2011 End of Year Letter

We are finishing our 10thseason at Lakewood Lodge! We look back at all the changes we have made since we bought the resort and especially at how much our boys have grown and cannot believe it has been 10 years! We are not planning on any major building projects to Lakewood Lodge this fall and winter. We are doing the normal maintenance and improvements. We always have our hands in some sort of improvement to make Lakewood Lodge better and your suggestions are always welcome.

Our addition of the Sand Bar last winter has proved to be a popular addition to Lakewood Lodge. We did remove the malt and shake maker but will still have scooped ice cream cones. In June we added a deck to the front of the lodge with additional outside seating. So you can take your food and drink outside.

Something new we decided to do late into the summer season was provide dish soap, dishwasher detergent, sponges and paper towels to each cabin. We decided to try this idea but our fear was guests would not leave the unused portions behind. We only lost a few dish soap bottles and will continue this so it something you will not have to worry about packing anymore. We are happy to supply a bottle of Dawn (we refill each cleaning day), dishwasher tabs (the number of days you are here) a sponge and 1 roll of paper towels along with trash bags, toilet paper and coffee filters.

This last year was a year of appliances dying and we replaced hot water heaters, refrigerators, stoves and dishwashers in cabins. We unfortunately knew that when 1 died there would be more following as most of the appliances were installed in the same year. We are keeping our fingers crossed nothing else fails us.

We have always said we read every comment card each year and take in everything you say for improvements. We are at a loss this year as no one left us any ideas of things we can improve, except larger TV’s and the check in check out times. We will replace the TV’s with larger ones as they go out. The check in and check out times remains the same of after 3 PM check in and by 8:30 AM check out.

We appreciate all the positive comments left on the comment cards this year and the winner of the comment card drawing and a $100 gift certificate towards 2012’s vacation is Kari Holloway. The winner of the trolling motor for attending our fishing seminars, donated by Tom Neustrom and Minn Kota is Tony Lippert and the winner of the full day guided trip with Tom Neustrom for attending a fishing seminar is Scott Depaulis. The winner of the raffle ticket drawing for all raffle tickets sold and another $100 gift certificate towards 2012’s vacation is Bill Prescott. Congratulations to all.

Our planned activities we offered this last year we have mixed feelings about. The potluck fish fry did not go over as well as the past years so we will no longer be doing the potluck fish fry. The Sunday night welcome party went well so we have decided to do an appetizer, munchies competition with our guests. The competition will be held on Monday’s from 6PM to 8 PM. All entries need to be at the lodge by 6PM and voting will happen at 7:30 PM. We will have the fishing seminar during the appetizer competition. This will be a competition between guests and you are welcome to bring one appetizer per person. Each entry will be assigned a number and all persons attending will vote on their favorite dish by number. The winner will receive $50 Gift certificate to be used at Lakewood Lodge or the Sand Bar. We will continue to have the minnow races and Cole will be starting to learn how to run the races as Stevie is headed off to college. Bingo was a hit on the not so nice weather days so each week we will check the extended forecast and plan the bingo for that day. If you are lucky enough to have a week with perfect weather we will just pick a day for Bingo. We will keep brain storming through the winter for more new activities. Again, we would appreciate any suggestions you may have.

We are doing a few sports shows this year in Des Moines, IA January 13th to the 15th, Cedar Rapids, IA February 10th thru the 12th and Cedar Falls, IA March 9th thru the 11th. If we are in your area we would love to see you at the show. We are not going to put our booth numbers on our website or this letter as is seems each year we arrive at the show and the number has changed. We are working on figuring out other shows to do.

A Few Photos of the Lodge Changes In Progress	A Few Photos of the Lodge Changes In Progress
A Few Photos of the Lodge Changes In Progress	A Few Photos of the Lodge Changes In Progress
A Few Photos of the Lodge Changes In Progress