Happily Ever After

A very good friend of mine from High School got married this past weekend. I of course lugged the camera around so I could get my own take on the day. Here are a few shots I really like.


I have started uploading photos. Check the link for more. http://schanker.smugmug.com/Weddings/329700

The Rest of Our European Vacation

Dave and I returned to Cali last night after being gone for 18 days! It was nice to be back in our own bed again. I was unable to update the blog after Edinburgh so I’m including a recap on the rest of the trip.

Edinburgh, Scotland
We really loved it here. The city is so amazingly old with wonderful charm. Once we arrived I immediately noticed a sweet smell in the air. I couldn't quite place it but later found out it was the smell of beer being brewed. It was quite strong at times. If you’ve never been to Edinburgh I do suggest it. The city is quite neat and the locals are very friendly. Our first day was spent touring Edinburgh Castle and walking the Royal Mile. Holyrod Palace was closed to visitors so we could only see it from the outside. We also hiked up a hill to the ruins of an old church that overlooked the city. We wanted to go to the top of Arthur’s Seat but it was very windy and it looked like rain so we decided to not venture up to the top. Instead we headed down to seek out some local pubs.

Our Second day was spetd seeing Stirling Castle and Loch Lomond. We had beautiful weather for this journey and had a magnificent time seeing yet another castle. It was amazing to see all the lakes in Scotland. They were so plentiful. It seemed like there was a lake around every bend in the road. Plus I got to compare it to the Ireland Country side since I‘ve already been there before. The third day we made a last minute decision to go to St Andrews (the home of golf). This is a coastal town where golf was born. So we got to see the Old Golf Course and Dave just watched in awe. While in St Andrews we visited the ruins of a seaside castle and church. Dave shopped for golf souvenirs before we had to be on our way. We also visited a small town called Falkland and some coastal fishing villages. It was really neat to see this other side of Scotland. In the evening we headed by train to Glasgow.

Edinburgh overview: I loved it!!! I loved the pubs, I loved the castles, and I loved the bagpipes! We had an awesome time here. The city was great and so were the people. We had two great experiences immediately upon arrival. First some random Scottish man helped me carry my bag up the stairs at the train station and two another random guy stopped to ask us if we needed directions when he saw us looking at a map. Everyone was so nice! Our hotel was nice too. I came complete with a rubber ducky!!! (I'm serious about the rubber ducky).

Glasgow
If there was one part of the trip we would have done differently it would have been to skip Glasgow altogether. It turned out to be a more relaxing day but not very exciting. Glasgow doesn’t really have anything the pooped out as a must see. So we took a short train ride to a country park to see the Burrell Collection. On the way out I noticed a sign for Highland cattle. We had seen these hairy cows (coos) along the road but one of my galas was to see them in person and get photos. So off we went in search of the Hairy Coo. We found them! Actually a couple of them came right up to the fence to see us and we got to to pet their noses. They are so incredibly cute! The rest of the day was spent meandering around Glasgow as it proved to be a rainy and gray day. About 4 pm the sun finally came out. That night we at at DiMaggio's and had a fabulous dinner complete with a shortbread caramel sundae.

Glasgow Overview: Not overly exciting. They basically have a bunch of museums. It was worth it to see the Hairy Coos! But don't stay at the quality Hotel at the Train Station. This was the only hotel I had complaints about the entire trip.

Onward to Ireland
Since we only had one day in Glasgow we were quite content with that. The next day we headed by train and ferry to Ireland. The ferry was so neat! It was huge. The seats were so comfy and it didn’t seem like a ferry at all. They even had movies on the ship, restaurants, and cafes. When we arrived in Belfast we decided to not sightsee there and just to head straight to Dublin. This part of the trip was more for Dave. It was his birthday trip and he wanted to see horse racing and drink a Guinness in an Irish Pub. So we made the trek to Dublin. Since I had already been to Dublin I was pretty much Dave’s tour guide. It’s amazing that even after 5 years how much you remember of a city. I barley needed a map to navigate the streets. After we checked in to the hotel we headed over to Jameson for a tour and tasting. Then it was off for a pub dinner and some pub hopping for Guinness and Bulmer’s Cider.
The following day Dave an I did some shopping and also toured Newgrange. This was quite a site. No one truly knows why it's there, but basically it is a catacomb. The doorway allows light inside but only around the 21 of Dec every year. Otherwise it is completley dark inside. I did enjoy taking photos here. We also toured the ruins of an old monastery then it was back to the city center. After finding some dinner we were off to the Musical Pub Crawl. We met more people from Cali here. This time they were from Thousand Oaks. I really love Irish music so even though I had already been on the Pub Crawl before it was still lots of fun. Our last day in Europe was spent touring the rest of Dublin including Guinness. Then it was off to top the trip off with a horse race at Leopardstown. It was night racing sponsored by Miller!!! (why not Guinness, I have no idea). We both had a lot of fun at the races. Dave enjoyed trying to figure out how to bet in Europe while I took lots of photos of the horses. Ireland Overview: What more can I say. I mean its Ireland! Maybe it's the red head in me but I love this country. Even though I had already been to Dublin it was still fun to be there with Dave and showing him the town. Plus I got to do some things I couldn't before. The hotel here was great too. Terrific location at the end of Temple Bar, good size room, and a hot breakfast was included every morning.

