Dan's 40th Birthday Big Bear Weekend- Day Three

We began our last morning in Big Bear with breakfast at the Grizzly Manor Cafe.

The Grizzly Manor Cafe is a small restaurant with a ton of character. The interior of the cafe is covered with drawings, stickers, signs and business cards. Unfortunately, I didn't have any blog cards on me, otherwise I would have put one up on the wall!

I took some pictures of the menu. I like the warning regarding special orders and I heeded it!

Grizzly Manor isn't the only Big Bear cafe that has coffee cups supporting local businesses. I love it.

Dan drinking coffee out of a First Mountain Bank mug.

Dan loves pancakes and we read that Grizzly Manor Cafe had enormous ones. The pancake came and it covered the plate!

I don't normally order waffles, but it seemed like the thing to do here. Breakfast was delicious in this quirky establishment. I highly recommend checking out Grizzly Manor Cafe.

We had about an hour to kill before our Action Zipline Tour, so we drove around to the other side of the lake to check out the observatory. Unfortunately, we found out that the observatory was closed to the public this summer. Hopefully it will be open on our next visit, as it is something that we would love to check out.

Bear art is all over Big Bear and we contemplated buying a piece. Some of the stores had wooden bears that were hanging off window sills, like they were taking a peak inside of a house. I must have one.

It finally came time to begin our Action Zipline tour. The tour began at their office, where we filled out waivers and we were given a short briefing from the office staff.

Action Zipline  Office, Big Bear. — Action Zipline Office, Big Bear.

We were told that cameras and cell phones were not allowed on the tour due to safety reasons. Also, they wanted us to leave all lose articles, specifically car keys, in lockers that they provided at the office. The lockers had a key with a wrist band and felt secure. I don't mind that they wanted us to leave things behind, although I thought that it was funny that they specifically mentioned that we could take our wallets to tip the guides. I was planning on tipping the guides of course, but if things falling out of pants was such a big problem, wouldn't wallets be included in that?

Our group had about fifteen people and they took us up the mountain in two vans. It was approximately a twenty minute drive. At the base of the zipline camp, we were outfitted with helmets and our zipline harnesses. The four guides introduced themselves and helped us get into our gear. We were then taken in two groups further up the mountain in military style vehicles. The bumpy ride was fun!

We did nine ziplines, most of which I found to be completely terrifying.

I was absolutely trembling after the first two lines and nearly backed out when I got to the third. What made me jump off of the third was a rude woman in our group threatening that she would push me, if I didn't get on with it. Nice. She was scared of heights and it was hard to have sympathy towards her after that comment.

The heights didn't bother me. I also trusted the guides and the safety equipment. What got to me was the speed and worrying about having to reach up and use my gloved hand to brake myself. I don't really enjoy fast movement and was completely intimidated by the speed in which I was hurling towards the guides waiting to catch me if I didn't properly brake.

This was 100% outside of my comfort zone and although I am glad that I tried it, I would never do it again. I was actually supposed to go on a zipline tour with my mom in Maui about six months before she passed away. The day of our excursion the winds were too high and it got canceled. My mom was the daring one in the family. I inherited none of her love of adrenaline rushes. She went sky diving for her sixtieth birthday and loved every minute of it! My mom would have been proud that I went through all of the ziplines without bailing.

Action had a professional photographer on the excursion and we were encouraged to let go and wave. All of my pictures were terrible as I refused to relax and had a look of complete fear on my face. They managed to get one good shot of Dan. He looks like he's having fun!

Just like the Segway tour, it was a good idea to wear bright colors. The bright colors really pop in the pictures. Even though we didn't purchase proof of me in action, we did decide to buy a nice picture of Dan and I together.

Action Zip Line Tour! We still had two more zip lines to go when this shot was taken.

I'm not going to deny it, I was happy when the tour was over. It was terrifying! If you decide that it is something you would like to try, I would definitely reccomend Action Ziplines, as the guides were fantastic and we thought that it was a good value for an adrenaline packed morning.

After the hot and dusty excursion, we were parched and desperate for a beer. We headed to Village Pizza for lunch.

Oddly enough, our last meal in Big Bear was the only one that we thought wasn't a very good value. The prices were more akin to Los Angeles restaurants, so maybe it was a good way to ease back into reality. We each had a large beer and shared a medium pizza, which was more than enough food for two. Good pizza with loads of tomato sauce, toppings and a thin crust.

On our way out of town, we made one last stop, The Magic Mountain Recreation Area. Magic Mountain, not to be confused with the Six Flags chain, is a small family fun zone with a water slide, horse rentals, an arcade and an alpine slide ride. In the winter they offer snow tubing. Dan really wanted to go on the Alpine Slide, so we bought five tickets for twenty.

Tip- Don't store the tickets in your pocket. We used two tickets and lost the rest. Dan bought a single extra ticket to ride the slide a second time, so that I could record him coming down.

The best part of the Alpine Slide is the ride to the top. The transportation is via ski lift chairs, which gave us great views and made the entire experience last twice as long.

The lift has hooks on the sides that carry the "sleds" back up the hill. The speed of the sled is controlled with a hand brake. I took it slow down the slide, but Dan flew down!

I love this shot that Dan took of the slide. There are two tracks, one for slower sliders and a fast track.

On Dan's second ride, I took a short video of him finishing the track. It looks like he's moving slowly, but it's only because this is the part of the track where he is required to slow down to prepare for stopping.

Dan's 40th Birthday Weekend was a huge success and we were sad to drive home. Hopefully we will return to Big Bear soon!

