One the best things about living in Yucca Valley is that everything fun is within 2 hours. The beach is two hours away, the mountains are less than two hours away, and Las Vegas is two hours away. Locals are always giving us great suggestions on interesting things to do around the area.
One of the more popular suggestions was to visit the
Big Bear Mountain Resort area, up in the San Bernardino National Forest. If you've seen some of our
previous posts on the view from our front yard, then you've seen Big Bear. In the summer Big Bear Resort is a cool, lakeside retreat, and in the winter is a famous Southern California ski destination.
This year has been an exceptionally great year for snow up in the mountains. We HAD to go skiing! The mountains got a huge dump of snow this past week, so this was the perfect time to go. Once the road cleared, up the mountain we went! It took an hour-and-a half to get there, and the change of climate was dramatic. It's like another world up there!
Both of us were a bit nervous about skiing, as it had been over 13 years since we last skied. Would we make complete fools out of ourselves? Would we be able to walk the next day? Well, nothing like giving it the old try (I think, old is the key word here.)
I like to call this one "A View from a Fall." :) Turned out that it was a bit like riding a bike. Once we got rid of the nerves and got some good fitting boots, we actually did quite well! I only fell twice and Greg officially only fell once (one time I actually fell on him making him loose his ski and fall. But I don't count that as a real fall.:)
We had so much fun! It felt so good to be skiing again. To be moving fast. To feel the cool snow! Greg was a much better skiier than I. I had trouble with stopping at times, and had a couple moments where I felt completely out of control (hence the fall.) We had so much fun, though!
The day we chose to ski was the start of a very warm period up in the mountains. It was in the 50's. You know those photos of women skiing in bikini tops? Well, they were probably taken here at Big Bear, because it was very HOT for skiing. Greg and I were both melting in our ski clothing! The heat did not make for the best skiing conditions (the snow gets VERY slushy,) but we handled it the best we could.
This was about two minutes before I totally fell on my butt. Another challenge we faced was dodging snowboarders. Big Bear has two snow parks. One park is "all-terrain" for snowboarders and the other has longer runs for skiers. We, unfortunately, chose the all-terrain park out of ignorance. There were snowboarders EVERYWHERE. And not just moving snowboarders, but fallen snowboarders, whom I started to refer to as "the dead bodies." Their bodies were strewn all over the runs! Get out of my way!
Notice all the snowboarders! By the end of the afternoon we tired of the snowboarders and the super slushy snow and packed up for home. It was so weird to return to 70 degree weather so quickly. What a terrific day of memories!
My sister-in-law, Kerry is coming out to visit in April. I am going to treat her to a day at the beach. I had to find the perfect California beach for her. I think I found it! I took a little drive north of Camp Pendleton to San Clemente State Park. I won't post too much about this beach, because I want to save it for her visit, but it has everything that makes beaches fun in CA. Beautiful surf, golden sand, ragged cliffs, active surfers and a pier. Not to mention a great little town to shop. I can't wait for her visit!
