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As a kid born and raised in Southern California, the idea of autumn leaves and winter snow were novelties. Though just a three-hour drive from my family’s town, the wooded San Bernardino Mountains felt like another world, so much so that when a mountain guide once asked 10-year-old me where I was from, I told him “California,” as if we’d left the state entirely.

Cascading ponderosa pines and Douglas fir trees sweep the Transverse Ranges toward Big Bear Lake, which sits in a valley that the Indigenous Yuhaaviatam called Yuhaaviat, Place of the Pines. Big Bear’s tourism story starts in the 1860s, when a short-lived gold rush in Holcomb Valley left behind roads, cabins and a frontier myth that later drew tourists. In 1884, a dam built for irrigation flooded the valley and created the alpine lake that still defines the region.

Angelenos have been making the drive to Big Bear for more than a century, chasing cooler air in summer and snow in winter. As early as 1912, day-trippers and film crews in Model-Ts wound up the mountain roads, using Big Bear’s forests as both a quick escape and a Hollywood back lot.

By the 1920s Pine Knot, now known as Big Bear Village, was filled with lodges and storefronts to greet Los Angeles motorists escaping summer heat. The region’s first ski lift arrived in 1938, while post-World War II highways, film shoots, and the Hollywood set turned the once-remote valley into a four-season resort through the 1960s. To this day, Big Bear maintains its small-town feel with a population of just 5,000 even though it sees more than 7 million visitors a year.

For my parents, who loved to ski, Big Bear was more affordable and closer than Tahoe (meaning less time in the car with two squirmy kids) and had just enough amenities to keep us warm, fed and happy. Over the years, locals have held tight to its character, resisting abject luxury development while defending the habitats of local wildlife. Thanks to those efforts, the place still carries a bit of Howard Johnson-era Americana charm.

Whether traveling solo or with friends and family, a weekend in Big Bear makes for a quaint but restorative winter getaway, whether or not you hit the slopes. Pack your sweaters and boots and be careful taking the curves of Highway 18.

SACRAMENTO — Two statewide school construction bond issues and another proposal making it easier to pass local school bond measures went down to defeat in the Assembly Thursday, adding up to a bad day for schools in the Legislature.

In a battle between developer interests and the educational establishment, the Assembly refused first to accept Senate changes in an Assembly-passed $1.9-billion school bonds construction bill. Then it voted on another bond measure–$2.9 billion, also for school construction–but failed to muster a big enough majority for passage.

While there was disagreement over the size of the bond issue, the biggest fight was over the insistence of Assembly Democrats and educators that residential developers pay a larger share of the cost of school construction if voters reject the bond measure. Republicans sided with the developers.

The $1.9-billion bill was left in the hands of a two-house conference committee to try to work out a compromise in time to get it on the June primary ballot. The other bond measure could come back to the Assembly for a vote next week.

Gov. Pete Wilson issued a statement saying that he was “extremely disappointed” that Assembly Democrats “acted as roadblocks” to delay the statewide school bond issue.

“The school bond is crucial if we’re to provide classrooms for a grade school population that is increasing by 213,000 students a year,” the governor said. “Additionally, the bond will create jobs by bolstering the construction industry, which is in its worst slump since the 1982 recession.”

Also on Thursday, the Assembly, for the second time, rejected Wilson’s proposal to reduce from two-thirds to a simple majority the popular vote required for the passage of local school bond issues, many of which fail because of the two-thirds requirement.

Blocking passage of the bond measures adds new burdens to the state’s overcrowded public schools, proponents said.

“We need to build 20 classrooms a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, for most of the next decade,” said Assemblyman Jack O’Connell (D-Carpinteria), the author of measure reducing the vote requirement.

O’Connell said the cost of school construction and modernization for the next decade would run between $15 billion and $20 billion.

The State Allocation Board currently has a backlog of $6 billion in approved applications from local school districts for school construction projects that are awaiting funding.

This board is composed of two assemblymen, two senators, the state superintendent of public instruction and the directors of the state departments of Finance and General Services.

The key issue in the controversy over the bonds is a 1986 law that allowed school districts to charge property developer fees to pay for schools, but limited the fees to $1.65 per square foot of residential development. One feature of the law was that if a statewide school bond issue failed, this limitation was to be removed, allowing local governments to charge developers more than the $1.65 cap in order to finance school construction.

However, the provision removing the cap, known as the “blow-up clause,” was suspended for school bond elections held in 1988 and 1990. Both bond issues were approved by voters.

Siding with developers, Wilson and Assembly Republicans want the suspension continued, but Assembly Democrats want to retain existing law.

“Who do you think is going to build schools, the tooth fairy?” complained Assemblywoman Delaine Eastin (D-Union City), the chairwoman of the Education Committee, regarding the exemption for developers. “There is no tooth fairy and Tinkerbell is dead.”

Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) was frustrated that the Assembly did not pass the $1.9-billion school bond bill.

Roberti agreed to put the issue before the two-house conference committee on Monday to work out a last-ditch compromise. But he warned that he opposed putting the issue before the voters if it required costly printing and mailing of a supplemental ballot pamphlet.

Secretary of State March Fong Eu previously said that the Legislature had to approve June ballot measures by March 7 or she might have to print an expensive supplemental voter ballot pamphlet. “I think Monday is the really real deadline,” said Roberti.

CHICAGO — Caleb Williams came through in his playoff debut, throwing a go-ahead, 25-yard touchdown pass to DJ Moore with 1:43 remaining, and the Chicago Bears rallied from an 18-point deficit to beat the rival Green Bay Packers 31-27 in a wild-card playoff game on Saturday night.

The NFC North champion Bears extended their resurgent first season under coach Ben Johnson with their seventh fourth-quarter comeback victory. They split two down-to-the-wire games with Green Bay in the regular season, and this one turned out to be a thriller when it looked like it would be a breeze for the Packers.

Chicago trailed 21-3 at halftime and 21-6 through three quarters, only to outscore Green Bay 25-6 in the fourth on the way to its first playoff win in 15 years.

Williams found a wide-open Moore along the left sideline to give Chicago a 31-27 lead with 1:43 remaining.

Jordan Love then led Green Bay into Chicago territory. But on third down at the 28, Jaquan Brisker broke up a pass in the end zone as time expired, setting off a wild celebration — and a curt handshake between Johnson and Packers coach Matt LaFleur.

The Bears will host a divisional-round game next weekend.

South Korea has announced it’s ending bear bile farming over animal cruelty concerns. The controversial industry was used for traditional medicine, but questions over its effectiveness knocked its popularity in recent years.