The life of a pro gamer and a 9-6 computer monkey often does not allow for long breaks or traveling. However, this year (as in 2017 hehe…), because the code slave accrued enough vacation time and CLG got doinked by C9 and didn’t go to Worlds, the stars were aligned perfectly for them to go on their first vacation.
TO BIG BEAR MOUNTAAAAAIINNNNNNNN.
With this, begins our vlog series 우리 Story – where we hope to showcase to you snippets of our lives when we actually leave the house.
Planned for over two months, this was the perfect chance to demonstrate to the world the insane level of my micromanagement abilities.
Our vacation was joined by Haru and our friends – Piff, Toby, Chris, Fariza, Paola and Adrian! We rented a cabin in the mountains where we stayed from Friday night til the end of Tuesday. Every day was cram packed full of things to do like binge watching The Walking Dead cooking every meal, hiking, going to the zoo, etc.
So without further ado, please enjoy our first ever “우리 Story” vlog and recaps of the wonderful days we spent expecting to freeze but ended up sweating instead!
The Friday we chose to leave was more hectic than normal. I was working a half day, Toby was picking up lunch for us, and Jae and I went to a Japanese salon to get a blow out before our vacation.
Of course, luck would have it that I couldn’t find parking in the entire lot and rush parked in a 20 minute only parking, ran in to find Jae at the salon (he came an hour earlier so he would be done by the time I came), relayed a key passing and got the nicest head massage of my life. At the same time, our boy Toby grabbed the yummiest sandwiches for us from Fiore Market Cafe. If you ever are in Pasadena, you muuuust try their chicken pesto sandwich.
By the time we were all done, Piff, Chris and Fariza had arrived at our house and we ate the fastest lunch of our lives. The hard part came next – we had so many coolers and luggages that we had to tetris onto the car. While in the middle of lugging groceries onto the cars, our borrowed PS4 controllers were needed again by their owner so we had to last minute find 4 kind saints who would lend us their controllers. After packing, we hit the road – to the many CLG houses to hunt those down…
Then our 2 1/2 hour road trip began. We were estimated to arrive just after 6PM, when the sun would be completely gone and the night would be even colder than we expected. Chris and Fariza took one car while Jae, Toby, Haru, and I were in Piff’s car. Adrian and Paola were to meet us the next day.
Our car was jam packed with suitcases and Haru wanting to sit on everyone’s lap. Jae fell asleep and the rest of us rewatched earlier season of “The Office” on Netflix in the standstill LA traffic.
As we reached the winding mountains, I was too carsick and forced myself to nap and ended up missing out on a lot of pretty scenery as the sun set. Because the cabin we chose was part of “Destination Big Bear,” our check-in process was almost completely automated and took less than 5 minutes. Soon after, we arrived at our cabin where we met up with Chris and Fariza and the room claiming adventures began.
This cabin was HUGE – 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms. The downstairs bedroom was a room with two beds for Piff and Toby and had its own private bathroom. The upstairs floor had the remaining three bedrooms – one master bedroom/bathroom (for Jae and me) and two bedrooms with a shared bathroom (for Chris/Fariza and Paola.) The kitchen was completely stocked with everything we needed besides a rice cooker and the living room had space for all of us to sit and connect laptop to the TV for movies and games.
Unloading all the groceries and things we bought ended up being extremely efficient and we settled into the cozy kitchen to prepare the dinner feast.
Because we forgot the rice cooker, Jae made rice in a pot for the first time ever. Fariza made kimchi jjigae, Toby made cheesy corn and steamed eggs, and I made kimchi pancakes. After the appetizers and sides were done, we sat down to eat our first meal of the vacation.
THEN WE WERE SO FULL WE FOOD COMA’D AND TRIED TO PLAY BOARD GAMES AND BECAUSE THIS WAS OVER A MONTH AGO, I REALLY DON’T REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED AFTER SO I ASSUME WE WENT TO SLEEP.
Sorry for how delayed this post was for this week, I’ve been trying to find editors for the vlog and set up the website. I still intended to keep my 2 posts a week promise. My writing went to doodoo because it’s 5PM in the afternoon and I’m exhausted from the work week already.
Please look forward to the next 4 days of Big Bear posts and vlogs 🙂