Day 28: Bear Lake

After a night in Barstow we again took the map out and looked for places that sound nice (or are tagged with yellow which means they are a place of interest). Our process of selecting places to go is very sporadic in its nature. In Vegas we saw a couple sunbathing, both going through some Lonely Planets and underlining places to see. That's waaaaay too organised for us! Maybe it means that we miss some interesting places but on the other hand we might stumble across some really nice gems in the middle of nowhere, like Big Bear Lake/City.

We drove there through a scenic mountain highway. It was only an hours drive from Barstow, but since we were suddenly in mountain area, the climate was very different (less than 20 degrees C). Big Bear is in the winter a skiing area and in the summer hiking/mountain biking mecca. It was full of wooden cabins/lodges wi everyone advertising indoor spas/jacuzzi's. As that sounded something to experience, we decided to stay there for the day. We found a nice lodge near the city center. We enjoyed lunch in an organic bagel shop and went for a walk to see the lake, which was really beautiful. The houses by the lake were roughly $1 million dollars. It must be nice to live in California when you have money, and you can buy such things within few hours drive from LA :-)

In the village was a sledge-sliding thing. It included going up in a very old-school skiing lift (the 1920's called and they wanted their skilift back), sitting on a sleigh with two settings: accelerate or break and going down trying to outrun six-year-old mexican kids. It was fun, but we felt no need to buy a serial ticket for that one :-) the instructor was also very helpful by saying that "dont't worry, nobody has died here.. last week" :) this was propably just to scare the kids - and A.

Ready, set, goooooo!

Need 4 speed!

We also took advantage of the local spa and got some massage and pedicure from a really nice woman who had moved from South Africa first to Chicago and then to Big Bear. She said the climate is perfect, with skiing in the winter and sun in then summer, it is only few hours from places like Vegas, Los Angeles, Palm Springs.. And it is so safe that you don't need to even lock your doors at night. Mental note: we should get jobs where we could work from anywhere in the world :-)

In the evening we enjoyed the indoor jacuzzi (lesson learned: do not put on the bubble-making machine before the water level is high enough) and a dinner in an Nepalese/Indian restaurant. In the restaurant were pictures of people summiting Mt. Everest, and when we asked about it they said they are actually guys from Big Bear who did that.