The 90 minute narrated tour takes you around the entire circumference of the lake. Our guide provided us with a mixture of historical lore, celebrity home info, bird watching, advertising of local restaurants and lodging, and humor. Even though we had been on a boat tour the previous summer, it was still fun to get out on the water and see the sights.

Don't forget to bring a jacket, even in the middle of summer. It can get pretty windy on the upper deck, especially when the boat gets to the end of the lake closer to the dam.

The Big Bear Marina also offers boat rentals at what seem to me to be fairly steep prices, although they are comparable to all the other marinas in the area. It's beyond me how you can rent a $25,000 car for 29 bucks a day, but a 14 ft aluminum boat with an 8 hp outboard costs $45 for 2 hours!

Skiers seem to have their own part of the mountain, so skiing hasn't yet been phased out completely. It differs on the bar patios where the older guy skiers, who are used to cruising the place, are figuring out that "ski bunnies" no longer exist. All the young girls now snowboard.

These old guys stick out like dinosaurs in their ski clothes which differ greatly from the snowboarding outfits of the young hotties. They, very obviously, look old and dated. Suddenly, their ski persona is working against them in a way they never could have imagined.

Watching the realization hit is kinda sad. But then, with some of them, that glint comes back into their eye and you can see the wheels turning as they observe and plot their next move to blend into the scene again.

Anyway, sure enough, there were lots of these older guys in my snowboarding class over at Bear Mountain. So, I guess, the thing to do, dino or not, is to get past falling down all over the place at Bear Mountain and then come back to Snow Summit to hang out as a too hip shredder.