On December 22, 2018, our family left for Bear Valley, a small ski town in California. We try to do a ski trip at least once each year because I just love skiing. We stayed about a 30 minutes drive from the ski resort in a cute little town called Arnold, CA. And this is all that I did in the 3 nights and 4 days we were there.
Day 1 – December 22, 2018
I got up at 6 am on December 22nd and was ready to hit the road by 8 for Arnold, CA. The total drive time from home was about 3 hours. Till about an hour away from the destination, I hardly saw any snow and assumed that I wouldn’t get to do any snowy stuff once I was there. But that changed suddenly when we approached Arnold, CA where we saw a lot of snow everywhere. The sides of the roads were covered with snow and it looked like we were in a winter wonderland.
But before we reached Arnold, we wanted to do lunch because we were so hungry. And Stockton, CA was on our way so we thought we’ll find a place to eat there. While searching online, we came across a very old Sikh temple. And Sikh temple means langar, a kitchen open to anyone who wants to eat. Plus the food is pure vegetarian, a key determinant when we want to find a place to eat. I was hesitant to go into the temple because I felt bad about eating free food, but regardless, we went anyways.
This is me, my sister and my mom at the Sikh Temple eating the yummy food.
I wasn’t expecting much, but the food was actually really good. There was some great Indian food, soda, and best of all, popcorn. Before leaving, we left some tip at the temple and were back on the road.
At around 1 pm, we reached our cabin where we were to stay. The cabin was divided into 2 houses and we stayed in the bottom half. The home had a small pool table and lots of games. There were 2 bedrooms, one for me and my sister, and the other for my parents. It was a wood cabin and was really cute and cozy.
This is the cabin we stayed at for 3 nights.
The rest of the day, we stayed in the cabin, watched some TV, and ate snacks. At around 9 pm, we went to sleep because the next day we had to rise up early to go skiing.
Day 2 – December 23, 2018
We got up at 9 am, ate breakfast, and wore all our ski gear. We put on our padded socks, waterproof overalls, ski jackets, and snow boots. We reached the Bear Valley Ski resort at around 11 am, and within about 30 minutes or so, we hit the slopes.
I started off with the easy slopes before lunch with my sister and later went on the steeper ones by myself. And while on those slopes, I got lost a few times because there were so many paths to go down. I eventually found my way and ended up back down.
4 pm is when the resort closes for the night so we went back to our cabin. For dinner, we ate pizza and then watched a lot of T.V. because that’s the only time we get to violate rules. I slept pretty early because the following day, our friends would be coming over to join us.
Day 3 – December 24, 2018
We all got up at 8 am, got ready, and left for the same ski resort. I was excited because this time, I would be skiing with my friends. Once we reached the resort, our friends were waiting for us and we started off with the blue diamond (intermediate) slope. And some of those were pretty steep and rough but most were great.
After skiing for more than 5 hours, we went back to our cabin and they went to theirs. As soon as I came to the cabin, I took a shower and ate some yummy pasta my dad made. We slept early again to get ready for ski the next day.
Day 4 – December 25, 2018
In the morning, we went skiing for the last time and again with my friends. On the way to the resort, it was snowing heavily and the roads were really slippery.
At the resort, my friends and I decided to go take on the black diamond slopes. At first it was really hard because the snow was really soft and powdery. After skiing a few times, I kind of got the hang of it. I did fall a couple of times but that was pretty much it. After we finished skiing, we played with snowballs and it was actually really fun. I did get hit a few times but that was that.
At about 4 pm, we left the resort and since it was Christmas day, there were not many places open to eat. So once again, we found another Sikh temple but the food here wasn’t as tasty but I was fine with it. After dinner, our friends and us went our separate ways home.