Thursday morning it was time to head back to the states to attend Brenda’s wedding. We left Dublin at 11am and arrive in Pittsburgh at about 5pm EST.

Trip Overview: The whole trip was a lot of fun and I alway love Europe. I couldn't have thought of a better way to celebrate Dave's 30th Bithday with him! We both had a ton of fun and wish it wasn't over. But now its back to reality. My Favorite part was definalty Paris. Dave, he loved each city for its own reason. But I think his favorite was Edinburgh,

More From Europe

Okay, so here's a brief synopsis on the rest of our trip so far. Dave and I are currently in Edinburgh, Scotland. We arrived this morning via Sleeper Train. Although we had a slight issue with that, we did make it at 7:30am this morning. But first we spent 3 days in London. While in London we did the normal sightseeing such as Kennsington Palace, Hyde Park, Kennsington Gardens, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, London Tower, Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace (changing of the Guards), and the Mews (horses) at Buckingham. We also toured Stonehenge and Bath. So we managed to see and do a lot in 3 days thanks to short lines! Stonehenge was awesome. We took a guided tour so we were actually able to go out and touch the stones and play around for an hour. Dave and I had a blast there. Bath was pretty neat too. I really loved that town it self and anyhing to do with Roman times is always amazing to us!



Now we are in Edinburgh. Today we saw Edinburgh Castle which was really neat. Then we walked the Royal Mile and also through Holyrod Park up to a point overlooking the city. Tomorrow we are off to do a day tour of Loch Lomond and Stirling Castle.

A Very Long Journey

Today is the first day we have had free Wifi service so this post will be long. Here is our blog so far from the trip.

Thursday/Friday- It seemed like we were never going to get to Europe this time. The journey to Paris from LAX was a long one. We did not have a direct flight this time. Instead we flew to Philly, had a 3.5 hour layover, and then a 7 hour flight to Paris! Wow what a day. We only got about 3 hours of sleep Thursday night. Since the 16th was Dave’s official 30th birthday we went out to happy hour at Outback then back to Arielle’s to play some Mario Party. We finally headed to bed at around 12am and we got up at 3:25am!!! We did manage to sleep a few hours on the flight to Philly. But we spent our hours in Philly charging our electronics (IPODS), eating lunch, and resting.

Dave trying to sleep in the Philly Airport

We boarded our fight to Paris at about 5:45pm and arrived at 7:45am! We were exhausted, but we made the most of our first day and enjoyed the sights of Paris. Our first stop was at the Arch de Triumph. Then we took a stroll down Champs Elyses and ate lunch outside at a sidewalk bistro. Next we went to Notre Dame and there was a bread festival going on. It smelled so good and we tasted some great bread. Of course we really couldn’t understand anyone but it was still lot of fun. Our final stop for the day was the Pantheon where we took a tour and got to see more views of Paris. It was a great day in Paris but by the end we were totally exhausted. At least we have a really comfy bed at our hotel.

Road from the top of the Arch De Triumph

Saturday – Today was again spent enjoying the sights of Paris. It was looking kind of gray in the morning so instead of sticking to the original plan we headed to the Louvre. This place was soooo big and amazing. I’ve never seen so much artwork in one place. Here we got to see 2 pretty famous items…the Venus DiMilo and the Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa was much smaller than I had expected, but still awesome to see. Next we decided to take a stroll through the park at the Lourve. Then it was off to catch the train to go to Monmarte and Sacra Couer (sp?). This area was really neat. Lots of personality and the cathedral that sat up on top of the hill offered amazing views of Paris. At the base of the cathedral was another little fair going on. This one had some local French wineries; of course we bought 2 bottles of wine to take home. We just couldn’t resist the French wines. For the rest of the afternoon we headed to Luxembourg Gardens and walked and had some sorbet. Saturday evening we decided to head over to the Eiffel Tower. We had dinner at a cute little French bistro then took night time photos of the Tower. We were going to go up but decided the line was pretty long and that we would wait for the next day. So instead we headed to Champs Elyses to have some wine.

