Introduction

Lizi’s famous saying: Things only get worse the more they’re “improved”! The old cat sleeps on the roof, one generation after another. The waves behind the Yangtze drive on the waves ahead; even weasels now give birth to hedgehogs—each generation is worse than the last!

Ever since Chase IHG’s FN got capped at the 40,000 level, redeeming this FN for an InterContinental has basically become something that can exist only in dreams. Even worse, IHG’s brand hierarchy has really collapsed. After InterContinental, you’re mostly looking at Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, and the like, which honestly makes redemptions a lot less exciting.

Redemption

Seeing the FN in my account getting closer and closer to expiring—basically headed for zero just like an expired option—I figured that if I didn’t use it, it would expire anyway, so I might as well redeem it for something relatively nicer and go on a short trip. I searched on the IHG website and, surprisingly, found a best-of-a-mediocre-bunch option: Holiday Inn Resort The Lodge at Big Bear Lake.

Wait, Holiday Inn has a purple-logo resort version? I’d only ever seen the sneaky budget version with the Express suffix, not some upgraded edition. Best of all, an award night only cost 25,000 IHG Pts, which meant the FN would definitely be “accepted by the system.” So I quickly logged in and booked it with the Chase IHG FN. A weekend trip to Big Bear Lake to revisit memories from five years ago—done deal. Let’s go!

PS: I checked again, and on the date Lizi booked, paying cash would have cost about 200 USD per night, which is higher than the annual fee on the new IHG card. So this FN did manage to deliver full value.

Stay

When the weekend arrived, I drove up into the mountains. Before heading up, Lizi was wondering: if it was clearly overcast, why did the forecast say Sunny? Once I got onto the winding mountain section of Highway 18, everything made sense—with the higher elevation, I gradually drove out of the cloud layer, and by the time I reached Big Bear Lake it was absolutely sunny.

A quick reminder for anyone driving mountain roads: the moment you break through the clouds is both dreamy and terrifying, so please drive carefully. On the way up, Lizi personally saw a car coming downhill on the opposite side crash into the guardrail because it was going too fast and get totaled on the spot. Thinking about it afterward was honestly scary—hitting the guardrail and totaling the car was actually a relatively good outcome. At a slightly higher speed, it could have gone off the cliff...

Two more reminders for anyone heading up the mountain:

  1. If you’re going to Big Bear between October and March, nighttime temperatures can drop below freezing, so replace your windshield washer fluid with antifreeze fluid in advance. Walmart at the foot of the mountain has it, so that’s already taken care of for you.
  2. Gas prices on the mountain are much more expensive than down below, so there’s no need to get “smart” based on assumed common sense and fill your tank at the bottom, only to get ripped off.

There are plenty of places along the road where you can pull over temporarily and take in the scenery.

The car parked by the roadside in the photo is Lizi’s thrifty SUV—a Nissan Rogue.

I added the two crossbars on the roof rack myself later on, but they still haven’t proven very useful. All they do every day is add wind resistance and reduce MPG...

Before long, I arrived at the destination. Cabin style.

Then I saw this sign. That’s right—I’m an IHG Rewards Club member, so I parked here.

A sculpture next to it: a very cute bear.

At check-in, it was the usual routine. Since Lizi has the slightly-better-than-basic “Platinum Elite” status that comes from the Chase IHG card, I got a drink voucher.

Later, I used it for a beer.

The lobby looked like this, so let’s not set expectations too high.

Lizi’s room was on the second floor, so up the elevator I went.

As usual, here are two photos of the key cards.

When redeeming with the FN, this was the only room type available: two Queen Beds. Haha~~

I switched my phone to panorama mode and took a long shot.

Pulling back the curtain, I could see there was still quite a bit of snow in the parking lot. It looked like nights were still pretty cold.

The bathroom and the shampoo provided~~

Coffee maker, and coffee cups with the purple logo.

Voice-over: So what if it’s purple? What’s with the zhuangbility? Isn’t it still just a Holiday Inn?

