Big Bear Lake

Hello fellow readers,

Welcome to the winter season! As we embark on our holiday adventures, my 

boyfriend and I planned a weekend getaway to Big Bear Lake for our third year 

anniversary and I’m here to describe the experience.

Since it’s been happily raining here in SoCal, the mountains have been beautifully 

coated with a white blanket of snow. With our anniversary on the horizon and a 

busy next few weeks, we chose last weekend for our adventure. During the 

Thanksgiving break, we scoured AirBnB for a place to stay and immediately fell in 

love with the adorable DomeHome! AirBnB has been good to me - despite the 

horror stories I’ve heard - my friend and I used it while in Paris, France and the 

swing dance club from my college used it for a trip to San Diego, California and 

we truly enjoyed our stay, so don’t be afraid to use AirBnB, but do tread carefully.

 Location: DomeHome; Big Bear Lake, CA 

We drove up to Big Bear on Friday night and made out first stop in the Village for 

dinner. We had dinner in the Royal Thai Café where we had delicious pad thai and 

yellow curry with rice - it was good the next day too. We walked around the Village 

to see the beautiful lights, even though it was drizzling consistently. We then 

checked into the quaint DomeHome and ended the night with homemade cookies 

before bed. 

 Location: Royal Thai Café

Early Saturday morning, bright and early, we went to the fantastic Grizzly Manor 

Cafe. It's a small building wallpapered with stickers, business cards, greeting cards, 

doodles, and notes. Let me tell you when I say, this place has the most amazing 

pancakes! Not just the pancakes though, my boyfriend tried “the mess” and it was 

full of brilliant flavor. 10/10 definitely recommend you have breakfast here. Keep 

in mind, breakfast is until 11am on weekdays or all day on weekends and it’s such 

a popular place that the wait time for us was around an hour. Luckily, they have a 

Yelp check-in option; what this means is that through the Yelp app, you can put 

your name on the waitlist and they will text you as you approach the front of the 

line. By doing this, you have time to go shopping or sleep a little longer and not 

wait outside for an hour or two.

 Location: Grizzly Manor Cafe

After breakfast we walked through the Village again and did some shopping. They 

have a lovely Christmas tree up and Santa and Mrs. Claus were there for photos! 

We even made a quick stop to the Visitor’s Center where they had a nice booklet of 

things to do while up there. After walking off all the calories gained from breakfast, 

we went back to our temporary home to take a nap. We decided to stay in for the 

rest of the day since it was raining outside but wonderfully cozy inside. We watched 

a few shows on TV then a Korean Zombie movie called The Train to Busan on 

Netflix - which I really enjoyed watching while munching on more cookies and some 

apple pie from Copper Q (we got it while walking in the Village).

 Location: The Village

PC: My amazing boyfriend

 

Our last day in Big Bear was Sunday and we woke up early to check-in through 

Yelp for the Grizzly Manor Cafe because “when will we ever get the chance to eat 

there again?” By the time we packed up and loaded the car, it was time to head to 

the cafe for breakfast, again. The pancakes were still delicious and the coffee was 

perfect for me - they have some hot chocolate that looked really good, but I needed 

a little more kick in the morning. Their mugs are also for sale, so keep that in mind 

while there - my boyfriend and I each bought one. We decided to walk through the 

Village again before heading home. On the way down, we stopped at a beautiful 

viewpoint to see the incredible lake.

 Location: Viewpoint of Big Bear Lake

I had a great time in Big Bear, despite not doing a lot per say, I enjoyed the 

downtime. I loved being able to unwind during the weekend and still be able to 

see enough of what I wanted to see. It was really about being with my boyfriend 

and seeing the Village, so it was a successful trip in my eyes - the food and treats 

were all bonuses. If you have the money and time, I suggest taking a weekend trip 

away. If you’re like me and enjoy more quiet, maybe go somewhere that doesn’t 

have a lot to offer but peace and quiet. If there’s somewhere you’d love to go, invest 

more time in seeing what you want to see. Don’t hesitate to make weekend trips, 

you may need it more than you think.

Live every day to the fullest.

Love, Damaris

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