Big bear with Oak Park gang

 

Airbnb at Redlands
 Targeting a four PM check-in, with a six hour twenty minutes estimate, we started from Fremont around 9:45 a.m., while the rest of the group with Geo,Sudheer,Mahesh,Amal and Anil started after lunch time around 2 p.m. I had done a non-stop drive except for a gas stop when the tank emptied.  We had skipped lunch to save time. Since it looked like we might reach much earlier than the group, we decided to have lunch and took a pretty long detour to an in-and-out and then to give up on it as the car queue was real long. 

When we arrived, Geo,Jismin and children, and Anil,Anu and children were waiting outside the house while our owners were cleaning the house. Anil had arrived first and had informed the group of the owners being there. So Mahesh,Amal and Sudheer families who were coming together used the time to do shopping, and also to prevent any questions from the owner about the head count.

It is Corona time, and it felt like the first getaway in years.  I used to feel nostalgic when I see a car driving scene in the movies and now I had actually done a long drive! 

Before long, the asian owners left, and they were really sorry about not having been able to give us the house on time. As soon as they left, we executed on our cleaning plan with disinfectant sprays and door handle wipes. Soon the house was full of people and we decided to live the next couple of days as though Corona had never happened!!

Chicken grilling and beer
Guys gathered outside and figured out how to work the grill and we had some amazing amazing grilled marinated chicken that Geo had marinated and brought. Blue moon's jasminy flavor was pitched against IPA's punishing flavor in Mahesh's observations. Sudheer quietly finished off most of the chicken while the drunkards were enjoying the drinks. Jismin and Allu came out to ensure that the wives get their share as well. 

Geo laughed hard at my comment that I wasted my last forty years since I never had grilled chicken with mayonnaise as he is still thirty nine. 

It is not the chicken or the drinks that started me on the high. It is the company.

Wines from the owner and Jismin
After the owners had left after cleaning, they came back with a fresh bottle of wine as a gesture of apology for the delay in providing the house. We had also had another bottle of wine. This was special in that it was home made by the celebrity cooks Jismin and Geo. I am not drinker enough to realize that it is not a good idea to mix drinks. So wines gave company to the beers in the blood stream as they sped through the blood vessels from the small intestine to the brain.  These details were explained by the biology expert in our group Anu as answers to my questions about and caused by the alcohols.

Luxurious bathrooms
Immediate impression on seeing the house was that it is nothing like what the airbnb website makes it look like. It is much more grounded than the lofty expectations that the pictures had set. So,the water started overflowing from the flush tank of the bathroom on the first floor. We informed the owners and they were prompt enough to come and try to repair it which was not very successful. The first shocker that hit us as we entered the house had been that we have only two bathrooms for the twenty three inmates. This incident had further deepened the shock.  Luckily there was one additional bathroom outside near the swimming pool. With one bathroom inside the house that you could flush without fear of consequences, these felt like the most luxurious bathrooms that we had used in a while. 

Geo's confessions
For reasons unknown, Geo apparently got into a high honesty mode and confessed everything to Mahesh as Mahesh sat by Geo's bed. Geo said that "******". And went to say "*****". What shocked Mahesh the most was when Geo confessed about "****".Mahesh told us that his eyes literally popped out when Geo mentioned "*****"

Billiards room
This was one thing I was looking forward to. Geo's four/five year old son Danny was the first one to have given me company at the billiards table. However, soon the guys in the group were hooked. I presented the rules and all games were won by the fouls committed by the opponent. Towards the end of our stay, the wives also got interested. I explained the rules but the interest did not seem to have picked up as much with the ladies. With the guys already being carroms enthusiasts, the transition to billiards seemed to have been easier. 
There was a very little time when I was able to play with satisfaction. Mostly I felt out of touch having not played for so long once the Corona started. Mahesh was playing purely from a carroms mindset which reminded of how I had started off as well. There are parallels but there are exceptions as well.  Amal has had experience playing billiards earlier as well, albeit ten years back. 

Dinner with home made chicken curry and fish curries
Allu had brought chicken curry, Anu and Jismin had brought fish curries from their homes. If some of the details are incorrect here, I am not sure which beer/wine to blame.We had a very typical simple and delicious rice meal for dinner. 

Second day
The fundamental of the get-together had been to spend time together. It is not about having visited maximum number of spots.It is about spending quality time together. Set against that principle, we decided to spend the second day at the house without travelling anywhere. Also, big bear lake would get snowfall on the third day of our stay as per weather predictions. I can see that I would not have taken such a call say five years back as I would have wanted to visit somewhere. Wisened up a bit - let's say.

Porotta and beef curry
However, the second day was by no means a relaxing day. Geo and Jismin had taken upon themselves to make the staple of keralites - porotta beef curry for the six families.  The process took a whole day of continuous effort from the wives and Geo. Geo's beef curry was excellent as were the porottas captained by Jismin. The culinary skill level of Geo and Jismin was the topic of many conversations. Commercial viability of the expertise versus keeping the culinary close to heart as a hobby and for such gatherings was evaluated and the decision by the panel was that the effort is too high for commercial viability. I was also reminded of a comment I had heard from another circle -"If you want to kill a hobby, make it your profession."  Just random musings - we are there for you eitherways Geo,Jismin. 

