When the Cats Away...

the mice do play.  A couple of weeks ago,  Evan went to Camp Kelley Creek.  Mike and I decided play.  We enjoyed ourselves up at Big Bear Lake for a few days. 

It was very beautiful and relaxing up there in the San Bernardino Mountains.

One end of the lake is set aside as a bird sanctuary.

  There was a nice little boardwalk to help you get a better view. 

 It was very peaceful. 

The second day we decided take the Scenic Sky Chair Ride at Snow Summit.  

Being up so high wasn't quite as spooky as I thought it would be. 

Once at the top you can hike to your heart's content and take in the beautiful scenery!

The sky was so blue and trees so green and the temperature was perfect. 

We thought this tree was very unusual. 

And the flowers were so colorful!

At the top we had views of the San Gorgonio Mountains on one side

And Big Bear Lake on the other.

This rock seem to need some help from the tree.  All I could think of was the song "Lean on Me".

I loved these ski chairs in front of a building at the top.

The view down was incredible!!

 Later in the day we took a small nature hike on the opposite side of the lake.  We spied these little creatures and flora.

I am not sure the name of these floating flowers, but we saw this all over the place. 

Here is a close up.

This is Boulder Bay.  Thus the big boulders in the middle of the bay.  The water was so blue!! 

This cute troll greeted us outside of Trolls where we ate lunch!! .

Big Bear Lake has a small rescue zoo.  Isn't this eagle just gorgeous?  He was missing a wing and his other eye was blind, but he was still magnificent! 

This isn't the best picture, but this box turtle was actually sitting in a cardboard box!!

The last day there, we took a tour on a pirate ship!  This was a lot of fun.

Here's a dummy pirate just hanging around.

This house belonged to the late Andy Griffith. 

This house belong to Mel Blanc voice of Bug Bunny and many other Looney Tunes characters!!  His grandson lives there and came out to greet our tour. 

We really enjoyed Big Bear Lake.  We thought that it would be really crowded up there in the summer, but it was NOT at all.  One waitress we talked to said the economy has really affected the summer tourist season.  We hope to go again, it was a beautiful and delightful place to be and the air was clean and fresh.