Well, if you’ve been following along you know by now that we sold the house and had to be out by the middle of November.Even with the three garage/moving sales we still had plenty to box up and move to a storage unit for further sorting in the spring. Sorting at a storage unit during a Northern Michigan winter is absolutely out of the question. We rented a condo for a month and a half which gave us a place to land, regroup and prepare for Christmas. There was shopping, baking and then packing for a 10 day trip to California to meet up with our kids for the holiday. Right now they live in the four corners of the country and this year we all chose Lake Tahoe. So even though we aren’t in a motorhome yet, this is the beginning of our travels! Yay!!
First stop was Yosemite National Park, a favorite destination for both of us. There is so much to see there, even at this time of year. A number of hiking trails were still open and around every corner was a photo opportunity. After being married to a photographer for over 30 years I’ve learned a little something about taking a good picture but have a great deal more to learn. He helped out a lot by post processing these images for me in Photoshop. We each like different aspects of landscape photography. Dave likes the big, grand vistas and I like to photograph small intimate objects, forms, shapes and structures. So we took pictures of waterfalls, rainbows and one cold morning I found this ice crystal formation. 
Sadly one of our favorite vistas, “Tunnel View”, has changed due to a large number of dead trees in the park. The drought over the last 5 years has weakened the trees defenses and they are starting to succumb to the Japanese beetle. Several large dead trees were being cut down for safety reasons.
Next stop was Lake Tahoe. What a beautiful place. It was snowing and blowing the first two days we were there which left a picture postcard kind of Christmas. Pine trees full of snow, mountains covered in a heavy blanket of snow and a fire in the fireplace. Magical. We had planned on doing some mountain activities; skiing, snowboarding and the gondola ride, but the high winds shut down all the lifts. But on Christmas the skies cleared and we headed out to do some cross country skiing along Lake Tahoe. A fun time had by all.
Last stop on the California trip was to the coast, Monterrey to Big Sur with plenty of places to stop and take photos. We spent a day at Pfieffer Beach. I got some nice pictures of the colored sand,
the rock surface of the keyhole rock and then there was the sunset. The sunset is what all the landscape photographers come for, and boy there was a lot of them. All lined up in front of the rock formation with a keyhole opening in the bottom. In the right conditions (time of year, tide, weather) the setting sun will cast orange rays thru the keyhole and illuminate the shore. So I thought I would try my hand at the big vista. While they all moved around from one side to the other I waited in one spot. I took several shots and as you can see above I caught the sunburst coming thru.
So all in all, our first venture was a big success. We had a wonderful Christmas with our kids, did some hiking and skiing and got some great pictures. We then had to head back to Michigan to pack up the condo and get set for our next adventure. A few months in Florida and maybe a motorhome!
