Big Bear

Last year in April, some of my best friends got together to celebrate my 30th birthday. We rented an awesome cabin  just outside Julian overlooking Lake Cuyamaca. It was one of the best weekends of my life! We cooked great food, hiked a ton, played dominos, went wine tasting and shared lots of laughs. While the whole crew could not get together this year, a few of us (Me and Aaron and Erica and Matt) got a little cabin at Big Bear. It took us FOREVER to get there...almost 4 hours from San Diego! (It was just over 2 hours on the way home). There was lots of traffic on Friday afternoon and one of the major highways is closed too. Once we got there, we inspected our cute, albeit tiny, cabin. It was also filled with stuff...lots of knickknacks everywhere. But, it was very cute and served our needs perfectly. 

This was the room Aaron and I took. There was a big window looking out to the lake. I took a nice bath in this tub one night too.

This was Matt and Erica's room across the hall:

This is one side of the family room.

Looking to the kitchen from the family room.

Fireplace...

Dinner the first night. 

I made langoustino stew of sorts.

The recipe was almost identical to the dandelion stew I made and posted. But I did not add any greens in, and I added the langoustinos at the last moment so they would just cook and not get chewy. 

I got a kick out of these place mats because they were exactly like some we had when I was a little kid in Lake Tahoe. 

We watched Marley and Peroni chase each other a lot:

Check out my Jcrew wellies! You laugh but they were great in the snow and mud!

All of that snow melted by the time we got moving on Saturday morning. It was hot! We all got a bit sunburned. We walked a ton and explored the little town and lake. 

Here are Erica and Matt....

Notice Marley playing with that crazy dog....

We had lunch at this place called B's BBQ. It has a separate building for a bar, an outside bar, and a restaurant with a big patio. There was also the beach and a big outdoor grassy area. I bet this place goes wild in the summer. 

There were lots of other dogs there but Peroni is kind of a chicken...

Who... me?

Yay for best girl friends!

B's BBQ also had it's own dock for people to pull up to during the summer. Like I said... I bet it's wild here during the summer.....

Here is the little village where we walked around.

That night I made some black bean soup and salad. It was fun to cook in that small but well equipped kitchen with good friends. 

On Sunday, the boys went snowboarding and Erica and I hiked and did a little shopping. 

It was a relaxing weekend with friends and I came home feeling very refreshed. Just what I needed!