Lake Okoboji

 

In this blog post I will talk about a venue I visit each year, it’s one of my favorite places I have visited.  Lake Okoboji is a lake in Iowa, only about 5 hours away from Cedar Rapids.  The lake is surrounded by resorts and large houses.  The resort I stay at each year is called Village West.  We stay in a cabin very close to the beach for one week a year, the cabin is an A-frame, it has two bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, and dining room.  The cabin is a little small for our five person family, so one week of being in close quarters makes us all happy to be home in separate roomsJ.

Village west also contains a hotel as well as over 50 cabins.  In the hotel there is an indoor pool, small movie theatre, arcade, mini golf, small gym, a gift shop, and two diners.  The indoor pool includes a 5 foot deep pool, a children's pool (2 feet deep) and a Jacuzzi available to those twelve and over.  The staff at Village West hides a small star somewhere in the hotel, or on the grounds, and every morning a clue about where the star is hidden is posted on the front of the recreation desk. Out of the two restaurants in Village West's hotel, Betsy's Diner is my favorite. It is an old-fashioned diner with checkered floors and neon lights with an ice cream bar.  Sadly this year the diner was closed because school had already started in Okoboji and there wasn't anyone to run the diner.  The game room has a pool table, arcade games, two ping pong tables, and an air hockey table.  As part of the fun at Village West a schedule of activities are available each week, one of which is a ping pong tournament.  I have never participated in the tournament but have several competitions with my family.
The mini golf courses have deteriorated over the years, a lot of the obstacles have disappeared or have been destroyed in the inside course, but the outside course remains intact.  The recreation desk provides puts for free and a machine right by the desk allows you to buy colored golf balls for twenty-five cents a piece.  

The lake is very clear and a great place to fish, a boat house resides by the lake where jet skis, and paddle boats can be rented by the hour.  My favorite activity is tubing, where you tie a inflatable tube (different then the donut-shaped tubes you float around in) to a boat, and you hold on for as long as you can without being flipped off.  Long term effects of tubing includes rug burn on knees and elbows, sore arms, possible broken ribs.  Okoboji Lake is fairly large so many boats are able to ski, tube, or knee board any time of day.
One thing you must do at least once on your trip is to get up at 6 and watch the sunrise from the dock, it's very beautiful and will be a perfect memory of your stay.

Okoboji is a great vacation for families, not too expensive, and only a short 5 hour drive away

-Enjoy where you are for however long you’re there, Samantha