Shannon Pierce understands the need to escape the stress of a workaday world from time to time.

She never has to go far.

Escape is as close as a lake, just down the road, about eleven miles for Lake Tahoe.

Its fields and woodlands blanketed with snow.

A place of peace.

And calm.

The perfect portrait of winter.

An escape to a White Christmas.

Shannon points out:  “Sometimes you need to escape – get away from the routine of day-to-day. No matter how much you may enjoy your daily life, escaping is often a guilty pleasure. The planning of the escape can take weeks. Or minutes.

This photo was taken on an escape virtually right in our own backyard – at Donner Lake about an hour from home. It was the busy-ness of the holiday season when we woke up and said “let’s put off today what we can do tomorrow and go snowshoeing.”

It was a beautiful day in the snow, nobody around except us (my husband and two teenage sons). It was a reminder that it’s not only perfectly acceptable to escape but highly encouraged!”