Valentine's Weekend 2009 in Bass Lake

Ian and I decided to take a trip to Bass Lake for Valentines weekend, by Yosemite National Park. It reminded me a lot of Lake Tahoe, my childhood vacation spot. Ian grew up taking trips to Bass Lake with his family. So he was familiar with the area, roads, and scenery. We decided to stay at the Pines Lodge, which was so fun and gorgeous! It was snowing pretty much all week before we went. On the drive there on Friday night the 13th, we definitely were hydroplaning all over the place from the icy roads! It snowed all day friday too, even when we arrived. Luckily, we had Ian's big truck with 4 wheel drive. It was scary though, but pretty!
We got in Friday night about 10:30 pm. We both were tired. Ian was tired from driving so tentatively for the few hours up the icy mountain, and I was tired from a long week of work. All we wanted to do was go to sleep! Ian had the 2 weeks prior off work, a standard mandatory vacation period given to officers every year. Paid and all!
Saturday we went out on the town, mostly exploring. We found this little restaurant/bar called the Buckhorn Saloon. It was Ian's heaven! They had really good food, and was decorated like something straight out of a small town in the south. They had shotgun shells as hanging lights, deer and boar heads on the walls, and a big bear with a t-shirt on in the corner. They had pool tables, funny white trash signs, country music playing, and it was full of locals. I felt a little city girl-ish with my Ugg boots and Chanel sunglasses. But it was fun!
Then we went shopping in town. We found a cute salt and pepper shaker set with John Wayne on the salt shaker, which is a mini coffee canister, and the pepper shaker is a mini coffee mug.
We love John Wayne in our house, he is the decor in some small places!
That night, we dressed up a bit, as much as we could for the maybe 30 degree weather, and went to the lodge restaurant for dinner. They had a fixed menu for Valentines day, $75.00 per person!! The front desk gave us a $50.00 coupon when we checked in, so that definitely helped! Otherwise, I am not sure if we would have gone. Thank the lord the food was amazing!! It could have been one of the best meals I have ever had. We both had Fillet Mignon, and Shrimp Scampi. And, they had a violinist playing the whole time. It was a 4 course meal: soup, salad, entree and desert. At the end, they gave me a pretty red flower with the check.
After that, we finished the night off at the bar, which was so much fun! They had a live band playing music my mom would have loved. Mustang Sally etc. They even played Nickleback, and Sublime! It was fun. I had a Vodka Tonics with extra lime, Ian had his usual Jack and Coke!

Here are some pictures of the Pines Lodge, and where we stayed and ate.



This is the front of the lodge in the snow. We even had more snow than this!! The lake is behind the building.


These are the Chalets we stayed in. Ours was up the street to the left. Our balcony was facing the forest, which was beautiful because it was full of snowy branches and sunlight.


This is the restaurant where we ate. Our table is actually about where the person stood to take this picture. The big windows look out to the lake. They had pink and purple balloons scattered around. It was so perfect and cozy!