beautiful pictures and use the book to stimulate ideas for their own photographs. The book also covers nearby Kutna Hora and Sedlec, which are just a short day trip from the city. Note that this book does not cover hotels, dining, or lodging as there are plenty of other excellent references dedicated to this information.

Children playing on Cannon Beach, copyright Kara Sjoblom-Bay

Once we had our sleeping arrangements taken care of, we headed to a mall just south of Portland to meet my cousin Kristey, It was actually the first time I had met her, so I was pretty excited. To make a long story short, I was adopted and Kristey is my birth father’s brother’s daughter. My birth father died before I was born, and she is the first person I’ve gotten to meet on that side of the family. I feel pretty lucky because I have the most amazing parents (don’t ever ask an adoptee what happened to their real parents, because most of us consider our adoptive parents to be our real parents), but I also have the fortune to know where I came from. Anyway, Kristey and I really hit it off. I liked her a lot and we didn’t run out of things to talk about (which is what her 12 year old daughter feared). Imagine that two women couldn’t think of anything to talk about!

Patterns in the sand on Cannon Beach, copyright Kara Sjoblom-Bay

We decided to do a quick scout around for locations by car. We drove through the town of Cannon Beach and stopped at the visitor center. As visitor centers go, it was an excellent one. They were very helpful and we got a lot of information that will be helpful on our drive down the coast.

Next we headed over to Ecola State Park, just a few minutes drive from the visitor center. We walked up to the viewpoint and saw the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse. It was a little far, but there were some closer interesting rocks to take pictures of. We went back to the campground then, and we were going to eat dinner, but I told Stephen I was afraid we would take too long and lose the light, so we walked down to Cannon Beach instead. This turned out to be a good decision, because it was the only time we saw the sun in the Cannon Beach area.

Needles at Cannon Beach, copyright Kara Sjoblom-Bay

Multnomah Falls, copyright Kara Sjoblom-Bay

We left the hotel at 7:00 to drive to the Columbia River Gorge area. To see the falls during the early part of the drive, you have to get off highway 84 and onto 30, which is the historic highway. We stopped first at Multnomah Falls. This was a good first stop, because it is the most popular waterfall on the route, and very few people were there yet. By the time we left, there were a lot more people there. Luckily, it has been pretty overcast, so Stephen didn’t have to contend with partially lit falls. We only walked up to the bridge in front of the falls, and didn’t bother trying to hike up to the top.

Wahclella Falls, copyright Kara Sjoblom-Bay

We went back to Multnomah Falls and ate lunch at their restaurant there, which was pretty good (and also not cheap) for a tourist attraction. I had the fish and chips, and Stephen had black bean soup with a small loaf of honey wheat bread. The bill was $28, which was a little pricey for lunch, but considering how little we’ve eaten out, I didn’t feel too bad about it.

I picked the next falls, also around a two mile round trip hike, from Stephen’s Photographing Oregon book. Ellowah Falls looked more beautiful in the book. It would probably be prettier in the spring, when the water flow is heavier and there is more moss on the trees and rocks. Nonetheless, Stephen did get some nice pictures. More so than the state park trails we have been on, most of the Columbia Gorge area trails seem to allow leashed dogs. We met a beautiful yellow lab puppy on this trail, who was way better behaved than our six year old dog.

Bonneville Dam, copyright Kara Sjoblom-Bay

By this time, it was around 2:00 pm and we had quite a bit of time before needing to get set up for late afternoon/sunset photos, and we didn’t have anything else on the agenda. So we paged through the Photographing Oregon book and found a nice viewpoint of Lake Hood from Lost Lake, which was about an hour’s drive from where we were, so we headed that way. For these shots, a blue sky would have been better, but it was still quite overcast. From what the book said, we knew we wouldn’t need to be there long, and we headed back to the Columbia River Gorge In less than a half hour.

Mount Hood viewed from Lost Lake, copyright Kara Sjoblom-Bay

We were definitely ready to head back to the hotel room. When we got there, Stephen made roast beef hash, rice and corn for dinner. Then we watched tv a bit before going to bed.