Eifel Tower at Night

Sunday – well we woke up today and Paris was pretty much socked I with clouds and rain. How unfortunate since we did the Louvre yesterday. We decided to start the day our with a Nutella and Banana crepe along with “American “coffee” (meaning big coffee). Then we headed to another small area of Paris to see the Picasso Museum Oh, I really loved this area of town. It almost reminded me of Italy with all the small streets and cute buildings. After the museum we stopped at a cute Patstry/choclatier shop and bought a Chocolate Mousse torte…oh it was so good! After wards we walled around and then headed back into the main part of the city to catch a tour on the Seine River. Next we headed to the Eiffel Tower. The weather still was not great so we only went up the second level. I liked it here thought because you were still outside and had great views. Sunday night ww ate dinner somewhere near the Latin Quarter (at least we think so). Dinner was so amazingly great and we shared a bottle of white wine and sat outside overlooking the crowded streets of Paris. To end our visit in Paris we walked around by the Seine and then headed back to champs Elsyses for desert

Me along the Siene River

My wrap-up of Paris: I loved it!!! I was as comfortable in Paris as I was in Italy. I found everyone to be super nice and willing to try and understand us. The culture is wonderful and I especially loved sitting at the cute outdoor cafes. IIate horrible, but I’m on vacation. Everything I had was suberb..Salmon, beef, Crème Caramel, Crepes. But the Crème Brulee was to die for. My comparison was like drinking Guinness in Ireland…it was so much better in Paris. So anyway, I would go back to Paris in a heartbeat. It was amazing and an experience I will never forget! I only learned the basic French words but we were fine getting around.

Au Revoir for now!

Marathon Vacation

Dave has termed our latest Europe Vacation as a "marathon vacation" and has even compared it to hiking to Half Dome! Yes it's a crazy trip, and overall it probably satisifies my personality more than Dave's even though its his birthday trip. In my defense I did ask him where he wanted to go and it all meant doing a lot in 2 weeks. As he wanted horse racing, a few days in Paris (for me), beer in Dublin, and some castles.

So we start off the trip with Dave's birthday Happy Hour in Burbank. Then its off for a few hours of sleep before driving to LAX at an ungodly hour for a 6:30 am flight to Philly.

When we finally arrive we will have 3 days in Paris to visit the Eiffel tower (again), the louvre, Picasso Musesum, Arch De Triumph, a boat tour down the Seine, and other sights. We will also make sure to sit at an outdoor cafe with a bottle of French Wine!

Then its off to london via Chunnel. In london we are staying by Hyde Park and will see a lot of the sights including Kensington Palance, Changing of the Guard, the Royal Mews (horses), Londonw Tower, London Bridge, Big Ben, and do a sunset tour of Stonehenge. Here we plan to drink newcastle in some british pubs.

Next we are off to Edinburgh to see the city including Edinburgh Castle. One day we will even tour Loch Lomond and one of the National Parks.

Our next stop is Glasgow and/or St andrews (famous for scottish golf).

Finally On the 28th we make our way to Ireland. First we head to Northern Ireland by ferry and spend an afternoon in Belfast before heading down to Dublin. Our last two days will be spent touring Dublin including Newgrange, drinking Guiness, and going to the horse races. Can you believe that the horse race we are going to is sponsored by Miller Beer!!!! Give me a Guiness or Smithwicks instead please!

The very end of our trip will be spent in Pennsylvannia for my friends wedding. I can't wait to take pictures there and see how I do! So it's all pretty exciting but a little stressful at the same time since we're less than a week away. I promise to try and post on the blog and maybe photos too. We do have internet access in London. So check back for more!