Red photoshoot
Another planned item for the get-together was to have everyone dressed up in red and photo shot. Family photography, couple photography, group photography, guys photography, girls photography, kids photography, individual modeling photography, photography by the pool, photography in front of the lit christmas tree inside the house as the overhead lights turned from blue to red to yellow, photography in front of the fireplace. One good thing about the house was that it presented ready settings for indoor photography.

Childrens' performance
I have watched a few childrens' performances and typically have not been able to engage. But this performance by our children was very good. Expertly compered by Anvita, solo songs and group songs were sung very well. There were a few dance performances as well. All in all, surprisingly engaging!

Anthakshari
Anil initiated a quick singing practice with Sudheer and myself. We were hoping to set the mood for a joint anthakshari session with the ladies once they were done with the porotta making which never happened! Porotta was just too much work.

Bluetooth speakers
Sudheer and Anil have the habit of listening to songs out loud from the phones. For the commotion in the house, the phones were far from loud. What we need here is to have had brought our bluetooth speakers from home. 

Third day
After an early bath, driven by the luxurious bathroom situation, I found that the morning discussions were about how the snow at big bear is heavy enough to discourage a trip there. The other major consideration for the day is the checkout process. We reached out to the owner to delay the checkout from 11 AM to 1 PM to which the owner replied that 2 PM is fine as well.

Suddenly, heard Allu getting excited about the snow that we could see in the hills from the house.Meanwhile, Sudheer was tracking live snow conditions at Big Bear. So the decision was to drive towards Big Bear lake and take in a good view of the snow atleast. I guess Allu wanted to be able to actually play in the snow which is where we ended up finally!

Bulleted story

• Mahesh in his inimitable style presented the story about how after many drinks, he had mistakenly tried to bribe a traffic police officer, and how he hid his friend's bullet by a petty shop and then forgot about it, and how he ran into the same police officer two years later. 

Anil departure
Anil and family had to cut short the third day as Anu was on-call for production support.So Anil and family bade us farewell as we have no idea when we will meet next except we met later that same evening!

A bus and two cars
Mahesh's van that hosted three families was nick-named the bus. This was what Mahesh got in lieu of a non-available eight seater rental car that Mahesh was to get as a temporary replacement for his vehicle that had been recalled.  Our car and the bus followed Geo's car to big bear lake. After about fifteen minutes, Geo brought the party to a halt as there was a road sign that chains were mandatory and could lead to a thousand dollar fine. It was an easy decision to heed to that rule and we reached "Auto-zone" where we were advised that we would not be let near big bear lake due to the warnings that Sudheer had brought up earlier this morning. We got alternate directions and decided to drive around and stop at a good viewpoint. 

Snow drive
From the "Auto-zone", we could see the white hills pretty close and we were planning to drive towards it. As we drove closer the snow in the sights were catching on to us which is when we noticed that sprinkles of snow were there right beside us on the road. Now, we started seeing snow on both sides of the road. Sights changed as the road turned and we were experiencing snow first hand something that seemed highly improbable even early today morning. 
So far the drive was smooth. As I felt a couple of slips, I realized that I need to bring myself from the enamor to the drive. Luckily just then we chanced on a park we could spend the next hour or so. 

Playing in the snow
While the first tendency of most of us seemed to be to capture the awesome unique snow sights as photographs, I was more interested in playing with the snow.Luckily, we had packed gloves and so I could pick up the snow from the ground. Soon, all of us were throwing snowballs at each other.  Amal was holding Rachel in his hand and was excused from being thrown at. Everyone else had some mild snow hurling fun. There even was live snowfall as we were there. All of this felt like a bonus as the trip was mostly about just catching up with each other.

First farewell
The good couple of days had come to an end and it was time for goodbye hugs.  We were to drive now for six hours back to Fremont while the rest of the group was to drive one and a half hours to Oak Park.

Drive back
Traffic and the rain made the drive back strenuous. Like there were not enough hours on the second day to play Anthakshari and make seventy eight porottas, today there were not enough hours for taking as much rest as needed and still reach home to report for work the next day. As the rash drivers winded too close from both sides of the car,  I decided to take a break. That is when I saw Anil's offer to stopover at his house. 

Anil's home
So six hours after having bade farewell, Anil welcomed us home. I was very very tired and badly needed the break.  It took a wonderful prawns fry and rice dinner and a couple more hours to finally get myself back. Long drives have to be backed by sufficient sleep and rest. 

Forth day

Lunch at Amal's home
Allu coordinated with Divya and we went over to Amal's home after breakfast from Anil's home.  After leaving Anil's house, we went close to our old house and to the duck pond and then drove to Amal's home. Just as we were reaching, Amal was going to pick up food from "Paradise". We chatted some software engineering life on the way. Sudheer and Mahesh reached Amal's home in a hurry as Sudheer needed to get back into the premier league soccer match that he was watching. Manchester United won in injury time of second half. Paradise biriyanis were awesome and clearly we were missing the Oak Park friendships.

Monster
Mahesh had suggested to have "Monster" as a solution for sleep and long drives. While I was not as tired as the previous day, I was still not driving the way the trip had started with a non-stop six hour drive.So, I decided to take a monster break on the way and indeed it helped.