Painted Boat in Misty Rain, Lan Su Chinese Garden, copyright Kara Sjoblom-Bay

Our first stop this morning was the Portland Japanese Garden in Washington Park. Unfortunately, when we walked up to the top of the path to the entrance, we found out that it was members only until 10:00 am, and it was just after 9:00 am. So we got back in the car and drove down to Chinatown, which is in Old Town Portland. There are a number of missions on the edge of Chinatown, and it is a little run down as well. But there were a lot of men around picking up trash, so they do try to keep up with the mess.

Lake Tai Rocks, Lan Su Chinese Garden, copyright Kara Sjoblom-Bay

Rock Path in the Lan Sue Chinese Garden, copyright Kara Sjoblom-Bay

Waterfall in the Portland Japanese Garden, copyright Kara Sjoblom-Bay

Lantern in the Portland Japanese Garden, copyright Kara Sjoblom-Bay

The only other place in the park we stopped was to take a few photos of a train on display outside the Discovery Museum.

Portland Japanese Garden, copyright Kara Sjoblom-Bay

Our Eyewitness book for the Northwest states showed a walking tour of downtown Portland, so we found a place to park and loosely followed the route they recommended. Downtown Portland is definitely an active place, even on a Sunday evening. Our main focus was to get some good pictures of the courthouse, so we started there, then walked around for awhile until the light was better.

We stopped for dinner at a Japanese restaurant, and the sushi was first-rate. We also had tempura udon, and while the soup and noodles were good, the tempura batter got extremely soggy. The service was good, and I would definitely eat there again.

After dinner, we went back to Courthouse Square and Stephen set up for his pictures while I worked on my travelogue. Courthouse Square is a popular hangout and there was one shirtless guy rocking out to whatever was on his headphones (if anything). he was sitting next to a statue of a man with an umbrella, and whenever anyone would go up to the statue to have their picture taken with it, he would start singing Rihanna’s song, Umbrella. He was having a grand time. After a bit, I was starting to get chilly and the light still wasn’t right, so I went into the Starbucks that was right next to where we were set up and got some hot chocolate and worked inside for awhile. By the time I wandered back out, Stephen was just about finished. It was nearly 9:00 pm, and I was definitely ready to get back to the hotel to relax.

We decided this hotel was a really good spot, so we added one more night here. We didn’t want to take a chance and get stuck in another Econolodge type situation. Luckily, the Comfort Suites has a guest laundry (one washer and one dryer) and no one was using it, so I was able to do a load of laundry. While the wash was going, I just stood and worked on my travelogue on the little shelf they had there, which I assume was meant for folding clothes. They sold boxes of detergent for $1 and the washer and dryer were $1 each, so one load is $3. That is definitely worth it when you have a full load of dirty clothes (but I’m glad we had just one load). So once the laundry is done, I can finally go relax. At least I only have to do laundry tonight and not again tomorrow night.

Oregon State Capitol Building in Salem, copyright Kara Sjoblom-Bay

Then we headed to the Oregon State Capitol and to Waller Hall on the Willamette University campus. These were both strictly photo ops. There was a beautiful white church spire, but because it was cloudy and the spire was quite, it was hard to get a good picture.

South Falls at Silver Falls State Park, copyright Kara Sjoblom-Bay

If we had skipped the mill, we could have spent more time at Silver Falls State Park, which would have been better. We drove out to Silver Falls after the mill, and saw South Falls, the hiked to Lower South Falls. The lower falls was definitely more beautiful, not least because fewer people chose to hike to it. After that, we just stopped at the viewpoint for North Falls so Stephen cotake pictures from there at a distance.

Lower South Falls at Silver Falls State Park, copyright Kara Sjoblom-Bay

Lower Proxy Falls, copyright Kara Sjoblom-Bay

We got back on the 242 and headed back to Sisters, then took off to the east, this time on the 20/126. I did fine driving back to Sisters on the 242, but got really sleepy driving on the less curvy 126. I don’t seem to be doing my share of the driving on this trip, because I just can’t stay awake while I am driving. Our first stop on the 126 was Sahalie Falls, which just had a tiny trail down to the viewing area for the falls. I still found Lower Proxy to be more impressive, but they are all pretty impressive.