Photo of the Day:

My Dilema

So this past weekend I went to go help the local wedding photographer with a wedding. After I came back I really started thinking about this assisting thing. I mean I love photography and I would love to learn more and get better. But I don’t know if it’s worth it. I don’t get to see Dave that much during the week and the weekends are what I consider “our time” together. So If I continue with the assisting thing it means I won’t be able to see Dave as much, besides we’d really have to cut down on our weekend travels. Then there is the fact that I feel like a glorified gopher. I’m not doing any photography and I’m basically just running around getting and hauling equipment. Which I really don’t think I want to spend my Saturdays doing that. Dave tells me to hang in there a bit longer and see what happens, but I just don’t know. I’m starting to think I’m just not ready to commit to something like this at this point in my life. My weekends are important me, spending time with Dave is important and learning the art of photography is imporant. So how do I fit all that in. If you have any advice, let me know. Maybe I should just stick to taking some more advanced photography classes and skip out on this assisting thing. What do you think?

On another note...Dave and I leave for our extended vacation in less than 2 weeks! OMG! There is so much to do. And we have Dave's work party this saturday down in Universal. Plus I have a ton of stuff to get down at work. Talk about stressed. I can't wait to be on that plane and know I don't have anything to worry about for over 2 weeks!

My First Engagement Photo Shoot

This weekend I did my very first practice engagement photo shoot. Some friends of ours are getting married in a few weeks and I offered to take some photos for them as a favor and practice for myself. So off we went to Malibu for a photoshoot. It was a typical Cali gloomy beach day. So the backdrop was a bit gray, but overall I think we got some good shots. Take a peak into the photoshoot.
See the rest of there Album for more photos.

Home is where the heart is

This past weekend, I took a weekend trip to MD to visit my family and ensure my bridesmaid dress fits prior to Brenda’s Wedding. The weekend was pretty uneventful. I pretty much hung out at my parent’s house. We did order crabs for Sat night, then I spent Sunday wandering around DC with Brenda. I did take the camera and tried to take some photos, although there wasn’t a lot to take on this trip. I did capture some photos of flowers in spring bloom and some scenes around Carroll County. What do you think??? Leave me comments, Please!



I have to say it seems to get weirder and weirder every time I go back. I mean I start to feel more out of place there. It’s funny that when I lived in FL I always still considered MD my home, but I think that’s because I really disliked FL and it always felt temporary to me. But once I moved to Cali and got comfortable, I think I lost that feeling of MD being my home. I now have a house, husband, and good job in Cali, which doesn’t feel temporary at all, but much more permanent. I love Cali and all the things to do, the desert may not be so great, but it’s worth it for everything we get to do. I actually now consider CA my home and MD seems so far away and strange. It truly is amazing how things change over a certain period of time. I think I now think of MD as more of my childhood and CA and my grown up and on my own home. But I like that. I always liked MD and probably took it for granted when I lived there. But I really love Cali. I don’t know if it is really the difference of hating FL and loving Cali or if it’s just the fact that I love my job and I love being married Dave. Maybe it’s just a combination of all things. But moving out here was definatly like starting off a fresh clean slate.

A return visit to the Vasquez Rocks

So today we returned to the Vasquez rocks...this time to actually play and climb the rocks. We enjoyed climbing the big rocks for a couple of hours. Dave and I even shared a small bottle of wine on top of the rocks. It was a lot of fun acting like monkeys and climbing all over the place.

Also, it looks like were going back to Yosemite this summer and we'll most likely be hiking back to Half Dome!!! Oh Boy! And this time I'm making up those cables, as I think we're going to plan to be on the trail by 6am! I got up at 7 this morning to reserve campsites and I actually got 2 campsites next to each other on the valley floor! Those are always so hard to get, but I guess with it being a Sunday it was much easier. It'll be a lot more convenient to hike to Half Dome form the valley floor rather than having to make the 1 hour drive to the trail head.

Gotta love it!

While we were in Big Sur we stumbled upon a field of wild lillies! I've never seen anything like it before. I of course had tons of fun snapping photos. It was an overcast day so my photos were exposed so the flower was nice and bright but the background was real dark. Here are some of the photos!

This past week in the high desert has been crazy. We normally have lots of wind, but this week has been like a tropical storm but without the precipitation. Today we had sustained winds of 35-40mph and gusts to almost 60mph!! CRAZYEEE! This weekend Dave and I will be home, although we may go hiking nearby. Watch for photos.

