While I’m habitually behind on posts, my website maintains chronological consistency, except in this case. This should have been posted prior to my birthday ramblings, but here it is regardless.

For many years now, Jason and I have believed experiences matter more than things. That’s why we decided to give my family members a long weekend getaway as all their birthday presents for the year instead of wrapped gifts. I did some research and came up with a few location options, and we put them to a vote. In the end, my family picked Bear Lake.

Although Bear Lake is a major tourist destination in the summer, Garden City, the main town on the Utah side of the lake, isn’t usually too crowded in early June, which was the timeframe for our visit. The tourists were trickling in, but most restaurants had reasonable waits, and the water wasn’t cluttered with boats.

Jason and I rented an enormous house that could comfortably fit my mob of relatives with an indoor trampoline, indoor basketball court, indoor swing set, poker table, pool table, ping-pong table, movie theater room, nine bedrooms, and six bathrooms. Each time a new batch of kids arrived, they would instantly disappear to explore the mysterious and captivating features of the home.

Sadly, one of my sisters caught COVID through a coworker who came into work sick with a “cold” right before our trip, so she couldn’t join us. Miraculously, with how much COVID was circulating at the time, she and her husband were the only ones absent due to it.

With so many activity options, including the ones inside our rental, what was first on our agenda? Hit the lake. Jason and I had reserved a two-hour boat tour with a guide in a brand-new pontoon for that morning. While we were envisioning this as a low-key lake wander with some informative discussions on history and ecology, the kids got too distracted by the towable tube, and our tour turned into a watersport montage.

As the water in Bear Lake was currently just shy of 50 degrees, most of us were not enthusiastic about accumulating wetness acquired from it, particularly the adults. I was the first grownup to volunteer for the tube. Since I was dealing with a case of prepatellar bursitis at the time and knocking my knee against the tube was repeatedly painful, I didn’t last long. However, my distinguished valor convinced, or shamed, other adults to brave a ride. Our driver skillfully kept all but one of the group from sliding into the water while tubing, but then the kids decided to all jump in anyway.

We had seen the Bridgerland Adventure Center on a hill as we were traveling into town. Its complex jumble of crisscrossing lines and bright orbs intrigued us, so we spent a chunk of the afternoon climbing through this four-story rope course. As each increasing level at Bridgerland gets progressively harder, most of the party focused on levels two and three for more robust challenges. I made it through level one in its entirety and a small fraction of level two before closing time. I may not have slid upside down across a duo of rope strings, but I conquered the course in my own lame phobic way.

That evening, we entertained ourselves with some epic games of dodgeball, poker, and “monster” along with a screening of Avatar in the movie theater room. Boredom did not occur even amongst the grumbly teenagers.

The next morning, we headed out for 90 minutes on four legs at Beaver Creek Lodge. Some members of our group had never ridden horseback, so there was a mix of excitement and fear amid them. Beaver Creek Lodge was able to accommodate our large troop, but as it was early in the season, the horses were flabby from winter inactivity. They huffed and puffed as we climbed rolling hills and grasslands. My steed, Smokey, was mellow and only seemed worried about getting left behind. In contrast, Jason got the second alpha of the herd, Tough, and he liked to ensure his status by staying in the front and biting other horses… and occasionally Jason.

After our ride, we lounged around the cabin and napped until one of the kids who had arrived too late for our tubing escapades mentioned they didn’t want to visit Bear Lake without actually visiting the lake. So, the entire clan headed to Rendezvous Beach, which is typically packed in the summer but was nearly deserted in its current nippy form. That nippiness didn’t inhibit our sandy endeavors though. One of the kids found a shovel and started digging while others immediately set to fishing. The adults thought there was zero chance anything would be caught, but a sizeable trout was hooked briefly before it dramatically wiggled away.

That evening, our giant group went to dinner at the Campfire Grill. The setting was fantastic and the food decent. However, indigestion still kicked in when we were woken up at 1:58 in the morning by a flashing red light and an earsplitting “beeep, beeep, beeep.” My first reaction was to ask Jason, “What are those boys doing?” It stopped after a couple minutes, and we later ascertained that it was probably the carbon monoxide detector malfunctioning. Ironically, the accused boys weren’t even stirred from their slumber by the shrill alarm even though they had chosen to sleep in a closet instead of on a bed.

Our outing may have concluded in alarm, but the rest was anything but alarming. Relationships were renewed, limbs numbed, balls dodged, and memories cemented. As you may have ascertained from the contents of this post, Bear Lake makes for an excellent group gathering spot with various distinct activity possibilities in its vicinity.

On a related note, the Bear Lake area is known for its raspberry shakes, so we decided to undertake a comparison of all the raspberry shakes in town. Despite our diligent efforts, we only made it through shakes at three places. Of the three, the winner was Zipz, but the best burger went to LeBeau’s, and Merlin’s Drive-In triumphed in the fries category. There are a lot of cute burger joints in Garden City. If visiting, be ready for plenty of nostalgia and grease.