Lake Arrowhead

Karen, Dave and I drove up to Lake Arrowhead Friday afternoon. As we were driving up the final hill we were seeing all kinds of cool homes through the darkness and were getting pretty excited. When we finally pulled up to our cabin it didn't quite look like the luxury homes we had pasted by, but we weren't disappointed...yet. After opening the front door we were immediately confronted with an awful musty smell. The cabin was totally dark inside. We slowly made our way into our new home for the weekend turning on one light at a time throughout the house until every light was one. With the flick of each switch a glimpse of the 60's was reviled. First the brown, orange and green linoleum flooring in the kitchen...Then the patterned brown carpet...Next the neon green vinyl and white rod iron dinning room set with matching bar stools...and so on. Each window had its own set of heavy, albeit dusty, draperies in an array of rusty oranges, drab yellows, olive greens and poop browns. I have seen my fair share of Scooby-Doo episodes so I opened each cabinet and bedroom door with extreme caution half expecting bats to fly out at me. It was our estimation that no one had set foot in the house for few weeks at best. We made a quick phone call to Mike to ask him to be sure to bring up some candles to help with the odor. On the bright side; the cabin did have 3 separate areas that made for great gaming, nice big fireplace, and 2 really cool balconies with a gigantic tree coming up through the middle of both of them.

Once we had finished our exploration of the place we decided to make the best of our time by playing a game of Cities & Knights. Dave, of course, won. By the time we finished our game the musty smell was barely noticeable and Mike, Matthew and Anita we only a few minutes away. Once they arrived we played a quick round of Blackjack to decide who got which room and we were off to sleep.

The next morning we awoke to a beautiful sunny day. We quickly crammed down some breakfast and began a game of Settler's of Catan, which Anita, even though it was here first time playing, won. Then we were on a mission to find snow. We ended up driving to Big Bear were we purchased some plastic saucers. We found a cool little place that had some great sledding runs with a little help from a local. Dave and I were the first ones to take the saucers and hike up the hill. He suggested that I go first. I had 2 options...1. take the smooth slope or 2. take the one that resembled a roller coaster. I, of course, decided to try the roller coaster one hoping to catch some air. Well my wish came true. Everything was going well over the first bump, but then I started to spin around backwards and was picking up a lot of speed. The next bump proved to be a bit too much. As I crested it facing back up the hit I caught huge air that bounced me right off the saucer on the landing. However, by now I was flying down the hill totally out of control. I took the next bump without my saucer and finally came to a stop a couple of yards later. Dave declared that I won the award for Biggest Wipe-out of the Day! I am a bit sore, but no injuries. Needless to say I took the smooth tack for the rest of my runs. Once we had our fill of sledding we had a quick snow(ice)ball fight and then ended our snow experience by building a snow man.

While on our snow excursion we left the windows open in the cabin so by the time we got back that evening all traces of the musty smell had vanished. We finished up the evening with a game of Settler's of Catan and then various card games.

Sunday morning we got up and cleaned the cabin and then headed over to where the Aliso Community Group was staying for their Community Group retreat just a couple of miles away. I called our cabin the "retro cabin", but their cabin wasn't even a cabin. It was more of a palatial estate right on the lake. We hung out there for awhile talking and roasting marshmallows before heading back to The South OC.

The only pic of my big wipe-out:


The group:


Dave and I take a rest from the fun:


The snowman artists -- all I did was his hair:


Dave makes-out with the snowman:


Karen and I brave the hill together:


Mike and Dave, who won't even share a meal, share a saucere down the hill: