Big Bear

It's been so cold outside, so why not make the best of this time of year?!  We went with a group of friends to Big Bear on Friday.  It's always fun to go snowboarding, and the more the merrier!  A lot more people were invited, but the ones that went had a great time.  We headed up nice and early, had breakfast, and then time to rent equipment and hit the slopes.  For several, it was the bunny slope, but I think they had fun too.  David was able to help Dave, Nick & Ian teach JR, Kaylee and Katie.  Jason helped Lillian, and everyone just hung out there for awhile. I'm not up to the task to snowboard this year, so I sat at the tables at the bottom of the bunny slope and took pictures and read.  It was beautiful weather and I had a lot of fun watching and  visiting with everyone as they took breaks.  The sun was of course in front of me, so it's hard to see the people's faces.

Everyone had a great time, even though they are all a little extra sore today.  Can't wait to go again!!

Part two of this post:  Where Not to Stay in Big Bear
Alpine Village Inn and Resort

We had this trip planned for quite awhile, so David and I decided it was time for another weekend getaway.  We found a "condo" type place to stay online and booked it about 2 months ago.  The pictures online looked like it was an okay room to stay, and it was super inexpensive compared to some of the places you can book there.  So we went for it - why not, cuz it's always worked in the past.  But this time...not so much.  The lady at the desk said to park around back and look for the two decks, and that our room would be the one with the deck on the left.  We were taken back a bit, walked in the room, and thought, oh no!  It looked a little seedy (red carpeting SCREAMS seedy to me).  We walked in the bedroom and David said, "I think we're going to get bed bugs."  It took awhile to get accustomed to the room. We took naps, and got up to go to dinner.  I wasn't sure we were even going to stay there until I was ready to climb into bed.  I studied it and determined it did look clean and I was tired enough that it just didn't matter.  (If it really was dirty, there would've been no way to keep me there.)  Helpful hint...if the paperwork you sign says "No refunds after checking in", well, that's a big red flag.

Top left, the front of the "hotel".  Bottom left, our "deck" and door to the room.  SWEET! Across the street from the place we stayed was a nice Mexican restaurant.  They had great food and it was nice to get out of our room.  No, I didn't take any pictures of the inside of the room.  Just didn't want to relive it - ever.  haha

We ended up having a nice getaway, even though neither of us were feeling so great - he fell snowboarding and broke a rib - but it was nice to be together and have quiet time to talk and reflect on our lives.  Next time we go up there, we'll have to write down places that look nice enough to stay.  Guess you do get what you pay for.  Lesson learned.