Lizi doesn’t even have a TV at home, so at least I got to watch some TV here.

Big Bear Lake & Big Bear Lake City

First I drove over to the lakeside. I vaguely remembered there being a spot on the north side of the lake where you could see lots of water birds. Turns out Lizi’s memory is pretty good, because I found the place quickly.

It was very windy when I got there, and many seagulls were flying into the wind as if they were kites. Seagulls hovering motionless in midair are perfect targets for blasting away with a telephoto lens.

The temperature outside was in the single digits Celsius, so everyone was bundled up in thick clothing to stay warm.

The snow-covered mountains on the south side of Big Bear Lake. On the right side of the photo, you can see a slope with relatively fewer trees—that’s the ski area.

I had originally planned to go check out the ski resort, but there were just too many visitors and it was way too crowded, so I gave up.

The observatory at Big Bear Lake is now managed by NJIT. Because of COVID-19, it was, unsurprisingly, closed and not open for visitors.

Back in Big Bear Lake City, this is basically what the main Downtown street looks like.

Away from the noise and bustle of the big city, a small town like this is an ideal place for a relaxing getaway.

A vintage carriage on the road.

Here are a few sculptures. Is this one a bobcat?

A bear! Unfortunately, the California grizzly has been extinct for more than 100 years. These days, the easiest place to see one is on the California state flag.

A roadside shop. You can pick up some souvenirs at this Village Mall, but the markup on these items is pretty outrageous, so unsurprisingly, Chestnut didn’t buy anything.

The Village Sweet Shoppe—just from the name, you can tell it’s an ice cream shop. Eating ice cream in weather this cold to “cool off”? Chestnut wasn’t about to risk an upset stomach...

And I won’t even say much about the colors here... a classic “unicorn-style” palette, with equally cute chairs out front.

Since Chestnut isn’t an elite member, hotel free meals have basically always been out of reach for me. And even if I were an elite member, who knows whether the restaurant would even have been open at the time.

The solution was simple: just go out and find food. Chestnut went with a budget combo of McDonald’s and pizza to refuel, haha...

In fact, this was the closest and best-value place to eat near the hotel: Jack in the Box! Boom! Every time Chestnut sees this chain, it brings to mind the jack-in-the-box zombie from Plants vs. Zombies...

Bear Valley Dam

Since I went to Big Bear Lake on a Saturday, time was limited. After getting one free night and heading out, I stopped by the final attraction on the way down the mountain: Bear Valley Dam.

The dam is easy to find with Google Map, and there’s roadside parking available. Just park where the arrow points.

There were originally two monuments here, but now only one remains.

Chestnut was pretty stunned to see this—did they really call it one of the world’s eight great wonders back then? What?

The other monument has already been moved away, and its base has been casually covered in graffiti by visitors—so-and-so was here~

And that’s basically the dam. As noted on the monument mentioned earlier, Big Bear Lake is essentially a reservoir created after this dam was built. The dam itself has no floodgates and no water-release function. Even if it could release water, it really couldn’t—once the gates opened, the valley downstream would be flooded.

Summary

The main purpose of this trip was to use up one of my IHG FN certificates over a weekend. As mentioned earlier, ever since IHG added category restrictions to FN in 2019, cutting its usefulness in half, it’s been much harder to get good value from it. On top of that, aside from InterContinental, many IHG properties fall off sharply in quality tiers, which means FN can at best usually be used for the likes of Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, or Holiday Inn Express.

This time, I redeemed it for “Holiday Inn Resort - The Lodge at Big Bear Lake.” Even though the Holiday Inn brand isn’t exactly a crowd favorite, this property’s location in a resort destination like Big Bear Lake means cash rates are heavily inflated. On the day Chestnut visited, it would have cost 200 USD for one night, far higher than the annual fee on the Chase IHG card, so it was still well worth redeeming for a fun trip.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to one simple truth: the whole point of holding the Chase IHG card is to get that FN for free. As long as the hotel you redeem for costs more than the IHG card’s annual fee, it’s worth it.