Water & Ice

I love ice skating, especially ice skating shows where all I have to do is watch: triple axels, quadruple toe loops, lay back spins, death drops that leave you shaking your head in admiration. Fortunately for me, I have a companion in my ice dreams, my mother. So when Mother told me that Olympic and World Champion ice skater Michelle Kwan was kicking off the summer series of skating shows at Lake Arrowhead, I was ready to go.

Offered every year from July 4 through August, the every-other-Saturday shows feature the professionals and aspiring amateurs who are training at Arrowhead’s world-class Ice Castle International Training Center. The public shows are held 10 miles down the road at the Ice Castle at Blue Jay, the performance rink that’s open for public skating (general admission, $7).

Many years ago, my own family used to spend Thanksgivings in a rented cabin near the lake. It was a small, crowded A-frame on a snow-choked hillside with not an ice rink in sight. But things have changed a lot at Arrowhead since.

Now there is an extremely comfortable resort on the shores of the lake, complete with heated pool, two hot tubs and a private beach. With an AAA discount, Mother and I reserved a room at Lake Arrowhead Resort for two nights at $179.10 per night, plus tax. The room was comfortable and well-appointed and happily for Mother, who doesn’t like stairs, on the first floor. The only drawback was the excessively long wait time to check in and out.

We arrived at the resort at noon and ate succulent barbecue pork sandwiches at Woody’s Boathouse in Lake Arrowhead Village. The view out over the lake was spectacular, with a brilliant blue sky and sunlight glancing off the water. Powerboats towing water skiers sliced through turbulent waves as ducks quacked raucously near shore. Mother decided to pass on the water skiing, so we signed aboard the Arrowhead Queen for a 50-minute boat ride around the lake. Captain Ray reminded me of the snappy-patter narrators on the Jungle Boat Cruise at Disneyland.

We sailed past the beach where, he said, Rock Hudson had read the Sunday funnies to a blind Jane Wyman in the 1954 tear-jerker “Magnificent Obsession,” and the site where Michael Douglas had landed by helicopter at Camp David in “The American President.” Doris Day’s former A-frame cabin looked pretty modest next to the house once occupied by Tom Selleck, outside which, according to Captain Ray, women had an odd tendency to fall off their water skis or suddenly find the gas tanks of their boats empty.

He also told us that the lake was actually af artificial reservoir. Before 1890 and the construction of the rock-and-earth dam that created the reservoir, Piutes had hunted here. This was fascinating stuff, but I kept hoping Captain Ray would point out the spot where Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald had watched Hollywood’s idea of Indians dance “Totem Tom Tom” in the 1936 production of “Rose Marie.”

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Back at the dock, I talked a reluctant mother into waiting while I took a water skiing lesson. In half an hour, Captain Ray had claimed, the McKenzie Water Ski School could teach anyone to water ski. I suited up and presented myself for my first lesson. “Have you ever skied before?” I was asked. I shook my head. “Ever snow skied before?” Another negative. The woman behind the desk looked at me dubiously. “You want to learn now?”

“You bet,” I said, noting with increasing nervousness the numbers of floating objects that were moving at rapid speeds across the lake. “OK, Bobby will be your teacher.”

Bobby also looked dubious. He was a thin teenager wearing an assortment of Velcroed body pads, wetsuit and mittens. He looked as if he might have several water skiing Purple Hearts and a Boy Scout badge tucked away somewhere. We did a quick check of how I was expected to keep my elbows locked and let the movement of the skis rock me to my feet as the boat accelerated.

Great, I thought, just like Esther Williams. Bobby attached me to my skis, handed me two tow handles and grabbed two next to me. The boat started to move and so did I, at warp speed, through crashing waves, most of them going down my nose and throat. The next thing I knew, I was floating peacefully on the lake while Bobby and the boat drifted toward the horizon.

We tried again. The skis seemed to have a mind of their own with but one thought: to get as far away from me as possible. On the third attempt, Bobby got nicked by the tow line and went flying, Velcroed bits of costume littering the churning waves. “One more time?” Bobby gurgled gamely. Esther Williams, I was not.

“I think that’s enough for the first lesson,” I told him. He was too dazed to even look grateful. Muscles aching, I went with Mother and to dinner at the resort and ate a soothing seafood bisque and salad at Barkley’s Restaurant. I’d had enough of the water for the moment; tomorrow it would be time for ice.

We ate a leisurely Saturday breakfast at The Belgian Waffle Works in Arrowhead Village and gazed out over the deceptively tranquil lake. It was another cloudless day of blue skies, pine-scented air and sparkling water. Mother and I spent the morning exploring the village shops, buying specialty hot sauce for my father at Chili Chompers and Indian moccasins for my 4-year-old nephew, William, at Indian Trails. Mother even found a set of collectible dishes by turn-of-the-century Ohio pottery entrepreneur Homer Laughlin at Addie’s Attic. We then headed over to the village of Blue Jay and the Ice Castle skating rink. Inside, we joined small knots of parents who were watching their kids practice for that evening’s big show.

“I want it crisp and clean and professional. Stevie, are you with us?” a voice boomed over a microphone. A small girl quickly skidded back into place on the ice.

Ice Castle at Blue Jay is one of the world’s most beautiful public rinks. Open on three sides to a forest of pines, it fits naturally into its mountaintop setting. Rehearsals continued with the solo acts as Johnnie and Tiffany Stiegler, Lia Trovati and Russ Witherby, and Natalie Vlandis and Jered Guzman whizzed by.

By 8 we were in our seats at a sold-out performance ([909] 336-2111 for tickets). Everything went flawlessly. Russian ice dancing Olympic gold medalists, Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko, seemed to float above the ice, executing arabesques of movement that looked like flying. The audience was voluble and enthusiastic.

The big moment of the evening came with Michelle Kwan’s performance as a wistful and exquisite Mulan, dressed in black and red. Effortlessly, she pulled the audience with her, and each of us seemed able to imagine the thrill of executing a triple lutz spinning above the ice. At the end of her performance, fireworks exploded around us as the orchestra struck up the national anthem.

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Budget for Two

Gasoline, L.A.-Arrowhead-L.A.: $12.20

Arrowhead Resort, 2 nights: 390.44

Lunch, Woody’s Boathouse: 21.44

Arrowhead Queen boat ride: 19.50

McKenzie Water Ski School: 35.00

Dinner, breakfast, Barkley’s: 21.72

Breakfast, Belgian Waffle Works: 17.23

Dinner, McDonald’s: 16.45

Ice Castle skating show tickets: 70.00

FINAL TAB: $603.98

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Lake Arrowhead Resort, 27984 Highway 189, Lake Arrowhead, CA 92352; tel. (800) 800-6792.