Dan's 40th Birthday Big Bear Weekend- Day One

Originally, we wanted to celebrate Dan's 40th in Hawaii, but due to lack of vacation time, we had to pick something a bit more local. Dan loves Big Bear, so we booked up a three day weekend with tons of activities.

Unlike Lake Arrowhead, which has the very lovely Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa, we couldn't immediately pin-point the nicest resort in Big Bear. Although filled with beautiful homes and amazing restaurants, Big Bear seems to have a lack of luxury resorts. After many hours of internet research and recommendations from friends, we picked the NorthWoods Resort as our home for the weekend.

We were initially put off by the lack of a lake view, but what NorthWoods lacks in view, it makes up for in proximity to the village. This is the place to stay if you want the ability to walk to great restaurants and more importantly drink without having to worry about choosing a designated driver! The walk-ability factor was huge to our enjoyment of the weekend.

The decor in the hotel is rustic, cozy and cute. I had an great initial impression with the lobby and while waiting to check-in, I overheard a very enthusiastic front desk clerk giving out tips to another couple regarding local hiking trails. The staff was wonderful at NorthWoods, quick to make suggestions and generally ready to see that our needs were met.

We arrived very early on a Saturday morning and the early check-in fee was only ten dollars. Most things in Big Bear are far less expensive than in Los Angeles, so we spent the whole weekend suffering from reverse sticker shock.

Here are some of my NorthWoods first impression pictures.

Our room had cute woodsy decor touches, like towel racks that looked like tree branches. As far as hotels go it fit our basic needs. The room had standard amenities (coffee/hairdryer/iron/nice toiletries) and was roomy.

NorthWoods definitely had some negatives. The walls were paper-thin. We heard every bit of the conversations going on in the rooms surrounding us. The bed wasn't very comfortable, it was springy. The television wasn't in widescreen and as we were watching the news, the newscaster was often only on half on the screen. It was actually kind of funny. The biggest let-down was the pool, which was small and located in the parking lot. We didn't even bother to use it.

As I previously mentioned, NorthWoods' great location is what makes this resort a stand-out. We will likely return here to take advantage of its proximity. Minutes after dumping our luggage off in our room, we walked to the marina for our pontoon boat rental.

In summer, the marina books up their rental equipment very quickly. We reserved our two-hour pontoon boat ride three weeks in advance, but all of the people that were trying to book same-day or same-weekend rentals, were being told that they were out of luck. Book early!

As part of their contribution to Dan's birthday weekend, his parents paid for the boat trip. Thanks Jan and Dave! We had gone on a shorter pontoon trip when they visited us last September and it was something that Dan had wanted to do again.

I had packed a picnic for the boat, but unfortunately I had forgotten it in the car. The marina has a small selection of snacks, so we bought a bag of M&M's and bottled water.

We saw a funny little boat in the marina. It was so low in the water, that it looked like it was sinking.

Also near the marina was the Action Aqua Flight. It's a new thing that the Action Tour Company is offering this summer. It looked potentially fun, but also really hard to do. I'm not sure that I would want to get into the icy lake water to try it out!

Action Aqua Flight

It was an overcast, chilly morning on the lake. We found a small patch of sun on one side of the lake and joined a ton of other boats that were also taking advantage of the warmth.

Friday night had been a late evening spent kicking off Dan's birthday weekend with a few friends and we were running on empty having only gotten a fews hours of sleep before driving up the mountain. We parked the boat in the sun and took a much needed nap.

Dan took this beautiful panorama picture of the lake.

Sooner than we would have liked, our two hour rental was nearly finished and we had to head back towards the marina, through the cold part of the lake. We saw the Time Bandit pirate ship, something that we want to do on our next Big Bear trip!

For dinner, we walked to the village and found an amazing Mexican restaurant called El Jacalito Grill. The place was packed, but we managed to snag a high-top in the bar. I previously mentioned the stick-shock in Big Bear for those of us visiting from Los Angeles. El Jacalito was ridiculously inexpensive. We each had a large Coronarita (for the uninitiated- bottles of Corona in a Margarita).

Since it's his birthday, Dan is allowed to steal my drink.

We shared our main course, which was an enormous shredded beef burrito. The burritos are bigger than the ones at Chipolte. We left full and happy that we had the foresight to share. El Jacalito also has a salsa bar to accompany the tortilla chips, which was a fun touch. The total for our bill was around twenty dollars. Amazing!

Another Big Bear Village value is the cinema. It's a small four screen theater and anyone who lives in a big city will feel like this is a flash back to the eighties. It's older. That being said, we saw The Wolverine on opening weekend during peak movie times and it was only eight dollars a ticket. That's cheaper than the matinee at our local theaters. We joked (half-joked) about driving up to Big Bear just to spend a day watching movies to save money on our cinema habit. What did I think of The Wolverine? Stay tuned for a review coming at the end of the week.

With the exception of bars, Big Bear is a town that shuts down early. It was eerily quiet walking back to our hotel after the movie, around nine-thirty. We ended our night with Irish Coffees at the bar in NorthWoods, Stillwells.

Stillwells is a great addition to NorthWoods. It fits in with the rustic decor and the bar had a warm vibe. I really liked the bartender, who was from England and was chatting with us. NorthWoods really had great staff, everyone from check-in to cleaning staff to the bartenders, were very friendly. Again, we marveled at the low drink prices.

We called it an early night and headed to bed to wake up for Dan's Birthday and morning Segway tour!