Michele and Dave Schanker- powered by SmugMug

Photography Blog

Califorrnia Travels Sub-Categories

Santa Barbara Area Wine Tasting

Yosemite Trip 2006

Northern California Trip 2006

California Cities

Trina and Ashton Come to Cali

Califorrnia Travels Galleries

San Diego April 2008 :

San Diego April 2008

Santa anita 2008 :

Santa anita 2008

Catalina Island :

Catalina Island

Napa Valley - Oct 2007 :

Napa Valley - Oct 2007

Lone Pine - Mt Whitney :

Lone Pine - Mt Whitney

Yosemite 2007 : We made our annual journey to Yosemite a bit late this year. we went in late August , so the water levels were not as high as they usually are. We still had lots of fun though. Yosemite is just gorgeous! We went with four friends. The interesting part of the trip was the bear incidents at our campground. Yes, our neighbors campsite got raided by bears. It was actualy kinda funny, but I'm sure they didn't think so. Dave and I did 2 small hikes on Friday and then we did a group 8 miles hike on Saturday. Sunday Dave and I rented bikes on the valley floor and also enjoyed some time hanging out at the Merced River. I'm so glad we went this year. We were orignally going to Half Dome again, but we decided to wait until next June when the water levels will be much higher.

Santa Monica Pier at night :

Santa Monica Pier at night

Climbing the Vasquez Rocks : On April 15, 2007 Dave, John, Arielle, and I went to the Vasquez Rocks to enjoy a few hours of enjoyiing the views and climbing around. We had a really good time. It was a rather cool April day and pretty overcast. Of course, in keeping tradition with the desert weather, no precipitation!

Climbing the Vasquez Rocks

Big Sur Camping Trip : Easter Weekend was a 3-day weekend for both Dave and I. So we headed out to go camping on the coast. We traveled to Big Sur and met a couple of friends from the San Francisco Area. We had a blast just relaxing and taking in the sights. It was actually the most relaxing camping trip I've been on lately since we usually end up doing big day hikes while camping. Instead he did real small hikes and admired the views. We also did some wine tasting in Monterey and Paso Robles. We had a blast and we always love camping.

Big Sur Camping Trip

Yosemite Winter 2007 :

Yosemite Winter 2007

Sequoia Winter Wonderland :

Sequoia Winter Wonderland

Vasquez Rocks : One weekend in Jan 07 I went out locally to shoot some photos. I drove to the Vasquez rock to shoot for an hour or so and get some good practice in. When I came home I could tell the susnet would be really pretty, so I headed to the middle of the desert to shoot a few photos using my tripod.

Views along 395 :

Views along 395

Red Rock Canyon State Park : Dave and I took am afternoon trip up to Red Rock Canyon to hike around and take some photos. It was an interesting area for sure. I enjoyed the photo opportunity.

Red Rock Canyon State Park

Lake Elizabeth, CA : As I'm advancing in my photography skills, I decided to take a field trip to Lake Elizabeth around sunset time to take photos. I spent an hour at the lake just playing around. I shot about 95% of these photos in manual mode.

Lake Elizabeth, CA

Fall in Yosemite : For our last night of our vacation, Dave and I decided to spend a day at our favorite place in Cali...Yosemite NP. We wanted to stay on the valley floor, but with all hotel rooms booked, we stayed ended up in a heated tent at Curry Village. Which was fine, as we got the feeling of camping without having to deal with sleeping in the cold. We woke up sunday morning to a nice blue sky and temps in the 30's. It warmed up throughout the day as we were hiking. We did two hikes. One was the loop around mirror lake, which was dry this time of year, but provided us a nice view of the valley. Then we did a hike near yosemite falls to a rock look out. This hike was steeper, but I was able to get some nice shots from up above. After hiking, we left yosemite around 4pm and headed home. Our trip was complete. We were sad it was over but looking forward to our bed and two cats.

Fall in Yosemite

Solvang, Paso Robles, Hearst Castle, and Santa Barbara Trip : Dave and I spent the weekend of Aug 12th touring the central coast of CA with my parents. We started by having lunch in Paso Robles, and then hitting three of the nearby wineries. Dave and I bought 3 bottles of wine in Paso Robles. Unfortunately we did not find any Riesling (our favorite). We then continued on to Hearst Castle for a 3pm tour. The gardens and pool area of Hearst Castle is so amazing. I could have stayed there for hours to just shoot photographs. After the tour we drove north a few miles to see the elephant seals. They are so big but yet so cute. There were not as many as the last time Dave and I were by there, but it was still neat that my parents got to see them. We stayed the night in Lompoc on Saturday night. Sunday we drove to Buellton where we fed Ostrich and Emus at Ostrich Land. We were in Solvang by 11am. We walked around, shopped, and had munch. My mom and I tasted some more wine wile Dave tasted Beer. We ended up buying a bottle of some really good cider! We then left Solvang to go to Santa Barbara. But we stopped at one more winery for a tasting and tour. Dave and I finally found some Riesling! Our last stop was the pier at Santa Barbara. We walked around and bought ice cream on the pier. It was a nice touristy weekend with the folks.

Solvang, Paso Robles, Hearst Castle, and Santa Barbara Trip

Orioles Games in Anaheim : The orioles were in town Memorial Day weekend. So Dave and I went down to Anaheim to see a couple fo the games. The O's lost saturday night, but won on sunday. It was such a good feeling to go to another staidum and have the O's win, but not so good the night they lost.

Orioles Games in Anaheim

Hollywood Park : To celebrate Dave's birthday a few of headed down to Hollywood park for a day of Horse racing.

San Diego Zoo and Kayaking in La Jolla : In July 2005, Dave and I went down to San Diego for the weekend. We went to the San Diego Zoo and ocean kayaking at La Jolla. The kayaking was an amazing expereince. Sea Lions hang out there since its a protected area and they are so friendly. They will swim right up to your kayak.

San Diego Zoo and Kayaking in La Jolla

Desert Pictures : These are pictures that I have taken in the local Palmdale/Lancaster area. This is where we live. Yup, in the high desert of southern california.

Desert Pictures

LA Zoo : Pictures from a trip to the LA Zoo, along with the equestrain center.

Yosmeite 2005 : In July, my parents came out to visit. We drove up to Yosemite NP for the weekend and saw all the park sights. We even enjoyed and evening of star gazing at Glacier Point. The views were amazing and Dave and I now want to do the famous hike to Half Dome.

Monterey : My parents were in Monterey for a long weekend in July 2005. So, Dave and I took a trip up the coast to visit and see the area. While we were there we went horseback riding on Pebble Beach, toured the pacific coast highway, and saw Seals, sea lions, and otters in the wild. It was a great weekend!

Santa Anita : Dave and I enjoyed a day at Santa Anita Horsetrack in the fall of 2005.