Big Bear and Lake Arrowhead

Becky and I had a great vacation from Saturday until this morning. She's picking up the boys right now, in Phoenix, while I'm trying to finish up some logistics for rotations.

On Saturday, we had a chance to visit with my father and his wife. It was nice to catch up since I haven't seen them in quite a while. My dad was also helpful regarding information about locations for different residency programs. Since Becky nor I know anything about some of the East Coast locations (e.g. the Carolinas) any information was helpful. He also seemed excited for us and not too disappointed that we didn't seem sold on Arrowhead.

Saturday night we drove the windy climb up to Lake Arrowhead on Hwy 18. Our Inn was a bit of a disappointment. It was a quaint place with some style, but our room was so small it only had room for one chair. And the internet connection was a joke, so I couldn't research things to do, residency stuff, etc. The boys said they were having a great time in Seattle with their cousins on a camping trip. They are at the age where the conversation is very short and they don't miss us too much since they are with family.

Sunday we had a great breakfast in Arrowhead and walked around the village. It was relaxing and really nice to spend some time alone. We realized the last time we'd spent more than one night with just the two of us was probably before Connor was born!

Monday we drove the 26 miles of cliff side curves to Big Bear Lake. It is bigger and the town is more residential than the private, resort-like Arrowhead. We had another incredible breakfast and then hiked up to Cougar Crest (2.6mi) where the Pacific Crest Trail overlooks Big Bear. The hike and the weather were perfect. The lake was a little green, but still beautiful. Dinner (surprisingly good Ahi Sashimi) and a movie in Arrowhead topped off a second great day. The only "downer" if you want to call it that, was a house tour of a new three story, 4k sf place on Big Bear with the lake on two sides. While the place was lovely, $2.2 million seemed crazy for a place destined to be a second home for some rich LA socialite.

The weirdest experience was during the drive over. Arrowhead is at about 5k elevation and Big Bear at 7,500'. The drive you're above the clouds, but you can see the smog and cloud layer hanging over LA. The thought of living in that brown air wasn't attractive.

Tuesday we weren't too sore and decided to drive back to Big Bear for more activities. By this time, Becky was used to my driving on the twisties. I had the minivan's wheel squealing quite a bit! We drove our Treks around the North side of the lake for a few scenic miles. After lunch, we rented a sea kayak and paddled around the South shore for an hour. Another relaxing evening in Arrowhead with our books ended the evening.

Wednesday we packed up and took our last drive to Big Bear. Breakfast at our favorite place, Grizzly Manor, included a skillet meal called "the Mess" that served at lunch as well. A local eating at the bar next to us (you know it's good when the locals wait 30+ minutes for seating!) filled us in on some of the activities we'd missed. For starters we headed to one of the two ski resorts and road the chair lift to the top. What a view! I wish we had left our bikes behind and rented some real mountain bikes the day before. You could hundreds of miles of National Forest with views of Big Bear and a handful of nearby mountains. You couldn't ride down the ski slopes (too many injuries) but that seemed crazy to us anyway. My idea of crazy would be to pack a week's worth of food and just start walking to the tallest peak in the area. The high alpine terrain didn't have too much undergrowth, but it would still be some good exercise.

Finally, we drove back down into the smog. We drove through the Redlands area just to see if we live there for three years, but it was pretty depressing after being in the clean mountains. Locals told us a few people commute from Arrowhead to Colton every day, but Hwy 18 can get really treacherous and icy in the winter. And Emergency Medicine residency wouldn't look too kindly to me calling in late because I'm was snowed in or stuck behind an accident.

Becky and I agreed that after residency a community like Big Bear would be perfect. It has all the services you could need, a hospital with an ED and an incredible setting for the family. However, we still have to get through residency before we start comparing Big Bear, Tahoe, Jackson Hole, Bend, Durango, etc. While agreeing to not write off Arrowhead yet, there are certainly good EM programs located in better areas for the family. Michigan, New England, the Carolinas, OHSU have possibilities. Unfortunately the only EM/Peds combined programs are in Indianapolis and Baltimore. I still might throw my hat in the ring for them just to see where it goes.

Didactics this morning was fine. It made me glad I got about 100 pages of my EM textbook read over the trip. Time to hit the books in between my upcoming seven 12-hour night shifts.