It all started here ~ this is a photo of my mom, my aunt, and their parents (my grandparents) in their cabin that my grandfather built in Big Bear, California. My grandfather built this cabin for his family, which they lived in during the summers and some weekends. Spending time in the mountains is a tradition that goes all the way back to when my mom was a kid.

So, it wasn’t horribly absurd when my mom and dad decided to buy a cabin of their own not far away from Big Bear, in Green Valley Lake, in 1977. The place they bought was a lake front property ~ a house (let’s call it a structure) built in the 1920’s; it even had a Model T Ford sitting in the garage. My grandfather, dad, and uncle (and anyone else they could get to help) tore that place down to the studs, and rebuilt it to this great cabin that you see here. It was a 3 bedroom, 1 bath place that became our home from the day school got out, until the day before school began every year. We lived up there in Green Valley Lake all summer long. In telling my daughters about my summers in GVL, they ask me if I missed my school friends. Not really, I told them…we invited a different family to come stay with us every week . AND, our cousins owned the cabin right next door! We did have some fun.

Lower right image ~ I’m the one in-between my parents.

By design, there was no television, and no phone. We had our cousins next door, our guests, that big lake, and the great outdoors to entertain us. We swam, boated, sailed, hiked, made forts, explored, played “kick the can”, and made our own fun summer after summer.  My older sister and I even belonged and raced in the “GVL Yacht Club”, which hilariously were not “yachts”, but very small sabots. I have such great memories of times in GVL, I really do.

Years later, which included some changes in our family, my dad and his wife sold their house and rebuilt that old cabin in Green Valley Lake into their permanent home. It was a great place to visit year round. It was my turn to show my girls how I spent my childhood. I told stories to my girls of how I spent my summers in this place, and took them on the same walks and adventures that I did as a kid.

Left image~my older daughter and my dad. Upper right~me, my sisters and cousins building a snow fort circa 1979.

The Green Valley Lake General Store has always been a big part of GVL. Candy and ice cream were purchased on a daily basis.

A few years ago, my younger sister began a yearly tradition by renting a cabin in Green Valley Lake for a week in the summer. GVL holds a very special place in her heart ~ and showing her kids what it meant to her became important. Now that our kids are about the same age that we were when we called GVL our summer home, they can really relate and enjoy it as we did. We have all joined in on their tradition, and head up to Green Valley Lake each summer. We spend a week there enjoying the same boating, hiking, and swimming adventures. The kids even love to bake together, too.

Photo of the left is from 2008, and the right, 2015. I only wish I had one of me and my sisters at this same boat dock from the late 1970’s.