Koosah Falls, copyright Kara Sjoblom-Bay

We went to the Koosah Falls campground and found a picnic table so we could have some lunch. Just sandwiches today because we didn’t feel like cooking anything.

After that, we drove to Springfield to my cousin Terry’s house. His wife’s mother and brother were visiting too, so it was a lot of fun. They made a wonderful dinner of grilled chicken, steak, baked beans, cucumber salad, pasta salad, bread and fresh watermelon. And brownies for desert. Yum!

Bicycle jumping mounds in Springfield, Oregeon, copyright Kara Sjoblom-Bay

Arch at the Clarno Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds, copyright Kara Sjoblom-Bay

After chatting briefly with the very friendly manager and checking out of the hotel, we headed to the Clarno unit of the John Day Fossil Beds. In terms of hiking, this unit is probably the best, although the hike was still pretty short. The trail is only about a mile and a half. We hiked to the end, to see the small arch overhead. I found that it was a little hot for me. I had my hat, but there was no cover whatsoever from the sun. I drank lots of water, but I was definitely wilting. On the way back, we took the short fossil loop trail, and found it difficult to spot most of the fossils. By that time, I really needed to get into the air-conditioned car.

The End of the Trail at the Clarno Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds, copyright Kara Sjoblom-Bay

All of a sudden, my phone beeped and it said I had a couple messages, one from the dog sitter and one from my mom. Both messages said to call the dog sitter, but stressed that it wasn’t an emergency. I still had enough of a signal to call, and Cindy told me that Chiqui had an upset stomach. She thought it was because her Mom gave Chiqui a different wet dog food than usual with her dry dog food, but considering Chiqui will eat almost anything, who knows what she put in her mouth that made her sick. Unfortunately, Chiqui had a little accident that Cindy’s Mom stepped in early in the morning, but it sounds like both Chiqui’s stomach and Cindy’s Mom’s foot were on the mend. I told Cindy it was fine to take Chiqui to the vet if she felt she needed to. But she had made Chiqui some boiled chicken and rice, and it helped settle her stomach. I also managed to email my cousin Terry in Springfield, to let him know we would be in his area in the next couple days.

After finishing up at Painted Hills, we started driving toward Sisters. We could see a lot of smoke in the distance, and we soon heard on the radio that there was a large forest fire near Sisters. We continued on, since it wasn’t putting the city itself in danger, but we did worry that it might make it difficult for us to find a motel room. Indeed, when I started calling, everything was booked up. I called the Sisters Inn & Suites, but there was no answer. After a few more luckless calls, I tried Sisters Inn & Suites again and someone answered that time. I was able to get a king room for $89 with the AAA discount. We were about five blocks from the motel when I called, so the timing was perfect. After checking in, we decided to go our for dinner. We went to a place called Bronco Billy’s and Stephen had salmon tacos and I had grilled salmon. It was good, if not spectacular, and Stephen thought the tacos were a little greasy.

The hotel room was pretty quiet and we fell asleep right away.

We slept in a bit this morning, since we had such a long day yesterday. I woke up around 7:00 am and had time to post the past couple days’ worth of travelogues. At about 8:30 am, we headed out toward the Elkhorn Scenic Drive in Baxter and Grant Counties.

Our first stop, and probably the best today, was Sumpter. It is a charming little town and home to a gold dredge that is in the midst of being restored. We were able to tour the lower level of the dredge (the upper level still needs further restoration in order to be safe for tours). The guide was great and extremely knowledgeable about the process of dredging. They didn’t have many accidents on the dredge, but there were long-term health consequences, including hearing loss and mercury poisoning. She said that at its height, the dredge was bringing in about 30 ounces of gold a day. The man operating the cable levers made $5.00 a day and the men oiling all the gears made 90 cents an hour working eight hour shifts. This was pretty good money for those days. The Sumpter Dredge was our favorite stop on the entire Elkhorn Scenic Drive, and is definitely worth a visit. I made a small donation toward the restoration.

