Waffles and Wings in a Winter Wonderland

Lake Arrowhead is the nearest thing we’ve got to an Alpine resort, and right now there’s even snow on the ground. The village is less than a mile high, yet you can find Angel Wings there, and your Hearts Desire. A mile away you can skate to your heart’s content.

9:30 to 10:15 a.m.: Dockside at Lake Arrowhead is among the more scenic sections of the Village, and its shops are now fully occupied. You can start your morning amid the country Victorian surroundings of the Belgian Waffle Works.

Possibilities include a straightforward Breakfast Belgian ($4) but also a dozen more involved preparations: Benedict Belgian, a twist on eggs Benedict ($7.25, mini-Benedict $4.25); apple Normandy Belgian, with spiced apples, raisins, walnuts and cinnamon ($7.55), and sundae Belgian, half a waffle with ice cream and chocolate or raspberry melba sauce ($4.95).

I ordered peach melba Belgian with sliced peaches with raspberry melba sauce ($6.95); the amount of whipped cream served on top looked overwhelming, but the cream turned out to be very light, not gooey in the least. A great starter, the polar cap is iced mocha cappuccino with milk, chocolate syrup and a “blizzard” of that heavenly whipped cream.

The restaurant sells duck food for 50 cents, and there’s a bunch of ducks waiting to be fed just outside on the dock and in the water.

10:15 to 10:35: Also Victorian in atmosphere, Angel Wings carries all things angelic, including angel jewelry and angel snow globes, as well as all things cherubic, and every square inch of the shop is filled with the celestial items.

The angel books are among the most intriguing. Angels may seem to be a Christian belief, for instance, but alongside “Billy Graham on Angels” is “A Gathering of Angels: Angels in Jewish Life and Literature”; those of any faith might enjoy “Angels in the Kitchen: Divine Desserts for Any Occasion.”

10:35 to 11: “No matter where you go, there you are,” reads the sign above the door at Hearts Desire. Inside are pieces by Mary Engelbreit inspired by other sayings; a ceramic chair with bowls piled on the seat says, “Life is just a chair of bowlies.”

One thing your heart might desire when you come in from the cold is a nice pot of tea, and this is the place to find interesting teas and teapots.

Loose-leaf teas include ginger peach, “a longevity tea,” according to the label, and mango Ceylon, “a metabolic frolic tea.” Among teapots are an accordion-style Polaroid camera ($40) and a Singer sewing machine ($43); bisque porcelain fruit and vegetable teapots include pumpkin and carrot ($19 each). Very popular is a Lucy and Desi teapot based on the movie “The Long, Long Trailer” that comes with car creamer and trailer sugar ($40, sold-out for the holidays, back in stock in January).

Chinese Yi-Xing teapots ($60) are made from a special clay rich in iron, quartz and mica and have a colorful history.

“The custom was you made your tea in the pot, you drank directly out of the teapot, and you never washed it,” explained store owner Debbie McGuire. “You just rinse it out so that the pot itself creates its own tea flavor after continuous use. Neighbors would take their teapots to each other’s homes and try to outdo each other, so they made them with lots of character. Everything was unusual.”

The shop also specializes in die-cast metal, limited-edition, scale-model cars, bicycles and airplanes. McGuire said, for instance, that Schwinn is marking its 100th anniversary with replicas of the Western Flyer, Lady Starliner and Black Phantom models ($55 each). She was less successful when describing the origin of the cartoonish limited-edition cars.

“They’re replicas of the pedal cars that you had when you were a kid,” McGuire said. “You know, in the ‘40s and ‘50s?”

Excuse me?

“You in general,” she said.

11 to 12:30: Nearby, Blue Jay’s Ice Castle is the training site for many Olympic gold-medal skating champions, including its artistic director, Robin Cousins.

It has a lovely indoor-outdoor setting. The rink is tented and open to the surrounding trees; international flags decorate one end.

Indoors, you can sit by the fire while replacing lost carbs with a baked potato ($1.25), or watch skaters through a glass partition while enjoying a frozen yogurt under a heat lamp. There’s also a variety of sandwiches ($1.50 to $3.50) and candy.

In the rink’s shop is a cornucopia of tutus and hockey sticks. Out on the ice, safety rules stipulate no snowballs, crack-the-whip or camel spins. Apart from that, you “skate at your inherent risk” at the Ice Castle, but the inherent risks are well worth it.

* Times Line(tm): 808-8463. To hear brief capsules of other “3-Hour Tours,” call TimesLine and press * 7150

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DAY TRIPPIN’

1. The Belgian Waffle Works

Dockside at Lake Arrowhead

28200 California 189, Suite E140

(909) 337-5222

Open daily, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

2. Angel Wings

Dockside at Lake Arrowhead

28200 California 189, Suite E120

(909) 337-1257

Open daily, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

3. Hearts Desire

Dockside at Lake Arrowhead

28200 California 189, Suite C140

(909) 337-4469

Open daily, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

4. Ice Castle

2737 California 189

Blue Jay

(909) 336-2111

There are one or more two-hour sessions daily, always one midday; phone for schedule. Parking: There is free parking in lots at Lake Arrowhead Village and at the ice rink in Blue Jay.