{"id":9306,"date":"2020-08-10T09:00:20","date_gmt":"2020-08-10T16:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/?p=9306"},"modified":"2020-09-04T12:16:35","modified_gmt":"2020-09-04T19:16:35","slug":"the-griswolds-go-to-big-bear-lake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/?p=9306","title":{"rendered":"The Griswolds Go to Big Bear Lake"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by Bob Sparrow<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_9429\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/?attachment_id=9429\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-9429\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9429\" class=\"wp-image-9429 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Big-Bear-interior-1-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Big-Bear-interior-1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Big-Bear-interior-1-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Big-Bear-interior-1-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-9429\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lake-front home interior<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Friday &#8211; I should be writing this as I\u2019m sitting on the deck of a house overlooking a beautiful lake.\u00a0 Wait a minute, I am sitting on a deck of a house overlooking a beautiful lake, it\u2019s just a different lake.\u00a0 The original plan for the <strong>\u2018Griswold\u2019s Family Vacation\u2019<\/strong> was a VRBO overlooking<strong> Lake Tahoe<\/strong>, but that was cancelled due to Covid-19.\u00a0 Fortunately, we have friends with a beautiful home locally here on <strong>Big Bear Lake<\/strong> and they agreed to us renting it.\u00a0 So, we loaded up the <strong>\u2018Wagon Queen Family Truckster\u2019<\/strong> and headed to the mountains last Friday.<\/p>\n<p>By 6:00 p.m. everyone had arrived, Dana, Addison, Mac; Stephanie, Jason, Dylan, Emma; Jeff &amp; Pam \u2013 Joe was working at the restaurant and would be coming up on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n<p>The best word to describe our accommodations is <strong>SPECTACULAR!<\/strong> Vaulted, open-beam ceilings, a great room upstairs with a stone fireplace, a huge kitchen and a bar.\u00a0 The downstairs game room has a pool table, a Foosball table and another bar \u2013 you can never have too many bars.\u00a0 The decks, on both levels, overlook the lake, our private dock and our own sandy beach.\u00a0 The photos don\u2019t do it justice.<\/p>\n<p>Jeff and Pam had \u2018dinner duty\u2019 the first night and they treated us with a Thai-chicken dish that they brought back from <strong>Thailand<\/strong>, where they honeymooned earlier this year.\u00a0 It was delicious.\u00a0 After dinner it was game time and when the kids went to bed, it was sitting-around-the-bar-time and telling stories time \u2013 Stephanie&#8217;s stories were particularly hilarious.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_9421\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/?attachment_id=9421\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-9421\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9421\" class=\"wp-image-9421 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BB-house-from-dock-1-1-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BB-house-from-dock-1-1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BB-house-from-dock-1-1-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BB-house-from-dock-1-1-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-9421\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">View of house from the dock<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_9428\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/?attachment_id=9428\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-9428\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9428\" class=\"wp-image-9428 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/dinner-2-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/dinner-2-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/dinner-2-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/dinner-2-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-9428\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Joe&#8217;s magnificent dinner<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Saturday \u2013 It\u2019s amazing how long you can just sit on a deck on a cloudless day and watch boats go by \u2013<strong>speed boats, pontoon boats, sail boats, Jet Skis, kayaks and paddle boards<\/strong>.\u00a0 I\u2019ll have another beer.\u00a0 \u2013 the day just drifted by.\u00a0 Then Joe arrived with preparations for dinner, which took several hours and, of course, was like nothing you&#8217;ve ever tasted before, only better.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen other people take pictures of their dinner and thought that was really stupid, but then, maybe I just never had a reason to take a photo of a meal \u2013 until tonight (photo missing). Seasoned flank steak, cooked on the BBQ, then cut into thin slices, BBQ\u2019d vegetables \u2013 onions, peppers, squash, asparagus, corn on the cob; garlic toast, and the best of all, a salad with shrimp, avocado, tomato, cucumbers and bacon in the best Louie dressing I\u2019ve ever tasted.\u00a0 Joe does nothing small and nothing not first class; the dinner could have fed 20 easily.\u00a0 After dinner, more cards and dice games with the kids and then when they went to bed, a spirited evening of <strong>\u2018favorite songs from the past<\/strong>\u2019 with Jeff magically taking on the role of\u00a0 a savant.\u00a0 We weren&#8217;t sure what that meant either, but he was very funny!<\/p>\n<p>Sunday \u2013 morning fishing on the dock with Joe setting up poles for Addison, Emma and Dylan as they try to catch dinner \u2013 looks like lasagna tonight.\u00a0 Mid-day we head into <strong>Big Bear City<\/strong> and find it quite bustling, all with masked tourists.\u00a0 We rent a pontoon boat and take a two-hour (5:00 &#8211; 7:00) cocktail cruise around the lake.\u00a0 Another beautiful day with nary a cloud.\u00a0 Repeat &#8211; dinner and games.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, it\u2019s Monday morning and I\u2019m still here, watching the boats go by \u2013 they\u2019re going to have to pry me off this deck with a crowbar! \u00a0I\u2019ll let you know if anything exciting happens, like a cloud forms or I run out of beer.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Bob Sparrow Friday &#8211; I should be writing this as I\u2019m sitting on the deck of a house overlooking a beautiful lake.\u00a0 Wait a minute, I am sitting on a deck of a house overlooking a beautiful lake, it\u2019s &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/?p=9306\">read more<span class=\"meta-nav\"><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[813],"tags":[2268,409,3381],"class_list":["post-9306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel","tag-big-bear-lake","tag-lake-tahoe","tag-lampoons-vacation"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p31aN0-2q6","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9306"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9430,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9306\/revisions\/9430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}