Wine, Scenic Views, and More Wine

This past weekend was our camping trip to Big Sur. We left on Thursday afternoon and drove to San Simeon where we stayed in a hotel for the night. We left early in order to arrive at the beach by sunset. However, a huge bank of clouds off shore prevented the sunset from being spectacular. In fact there was hardly a sunset at all. So instead to wandered around the beach looking for seals and we spotted a few. Then it was off to dinner at a local Mexican restaurant and some wine at the hot tub. We woke up early Friday morning to visit the Elephant Seals and drive up the PCH on a very overcast day. The sights were still nice, although not very picture worthy with the fog. So we kept going to Monterey and arrived in the late morning. We then visited some wine tasting rooms while we waited for our friends from San Francisco to arrive. We later met them on Cannery Row and had lunch. Then it was off to the foothills to a few more wine tasting rooms. Friday night we checked into our campsite, cooked dinner, and drank some wine. It was arelaly nice night. The campsite was okay although they were rather cramped and close. Saturday we woke up to go do some hiking and take in the sights. I of course took tons of photos. On sunday we ended up at Point Lobos State Reserve to hike a little bit and admire more of the coast. We go to see several seals there too. We parted ways in the afternoon. Dave and I drove the scenic way to get to the highway. Then stopped in Paso Robles to find a few of the open wineries. We ended up at two here, EOS and Tobin James. Tobin James was a lot of fun. Real relaxed and very good wines. Then we ate a picnic dinner and headed home.

More Big Sur photos.

I Love the Terps!

You have to admit having a history like this is pretty darn sweet! I love the Terps! It’s almost like I never have to wonder if they are going to be good at the beginning of the season. I already know they will be!

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The University of Maryland men's basketball team finished the year ranked 18th in the latest Associated Press poll and 23rd in the final ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll, released April 3. It is the seventh time in the last nine years that the Terps have placed in both final polls. The Terrapins concluded the season with a record of 25-9 and advanced to the second round of the Midwest Regional in the NCAA Tournament.
Maryland has appeared in each poll 14 consecutive years, dating back to the 1992-93 season. The Terrapins have been ranked in the Associated Press poll 351 times, and have placed in the coaches poll 326 times.
The Terrapins peaked at No. 19 in the November 29 coaches poll, while their highest ranking in the AP poll was March 5th, when the Terps were ranked 17th. Maryland appeared in each of the final three polls this year.
The Terps made their 14th consecutive postseason appearance this year with their trip to the NCAA Tournament as a No. 4 seed. Maryland's 25 victories were the fourth-highest win total for any Gary Williams-led team, while four Terrapins earned all-conference accolades.

This is something the Gators defiantly can’t claim! I can’t wait til next year! GO TURTLES!

Easter Weekend 2007

Where in Cali will the Schankers be this weekend?...camping in Big Sur. if you don't know where Big Sur is it is about 20 miles south of Monterey on the coast along the PCH. We will be camping at the state park there. We really have no plans really, but it'll probably involve some hiking, some wine, and a few campfires. It looks like we will be seeing a couple of friends while we are up there to. We're both pretty excited and for once we both have a three day weekend. It's going to be tons o fun! I love the area up there. Besides the Sierras it's my favorite place in Cali. I love the scenery and seeing all the seals and sea otters.

This past weekend: Was pretty uneventful for us. We were hard at work getting things done around the house. Another 2-3 hour power outage on Saturday kept me from working on the Crown Molding. But I did finish the paint in the kitchen plus a few other odds and ends.

The new color in the kitchen

Dave worked very hard on our lawn. Some of those cold winter nights this year were pretty harsh on the grass and apparently our sprinkler system too. As Dave pretty much decided to replace all the sprinkler heads. He also fertilized so hopefully we’ll have a really green yard in no time. It’s crazy, I’m still not used to getting brown grass in the winter as FL never got cold enough for that to happen. Saturday night we decided we had worked hard so we went to dinner at Famous Dave’s and then watched a movie at home. Sunday we went to have our Kitchen designed and get the quote. Oh boy! We still have decisions to make before we make it all final. I also got the bike out this weekend and got it ready to ride. So Sunday evening I went out for about an hour and half. I rode through the desert. Its kind of eeiry out there at times…no one around, just vast land with lots of sage brush. It was kind of relaxing just being out there pedaling along. In May I am doing the Tour De Cure and will be riding 30 miles. I didn’t sign up for the 65 mile ride, because I was unsure if I should go that far since I haven’t been biking much. I’m in great shape, but I didn’t know about biking shape. The mileage I did on Sunday was pretty easy and I didn’t even feel tired when I got home (running is so much more intensive then biking). So riding for a few hours shouldn’t be a problem. Don’t forget if you want to donate to the Diabetes Association for the Tour De Cure…click here. I appreciate any donations that can be made.