Alexandria, MN
Our family recently took a trip to Alexandria, MN where we
stayed at the Arrowwood Lodge and
Conference Center. We met another family there from the Twin Cities area.
Friends of ours from when we used to live down there. They have three
children, same as us, and all the ages match up fairly close so each one of
them has a little friend to play with.
Perhaps the only problem is the poor middle children. All three of my
children are girls, their middle child is a boy, but they still got along just
fine with their middle-child care free attitude they both have. The problem may come another 10 years from
now when they once again want to sleep with each other. It’s a great place for us to meet for a
little “spring break” action as it is almost half the distance from our place
to theirs. Love this family. We all get along and I hope they realize how
much they mean to us.
Arrowwood is an awesome little resort. I will say it is a little spendier then most
places in the region, but compare this place to what else is around and I think
you will find it is fairly priced. This
place has plenty of activities to do for people of all ages…and all
seasons! This place has an indoor water park, a
separate indoor AND a separate outdoor pool, an 18-hole executive golf course
for those who pretend to play golf like me, the townhomes have a fire pit along
with forks to cook hotdogs and marshmallows, a swimming beach, boat rentals,
executive putting course, basketball and tennis court, large decks that
overlook the lake, a spa, and a place for kids to go to watch movies, create
crafts, play games, and eat popcorn. I
mean this place had it all that we decided to stay an extra day longer than
what we originally planned. Boy are we
glad we did that.
Pools
The indoor pool is kinda cool. I liked the water slides the most. Many indoor water parks you go to has some
lame ass slide, maybe two. You go up,
you go down, and everyone crowds onto the one good slide and it take for
frickin ever to go down on a busy weekend.
At Arrowwood, there are three decent slides, one you have to go down on
a tube and they do have single and double sized tubes. All three are completely covered and go
outside and have some cool twists so I actually going up and down them with my
girls, especially the non-tube slides cause I am way out of shape and I hated
carrying that damn thing every time because my kids are too young. So the other
two I really liked. The tube slide is
fun but only for a couple of times and I got nervous going down with my six
year old who can just barely swim because if we shoot out of there wrong, we could
flip. We never did, but I had seen others. 
The rest of it was nice and served it’s purpose. There was a shallower pool for the younger
children which also had two smaller slides. Actually, the one slide was a
straighter drop and if you came down with your feet pointing up, once you hit the
water below it would spray out and get the people standing beside the
slide. I laughed pretty hard when a new
mom watched with her (about) 18-month old son at the bottom of the slide
watching the new dad come down. Of
course dad comes down feet up and totally drenches mom and kid. Now the baby is crying, mom is pissed at dad,
and the poor dad is sitting there as the innocent bystander once again
wondering what they hell he could have done.
I was sitting on the side laughing.
ANYWAY….The other pool has three basketball hoops which was fun to use
until you got hit in the head when you weren’t looking. Then there was what the kids dubbed as the
“WINTER WIPEOUT” zone. A rope going
across the pool with some floaties underneath that the kids had to navigate
across without dropping into the water. That
was fun for most kids but it sucked to have to go over and hold the floaties
for the younger kids who couldn’t reach the rope. But they had fun anyway and that is what is
important I guess. The one thing I would
complain about overall was the temperature of the air and water in the
park. It felt great when we got there on
Thursday but after that the one day the water was cold but the air was warm,
then the air was cold and the water was warm, then later in the day both water
and air was cold. Not sure what the hell
was going on but you didn’t always feel comfortable there.
The two other pools outside the water park were OK. Just a basic 5-foot deep pool for both the
indoor and outdoor one. The best thing
about the indoor is half of it was encased in glass and facing south so it felt
nice and warm on a cold winters day.
Winter Zone
I mentioned a place to go do crafts, watch movies, etc. This was actually a nice place to bring the
kids. Many of them on day three opted to
do crafts rather than swim which amazed the hell out of me but hey, who was I
to complain. They had a popcorn machine
there and had cookies waiting there for kids to decorate. The person running the place would put icing
on it and they could decorate it with M&Ms, Gummi Bears, Reeces Pieces, and
something else that I am forgetting but you get the point. A bunch of games and movies to pick from and
crafts that the kids can choose to do which is all free except if you want to decorate
a shirt or handbag, those are $5 apiece.
They would also have a bonfire for those who didn’t stay in the
townhomes so that others could come and make smores if they wanted to. In this same building is where you can rent
cross country skis, snowmobiles, and sleds for the sledding hill. They also offer sleigh rides and have a horse
stable nearby.
Other Areas
So this got pretty damn long and I haven’t even put pictures
up yet. If your still reading, good for
you. I would have checked out after the
first sentence but I think I have ADD.
Seriously, if you are in the North Dakota/Minnesota region, check this
place out. There is lots to do and the
rooms are very nice. Ah crap, the rooms,
I didn’t even talk about those…..next time. Trust me the rooms are nice but
there is too much to do to worry about spending time in the room.
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