There was a pretty good little grocery in Sumpter, so we stocked up on drinks there before moving on. Our next stop was Granite and it was kind of disappointing. Several of the historic buildings were occupied and had modern elements, such as gas meters. We had a map of the town, but it wasn’t entirely accurate and some of the buildings were hard to identify. After that, we just drove. There really wasn’t anything else on the loop that got our attention, except for a long delay for road construction. We stopped for a shake in Baker City, then headed back down toward the John Day Fossil Beds.

We went to the Sheep Rock Unit of the fossil beds and stayed there taking pictures for only about 45 minutes, because we had a fairly long drive ahead of us up to Condon, where we had a reservation. Sheep Rock was pretty, with a river in the foreground, but I thought Painted Hills was more beautiful.

We drove into Condon just as the sun disappeared. Our reservation was at the Historic Hotel Condon. We knew that the front desk was not staffed after 7 pm, so they said they would leave an envelope on the front door for us. Sure enough, when we got there, we found an envelope on the door with the hotel key and our room key and a letter. Try leaving the keys on the door at a hotel in Los Angeles. We let ourselves in and Stephen made lentil and brown rice burritos for dinner. There was a microwave and a little fridge right outside our door, which was great. As far as we could tell, there was only one other room occupied in the hotel. That was great for us, but probably not so great for the hotel. But since it was Wednesday night, that is probably why they weren’t so busy. The hotel room was lovely, and we slept really well.

This morning we got up at 4:50 am and headed straight back up to Crater Lake for the sunrise. This time Stephen found a more appropriate spot and I think he got some good pictures. I sat in the car and worked on a review of blogging on the iPad with WordPress, and downloaded my email because I found a good spot.

Next we headed out to Bend, to begin the next leg of our trip. We stopped in LaPine for breakfast and had a good enough Internet connection that I could transfer the previous day’s iPhone photos to my iPad for whenever I have time to upload that day’s blog.

Tumulo Falls, copyright Kara Sjoblom-Bay

We drove back into Bend and I bought a pillow at Bed Bath & Beyond, so I could camp more comfortably. Then we went to Trader Joe’s and Food4Less to replenish our grocery supply. Most of our purchases came from Trader Joe’s, which makes lots of pre-packaged foods that are easy to prepare on a camp stove. I ran into Foods4Less and got more plastic cutlery, chewy granola bars and bacon bits for Stephen.

One thing we found interesting about Bend is that we only saw white people there. Not once did we see a person of color. I am sure some non-white people live there, but we didn’t see them. One of the things we are doing on this trip is looking at some of the places in terms of their potential as retirement locations. I really liked Bend, but I am not sure I could live in a place that is all white people all the time. Maybe Stephen and I are spoiled by the diversity of the bay area, but even the tiny little Iowa town my brother and his family live in seems more diverse than Bend. But don’t get me wrong, I thought it was a nice city, and I would seriously consider it after some more research. We haven’t even been to Eugene or Portland yet, so there are other spots to consider as well.

It finally dawned us that there is no such thing as a self-serve gas station in Oregon. We asked the girl who pumped our gas at a Shell station in Bend and she confirmed that you can’t pump your own gas in Oregon. I’m not sure you could even find a full-service gas station in California anymore. I actually kind of prefer pumping my own gas now – I guess I don’t like giving up any control.

After finishing our shopping, we drove up to the Pilot Butte State Scenic Viewpoint in the middle of Bend, but found that in the midday haze, the view wasn’t very photogenic. So we headed back to Tumalo Falls, which was photogenic. By that time, the falls were in full sun, so Stephen was able to get some excellent shots. One thing to note is that visiting the Falls requires a Northwest Forest Pass, but you can buy a day pass on-site for $5.00.

John Day Fossil Beds, Painted Hills Unit, copyright Kara Sjoblom-Bay

Stephen taking photos at the Painted Hills Unit, John Day Fossil Beds, copyright Kara Sjoblom-Bay

Finally the sun was right to take pictures. I sat in the car for awhile and watched a movie (Coraline) on my iPad, because I knew Stephen would be a long time. After the movie ended, I walked down the trail to where Stephen was just finishing up. The light in the sky was almost gone – there was just a bit of purple. It was like being the only person on earth. I couldn’t even see Stephen from where I was on the trail, and it was so peaceful and beautiful walking through the warm gentle breeze on the desert trail.

