We had initially booked for Mammoth lakes and the uncertainty of the Tiago pass being still closed lead us to find an Airbnb in Arnold for the two days during Memorial Day weekend.
With very low expectations, and absolutely no research, we started off to Arnold on Friday, post work around 3 pm.
The packing was low key, and we picked up kids from school, changed them and started the drive.
The traffic was bad, especially as it was a Friday of a long weekend, and though the place is only 2.5 hrs away, it took us a good 4 hrs to reach Arnold.
On the way, we stopped for gas and a bio break, and also had dinner from the Mexican place a few miles away from our AirBnb.
Their margarita was amazing, it also had a Mexican candy dipped in it, which was really nice.
We reached the cabin, and was so happy to see how cozy and right it felt. We all changed, and relaxed with a Netflix show and hit bed early.
Day 1 : Cabin, Alpine Lake and Snow tubing
We woke up, and made chai in the morning and enjoyed it outside in the deck.
The kids explored the cabin area. We put some jazz music. Sree went and got some
Groceries and we had some nice bread, eggs and freshly squeezed orange juice.
We all leisured around and played some games etc for another hour or so.
We left to Alpine lake. So there was a lot of snow in that area and the lake was still fully covered in snow. We stopped at Bear lake and did some snow tubing. Can you imagine tubing during summer :).
The kids, especially pappu enjoyed.
All the tubing left us really hungry. We drove down to the town of Murphy and went to the Irish pub there and had some early dinner.
Saran and Shravan joined us there. And after some chatting, we walked around to an icecream place and had icecream too.
Post this, we walked in the murphy’s town. By 6 pm, most shops here are closed.
We went to murphy’s park and also dipped our feet in the beautiful stream that’s running along the park.
We can back home by 7:30. Watched one episode of Florida Man, and one of Fuber and called it a night.
Day 2 : Calvaras Big Trees State park
Today, after spending a good amount of time in the cabin, having breakfast and enjoying the morning, we checked out and headed out to Calvaras Big Trees State Park.
Tara was not keeping that well due to a headache. We got our and did the North Grove loop. The giant trees made us feel small. We saw the big stout and I was tempted to do my Nataraja pose there.
We walked around a little more, visited the visitor center and then drove down to Beaver creek. On the way, stopped by the river area and explored that.
We also went to Beaver creek and saw the picnic area near the stream.
We left the park, and me and Pranav explored the Peddlers fair, and got some stuff from there.
Post that, we went to an Apple cider place, and also got some goodies from there. We tried their turn over and doughnuts. We also got some mixes for trying out cakes.
After this we explored a pottery place, and was happy to find some good mugs, at a sale of $5 and $10 etc.
It was 3 pm by this time, and from here, we just drove straight back home. We got down at Madras cafe for some yummy sambhar rice and Dosas, reached home unpacked and watched Netflix for a couple of hours before we called it a day!
