Quick Trip to Big Bear...

We took a quick little trip up to Big Bear Lake last Saturday with the Salmon family. It wasn't a bad drive - about two hours - but we went from a 74 degree SoCal feel, to a 38 degree Montana feel. It was crazy! We couldn't believe how cold it was, and we were all unprepared. There was even some snow! It was great to see some fall colors, feel the crisp air, and then know we were going back to the beach. :-) We loved it though. We walked through The Village, ate at a local dive, and walked to the lake. In Big Bear they have this little place called the Moonridge Animal Park. At first glance it is a little ghetto, but it turned out to be a lot of fun and really awesome. They had some great animals - grizzly and black bears, a mountain lion, badgers, bobcats, coyotes, wolves, porcupines, beavers, skunks, all kinds of owls, fox, deer, a snow leopard, eagles, and tons more. The best part - they all come right up to the fence. It wasn't like those other zoos where they stay way far away and you can hardly see them without binoculars. These ones were feet away. At one point, we were listening to this guy talk about the grizzlies and one of them stuck it’s nuzzle through the fence and the guy was touching it. Five minutes later he walked away and if I wanted to, I could have gone and touched the grizzlies’ nuzzle too. Aaron said it best..."This is the kind of place that if you don't watch your kids, they could get eaten." It was totally true, but that’s what made it so awesome!
The Salmon Family - Aaron, Stacy, Dahl and Tyson. Aaron is at USC with Mitch. They are a lot of fun, and we had fun getting to know them better. Here they are standing in front of the Black Bears. One of them only had THREE legs! It had been hit by a car as a cub and has since been treated and raised by the animal park. Here we are at Magic Mountain. We saw that they had an Alpine Slide and had to check it out. It ended up not being that cool (think slower, and half the distance of Park City's) but still a lot of fun. The Salmon's had never been on an Alpine Slide, so they had fun and Dahl loved it. Finnley had fallen asleep in the car from the Animal Park to the Alpine Slide. She stayed asleep on the ride up the lift, and I couldn't even wake her up when we got on the sled. She finally woke up while we were on our way down, and I think she was a little confused as to where she was! There was this beautiful inlet off of Big Bear called Boulder Bay. We saw it on the way up, and had to stop on our way out for a picture. Finnley and Dahl enjoyed throwing rocks into the water and also trying to hit a dead fish, and the ducks - terrible, I know! Finnley collected a few sticks along the way. Here she is showing them to me and saying "Teese" (cheese).