Twilight at the Painted Hills Unit, John Day Fossil Beds, copyright Kara Sjoblom-Bay

I felt like crying. It was after 10:00 pm and we had no place to stay, and we were so tired. Upon entering John Day, we saw a billboard for Historic Hotel Prairie, 13 miles down the road in Prairie City. I Googled them and them called them up. They had a room! She said to call when we got there and she would come down and let us in. I thought she meant downstairs, but she actually had to drive down with her two little kids to check us in, which I really appreciated. On the phone, she said the room was $85, but when we were checking in, she asked if we had AAA, so we got 10% off that rate.

What a treasure the Historic Hotel Prairie turned out to be! I am positive none of the places we could have stayed in John Day would have been as nice. Our room (#1) was very small, but lovely. It was pristine, and the bathroom was fantastic. For us, a huge bonus was that they had free wireless, so I could get caught up on posting to my blog. They also had a little kitchen down the hall, which was great for us since we have our own food with us.

The woman told us that the hotels in John Day had been solidly booked for a month and a half, which has been good for the Historic Hotel Prairie. It’s great they had that billboard, or we might not have found them. If you’re in the area, this is the place to stay. It is one of the nicer hotels I’ve stayed in, the price is reasonable, and they are very friendly. I definitely recommend it!

Chipmunk at Crater Lake, copyright Kara Sjoblom-Bay

After the only mildly successful sunrise shots, we took off on a drive around the entire rim, stopping to check out the view from every pullout. Cloudcap was pretty good, as well as a couple for the phantom ship, which is a tiny little “island” near the shore.

At one of the stops, the second I got out of the car, a little chipmunk came running right up to me. Although it’s fun to see them up close, it always makes me kind of sad. Even though there are signs are over the place asking people not to feed the animals, so many people decide the rules don’t apply to them and feed them anyway. This is the only reason the chipmunk was so interested in me. He had clearly been fed by humans before and he expected me to feed him too. If you are one of these people, you are not doing the animals any favors. It can cause aggressive behavior and they lose their fear of humans – and fear of humans is a healthy thing. The best diet for animals is their natural diet, not “people food”. If you are unable to resist feeding wild animals, then you certainly don’t care very much about them. Okay, off my soapbox now – humans putting their own amusement ahead of what is best for nature is just one of my pet peeves.

We also drove out to the Pinnacles trailhead and took a short hike to see the fumaroles, which basically looked like mud castle turrets. Every place we stopped on the eastern shore seemed to have lots of Mosquitos, and every time Stephen opened the car door to select a new lens or something, about 50 of them would get in the car. As soon as I would get them all cleared out, he’d come open the car door again.

After that, we headed to the Rim Village gift shop and cafe for lunch. We each had soup in bread bowls and it was really good! That seemed to be what everyone was ordering. They had quite a few types of soup and I had clam chowder and Stephen had beef barley. The only thing that would have made it better is if they had broccoli cheese soup. If you eat there, though, bring your own drinks. The juice and PowerAde that we bought were $3 each. We thought the bread bowls were reasonable at $8.50. The coffee was $1.75, but very good.

On the way out of the park, we stopped at Mazama Village, which is the RV campground, and filled up on gas and washed the windows. Note that Mazama Village only has gas approximately May through October, and even then not always. So if you can’t take a chance on running out, then fill up somewhere before you enter the park. They had a pretty good little store at the RV park too.

National Creek Falls, copyright Kara Sjoblom-Bay

Carved log at National Creek Falls, copyright Kara Sjoblom-Bay

When we came back up, I filled out a survey they left for visitors, and I also left a donation in their donation slot. I think it’s important to support the work that the park and forest services does, because I feel like we get so much out of it. The falls were outside Crater Lake, so they don’t benefit from the entrance fees for that attraction.

Rogue River Gorge, copyright Kara Sjoblom-Bay

Stephen then made a dinner of tortellini with tuna and cream of mushroom soup, with a side of corn. We hit the sack by 10:30 pm, since we planned another early morning.