big bear

We had succcch a great little mini-vacay in Big Bear. We went at just the right time – it had just snowed 24″ a couple days before we got there, but the roads were clear enough that we didn’t need snow chains. The weather was perfect – mid 40s during the day, low 20s at night. Plus, we went during the week, when lines for the lifts are non-existent, there is no traffic, and the hotel is quiet.

We stayed right on the lake, and the views were absolutely breathtaking. There is nothing in the world like fresh, crisp mountain air! I really enjoyed looking out over the frozen lake (which was unfrozen by the time we left) at the snow-covered hills, but I could tell it was an even more beautiful sight in the summertime when all the boats are out and about.

Snowboarding was an event – we took a beginner’s lesson which helped a lot, but my memory kicked in somewhere around the 1-hr mark and I was able to pick back up where I left off two years ago when I last hit the slopes. We fell. A lot. But we enjoyed it! So much in fact, we went two days in a row – despite being extremely sore.

We also went tubing at Alpine Slide – which, I’ll be honest, wasn’t quite as awesome as I had hoped. Don’t get me wrong, it was so much fun sliding down the hills on the tubes, but I wanted something a little more extreme. I wanted to get thrown off my tube. I wanted my head to be spinning when I stood up. Instead, we were tubing alongside 5 yr olds. But we’ll take what we can get! And we did get some really adorable pictures.

Another highlight of the trip was eating. One look at Yelp and you can tell Big Bear isn’t exactly a culinary hot spot, but we managed to find a few local restaurants that had decent food, good wine, and friendly waiters. Our favorite spots were the Peppercorn Grille, Sweet Basil Bistro (the lobster lasagna was insane and the handmade mini-donuts with 3 different dipping sauces were TO DIE FOR), and the local greasy-spoon breakfast joint, Grizzly Manor Cafe. I can’t imagine any of these places would garner a solid 4 or 5 star Yelp standing in LA, but they were perfect for our trip.

All in all, a super relaxing little getaway. The perfect amount of time – we were just barely able to hit all the restaurants we wanted to, went into all the cute little store, chatted with the shop owners, and snowboarded until we were too sore to move. It took us less than 3.5 hours to get there (& home), and we felt lightyears away from the madness. We will be back!