Big Bear

Our Big Bear stay at the Honeymoon Hideaway did not last long. There were several little things that were suboptimal yet tolerable, until we spent nearly three hours trying to get out of the driveway the next day! We imagined it would be icy in the morning, so fighting all natural instincts to wake up early, we waited for it to warm up before we set off around noon. Darron had tire chains, but the incline of the driveway coupled with the ice proved to be insurmountable and we learned the feeling behind the phrase, "snowed in." Our entire day was shot just trying to leave the cabin.

So we very nicely brought this to the management's attention and requested another option. For our trouble, we were upgraded - for no extra charge - to a grand, new cabin that slept six, had marble countertops and stainless steel appliances, a jet jacuzzi, pool table and darts board, two decks, a fireplace, a heating system and effective insulation, and best of all, a driveway we could drive in and out of!

From then, we could not be stopped except by our own vacationy laziness! As it was midweek and the crowds were gone, we went on a peacefully (mostly) solitary walk around the frozen Big Bear Lake, built a snowman, made yummy dinners (one night Darron made the most perfect s'more ever), went skiing where Darron avoided smashing his head for once and I avoided having shoulder surgery again, read books, watched cable TV (remember, I gave away my TV and Darron only has snowy analog network channels!), explored the neighboring town, and also visited the little local Moonridge Zoo, which takes in injured or orphaned local animals, or sometimes even abandoned exotic pet animals. 

We saw retired San Diego Zoo arctic foxes, owls of many sorts, a black bear who was found as a baby abandoned and starving in a watermelon patch, some bison, bald and golden eagles and hawks who got cataracts and went blind from pesticides or were shot by ranchers, a mountain lion, a squirrel with vertigo that was found injured after he fell out of his tree, a tortise named Speedy, a very nervous African hunting cat called a serval, and these young timber wolves. So mournful and eerie. If you've never heard a wolf howl, hit the "play" button below.



And we adopted a snow leopard named Milo for a year. Snow leopards are an endangered species, very rarely seen in Central Asia, and never below 5000 feet elevation, which is probably why he's in Big Bear. Our little adoption fee goes toward feeding and caring for him, though watching him eat, it probably only buys him two days' worth of food! You can read about all the animals' stories here.