Big Bear - Day 1 (Christmas Eve)

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Today is our first (full day) in Big Bear. Dan was going to wake me up early (5am) but i slept through until Darren woke me at about 7.15am (though Dan claims he was awake at 5am but it was 'too dark' to play in the snow so he decided not to wake me).

After breakfast the boys and I attempted to build a snow man. Dan was using a shovel but even so we couldn't seem to create the perfect snow man shape - ours looked like a volcano. Surprisingly you could sit and kneel in the snow (with snow pants) and it wasn't that cold! Darren ended up bringing two left hand snow gloves from Perth so he ducked off to Kmart (with instructions to also buy red food colouring for our volcano) whilst we played in the snow.

We lost interest in the snow man/volcano pretty quick, and had more fun walking up the street and watching the trees smoke and the first rays of sun melted the snow. Joel was smashing some pretty big snow 'boulders' onto the road whilst Dan was flicking snow with the shovel.

We eventually headed off to Big Bear Snow Play, with a morning coffee hit from Starbucks along the way. It's so cheap here, about $12 for two Peppermint Hot Choc, a tall Latte and a Grande (larger) Latte.

We arrived at Big Bear Snow Play just after opening time at 10am, paid for our entry ($25 each for all day pass, 10am - 4pm) and got stuck into it. Big Bear Snow Play is inner tubing which is serviced by a Magic Carpet uphill lift enclosed in plexiglass to eliminate the need to walk uphill. http://www.bigbearsnowplay.com/

The inner tubing was so much fun!! We tried all kinds of combinations - going down solo (lying either face first or sitting up); going down in a 'chain' holding onto each other’s legs (either face first or sitting up); going down with all four of us linking hands; going down will all four of us linking hands whilst lying on our tummies; and for Joel only - sliding down whilst kneeling on the tube with his knees.

We played from about 10am until 11.30am and then drove home for lunch. We took a drive to the Village and went for a walk up the main street checking out the little shops. It's such a cute little village. All the old fashion light poles were decorated for Christmas, the trees were lit up with Christmas lights, a horse and cart was prancing up and down the main street, and the end of the main street had a giant decorated Christmas tree. There is a really cute sweet shop which sells incredibly naughty lollies and chocolates and chocolate covered apples with all kinds of additions like nuts, 100's and Thousands etc. - so bad for you! They even sell chocolate brownies stuffed with peanut butter - yum maaa!!! Darren and the boys had an ice cream - and i had the benefit of trying each of them 😊

We had a look in Stupidiotic - a funny gift store kind of like RG Madden or the Re Store but with whacky gifts. http://www.stupidiotic.com/

After looking around the village we drove back to Big Bear Snow Play for 'round two' of our inner tubing. It was still reasonably busy but it didn't take too long to ride the Magic Carpet and have more rides of various combinations. We had got hot earlier in the day and had taken our ski jackets off so we decided to do the same for our second trip - however the temperature starting dropping pretty quickly and by the time we left at just before 4pm we were pretty cold and ready to get home and crank up the fire. http://www.knickerbockermansion.com/dining.html

We had to stop on the way home and pick up some fire starters.

When we got home i attempted to make hot chocolate the 'proper' way by heating the milk on the stove top however i successfully over boiled the milk and made a big mess all over the stove top.

We had a bit of a relax, checkout out our photos for the day and had showers before heading out for dinner.

We'd booked at a place called Bistro at the Mansion at Knickerbocker Mansion Country Inn. The inn was decorated so beautifully with all sorts of Christmas decorations, including a gorgeous Christmas tree which would be the most perfectly decorated Christmas tree I’ve seen! The tables were decorated all red, green and while for Christmas and the staff were so friendly. Stan (the owner) is visiting Perth in April as he's a sound technician for Neil Diamond (who will apparently be on tour).

Dan, Darren and I had a butternut squash soup for entree (kind of like pumpkin soup) and Joel had a Caesar salad. The bread rolls were so yummy! The mains were also really good - i had salmon, Dan had a pork ouso buco, Joel had a chicken breast and Darren had a filet mignon. Darren and I managed a whole bottle of red - good for body warmth!

When we got home Dan, Darren and I took a dip in the hot tub. It was a bit 'ouch' when you first put your feet in the warm water because the feet were so cold, but once in the water it was so nice. It was a cool contrast lifting your arms out of the warm water into the cold air.

After warm showers we watched a bit of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - such a funny movie!!!

Pyrotechnic Dan played with the fire, Joel played with his iPhone, and Darren feel asleep on the loung 😊

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