I've had the delightful opportunity as of late to spend a couple of weekends in Bear Lake. My buddy Tanner has a cabin up there and has been generous enough to invite me on two occasions. The first trip we went on was more of a "guy night" (*forearm double bump*) with Justin, Mark, Tanner and me. While the second was more of what the young people now-a-days lovingly call a "co-ed trip."
I had never been to Bear Lake before our first trip and was a little shocked by how beautiful it was up there. Out Guy Night trip was great because we were able to head up and just relax (and talk about whatever we wanted). I took a bunch of crosswords to do throughout the weekend and was again surprised when everyone wanted to help me complete them. I have been doing crosswords for years and have never had such a pleasant response.
Let it be written as well, that this trip was where the "tenner" was born. We pretty much played "Name Your Price" the whole trip (For those of you who are unfamiliar, Name Your Price is a game where you ask a friend how much money it would take for them to do some outlandish hypothetical situation). It was decided in Bear Lake that the price would always be $10 and the situations would no longer remain hypothetical and that is how the "tenner" was born. The tenner is the $10 bill that now acts as the price for all our bets. On another post, I'll have to fill you in on all the bets that have taken place so far.
On the second trip, we invited girls (including Mindy), which was awesome. We had the cabin to ourselves and the boys slept in the loft and the girls slept in the bedrooms. We hung out at the beach, we made delicious food and we held the first-ever (drumroll please) crossword challenge. We broke into teams and each did the same crossword. Needless to say, Justin, Dane and Ashley creamed the other team. A combination of Dane's experience, Justin's abounding knowledge and cinematic expertise and Ashley's fashion know-how, Team Killdeer was able to take home the championship trophy.
The other highlight of the co-ed trip, was the patriotic tribute we performed around the campfire. With lit sparklers in hand, all seven of us sang "My Country Tis of Thee." It was decided by Lana that we needed to hold the last note out until every sparkler had died. It was a little weird, but we were laughing ourselves silly. That was right before the flaming fireball of treesap spewed out of the flames and landed on my arm, my hair and my clothes. Lucky for me, I now have a free souvenir from the trip: a pink scar the size of a nickel on my forearm.
Now all I can do as I sit at my desk, is count down the days until I am there again. On the second trip, I was running along the shore and this song came on my iPod. I have to share it because everytime I hear it now, I think of Bear Lake. The song is Sooner or Later by Rookie of the Year.
