Big Bear, California
January 11, 2018: Day 2 of our Southern California Road trip.
For some reason Sage attempted to write in the voicings of Don. This is her story….
We arrived at Big Bear Ski Resort wearing our 34$ Amazon snow bibs, a thin base layer and a warm pair of gloves, we were ready to ski! The snow was awesome, we don’t usually get a lot of snow in Memphis, so we enjoyed it. We were playing in the snow, and it was hot outside! It was about 50 degrees, we were glad we wore thin layers. The rental process was easy, and everyone was accommodating. Instead of buying your lift ticket in another line, you can buy it at the rentals counter as well. Make sure you look on the resort website to see a list of current discounts available. I also hold a Paramedic license, so we were able to take advantage of their EMS discount! There was a certain vibe surrounding the place that I could feel the moment we walked into the resort. I guess it would be what the locals call a California vibe. Everybody we met was so relaxed and had a come what may attitude. I accidently bopped a few people with my ski’s and was met with a lot of “No worries” instead of anger. It was a nice change of pace for us.
We wanted to fill our bellies before we started skiing so we headed inside. The breakfast burrito in the cafeteria was probably one of the best breakfast burritos I have had so far. We finished up our meal and walked over to the small beginner slope and Sage started attempting to figure it out. I had already skied before, so it was my job to coach her. She had already YouTubed ski lessons on the plane, so you know, she was “Good to go”. It didn’t take her long to realize in fact that she was not good, and skiing was hard. After we conquered the getting into the skies while sliding and the walking part, it was time for her to learn how to stop. She said she kept doing the wedge thing like YouTube showed her, but it just wasn’t working. Could you imaging, not learning how to ski form YouTube? I was baffled she wasn’t a professional from the amount of time she spent on YouTube!
I was able to force, I mean encourage, her to get on the ski lift with me. Sage is also scared of heights. Sage, as adventurous as she can be sometimes, fears everything! I was surprised at how well she got on the beginner ski lift and how much she enjoyed it. The resort did a great job of making a beginner lift that was easy to maneuver to get on and off. As Sage was going down the hill, she quickly realized she could in fact not stop. She would go 3 feet and then just bail out, Polls going one way, skis going the other. When I asked her why kept falling she stated, “I get going to fast, I’m scared!”. Oh Sage, I said, as I left. I rode the lift and skied down the hill three times, and she was still not even half way down the slope. As I was going up for my fourth ride, I saw Sage down below me walking down the slope in a huff. We spent some time resting and I decided to go on the big slope, while sage stormed off and got on her bunny slope lift. I did not realize I had picked a challenging slope and was not physically prepared for muscles I would use to stay on the skies. As I was reaching the bottom of the slope I happened to see Sage skiing the slope! She turned around with a big smile on her face and said, I learned how to wedge, I can stop! So again, and again she rode the lift, skiing down the slope with the brakes on. She said the whole way down “wedge, wedge, wedge, wedge”, and wedged she did. The slowest, most beautiful skier you ever saw!
We spent the rest of the day in traffic, driving to our Hotel in Redondo beach, California. Redondo is about 45 min outside of downtown Los Angeles. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at Chipotle and went to bed early. We were exhausted from the days adventures, and still catching up from the day before.






