Weekend at Bear Lake 2023

Last week, the Plowbuckles joined our family's annual summer trip up to beautiful Bear Lake. We (collectively) shook things up this year by doing a couple of things differently: (1) traveling in June rather than August and (2) renting an Airbnb on the north/Fish Haven, Idaho, side of the lake. These choices paid off tremendously because we had beautiful, spring-like weather throughout, and also the "Pirate Ship Chalet" was a good fit for our large group of hooligans.

What is a Pirate Ship Chalet? you ask? I didn't know, either, but I do now. It looks a lot like this, an actual pirate ship playground attached to the side of the building:

This was a fun little playground for kids of all ages. While many of those in our fun house went out on the water or over to the pickleball courts to play, Aunt JB and I were fuddy-duddy homebodies and hung around the house most of the time. But fortunately that meant we also got to spend a great deal of time with the littlest niblings, because after all we are the Fun Aunt and Uncle.

Tanner and Sadie picked The Empire Strikes Back to watch with JB when offered their choice of movie! The Force remains strong in our family.

Other enjoyable activities at the Pirate Ship Chalet included playing Jackbox games like Tee K.O. together, foosball, pool (billiards), watching movies, and streaming the final game of the NBA Finals after a lightning storm knocked out the satellite dish. (The Denver Nuggets won their first-ever championship!)

Of course, a visit to Bear Lake can't be complete without at lest one visit to either LaBeau's or Zipz in downtown Garden City (on the Utah side of the lake) for Dole whips and/or raspberry shakes.

All told, 10 out of 10 stars, we would definitely recommend the place where we stayed and our overall vacation experience. 

On our way home, we remained in Idaho and took the long route through St. Charles and Paris and then into lovely Preston, setting for the cult hit movie Napoleon Dynamite. Heading south, we then passed through Franklin, just a stone's throw across the Utah/Idaho border, to visit the graves of JB's great grandparents. So that was an added bonus.