Big Bear Afternoon

After the boat ride, Ed and I were in need of some "us" time, plus we wanted to enjoy this beautiful place more, so off we went for a short run along the lake. 

Unfortunately, with the altitude (and I think I had even more excuses at the time), I felt just dead. We were able to scrape together 3 miles (very pretty miles, nonetheless), before we thankfully arrived back at the car. 

We had a bit of baby cuddle time, 

which promply wore her out.

After some rest, we headed off to the Big bear wildlife sactuary, where we got to see some very beautiful animals.

And a very big animal that I hope to never meet on the trails:

I don't think I've ever seen a mountain lion in a zoo, or even in real life, so this was very exciting. They do look so soft and cuddly, though also very powerful.

Still, this guy was very cute as a baby (this is a picture right after he was rescued) :).

 In addition, I also got to see my Alma Mater's mascot - the grizzly!

We were a happy, if hot bunch after our afternoon at the zoo.

Our last evening event was to go out to dinner at the recommended Peppercorn Grill.

Poor miss Amelia was tired and a bit fussy at first, but soon fell asleep and proceeded to slumber through the rest of dinner. 

Dinner was delicious, but our waitress was so funny! She came out partway through the meal to tell my mom that her lobster was going to take a little long because, partway through cooking, they realize that the lobster was about to molt, which made the meat less tasty. Not a huge issue, but she kept going on and on about the lobster being yucky and about how you just don't want to eat a lobster who's losing it's shell (Ed, of course, thought she should have used the correct terminology, exoskeleton). She must have explained and reexplained for 5 minutes, and then brought it up again every time she saw us. 

She was a very sweet woman, with great intentions, but just kept going on and on about that lobster. Of course, my mom was very happy they gave her a good lobster, and not a molty one :). 

That night, we watched True Grit, which was an excellent movie, and just relaxed in the mountain air.