KIDS AT TEAL LAKE LODGE - BIG AND SMALL

People ask us all the time if Teal lake Lodge is a suitable place for kids - it is SO suitable, and we are SO involved, that sometimes we forget to tell some of the most simple things, so we decided to give the KIDS - BIG & SMALL, their own page!

• Under 2: If you are under 2, you are certainly a kid, at no charge at all. Free in the dining room, free in the guest homes. Because you are free, we hardly mention you, but CRIBS AND HIGH CHAIRS ARE PLENTIFUL at no charge. Just be sure they ask in advance, as getting a crib at 9 pm can sometimes be a problem.
• Age 2 thru 10:
  • Lodging: Yes, even 10 is still a kid in the guest homes (after all, you aren't paying your own bill, are you?) If a family of four are in a two bedroom guest home, you would be included in the basic guest home occupancy of four. However, if you are family of five, the first four would count for occupancy, but the fifth, if a child under 11, would be just $10 extra.
  • Food: Age 2-10, in the dining room get a special price. You must order either the children's item each night, or order a child's portion of the regular menu.
    Be sure your waitstaff know you are 10 or under.
    Breakfast: $6, dinner $12
    Age 11-17, in the dining room you can usually eat like an adult, and when you come up here to the fresh air and the swimming, fishing and golfing, you pack it away. So, at age 11, the adult meal price will apply.
• Over 10: It is, unfortunately, adult prices for extras in the guest home: $25 per adult beyond normal occupancy, and adult pricing for meals.

OH, WOW! This is an easy place to keep as busy as you want to be.

The Playground, known as Toto's Treehouse, is nice with its top deck up in the treetops with a picnic table and benches, as well as a slide that lands in noisy little pebbles, a tire swing, a bench swing and a clatter bridge too. We challenge you to find out who Toto was (someone besides Dorothy's dog).
Parents can relax while their little ones exercise both their bodies and their imaginations!

If you want to swim, Ross' Teal Lake Lodge has two options for you, an outdoor heated swimming pool and the quiet waters of Teal Lake.

The heated outdoor Swimming Pool is located near the Main Lodge. The enclosed pool area is big enough (65' corner to corner) for sunbathing, while others splash in the shallow end (about 20' x 20') without getting too deep and disturbing bigger folk (deep end also about 20' x 20'). It is an older model swimming pool, the shallow end has steps into it and then goes immediately to 3 ft, and it then gradually deepens all the way to 9 feet deep. Works well for multiple ages at the same time. The pool temperature is kept near 80 degrees. During the summer it is not uncommon to hear a game of "Marco polo" come drifting down the hill, then see teenagers running from the pool to the lake.

Teal Lake is wonderful swimming. The water is a comfortable temperature (65 degrees) usually by mid June, gets warmer in the summer usually up to mid 70's, which lasts into September. You can choose to swim off our Main Dock or from off your cabin dock.

There is an open Beach Area but the sand is a bit pebbly. We hauled in sand for seventy years, but they won't let us do that any more. It is nice and deep for sand castle building. The enclosed shallow swimming area is nice and sandy under your feet and is protected by the Main Dock. The Main dock is also good for fishing while someone else loves the sun bathing or reading a good book on one of the benches. Bigger kids love to swim away from the Main Dock out to the diving dock - its big enough for lots of kids, and nobody can hear what you are talking about!

Fishing is probably the favorite thing for kids. You can be in a boat, or you can fish off the dock The fish are all over the place, under the dock and in the weeds at the side. You don't only find them only in the middle. Remember your life jacket, of course, on the dock as well as in the boat. We can find a guide to teach you if you have not done it before, or if it is hard to sit still in a boat a long time your parents may want to take the family out with fishing school, where a guide takes you in his boat for two hours. Once you learn a little about fishing, and get a bit bigger, you can fish in the river, or on the lake, off the shore by your home here, or off one of the big docks. You'll probably catch little ones, but when the big fish need to eat, they eat the little fish so sometimes they eat the little one that is on your line. If that happens, just yell for help………! There's always someone near to help you.

The Harbor Club has a huge recreation room with a little people size pool table as well as the big people's pool table, it has video machines and pinball. We even have lovely old metal milking cans to raise the little ones up enough to play and to kick! Th Harbor Club has a sturdy ping pong table (yes, sturdy because one day they put the dog on it, and so they had to replace the legs to withstand anything that kids can do playing chinese pingpong). It has an old grand piano for you to practice if mum insists, or just to play for fun. It has a table to do a zigsaw puzzle, and a couch for everyone to just lounge. It has a rocking horse, and a wagon full of blocks. This is for all kids to play - big kids like Dad too. This is a big RAINY DAY ROOM to run and scream and jump safely without anybody objecting!

Trikes and bikes and wagons are an untidy mess in the front yard, but they are for anyone. You can ride them while waiting for parents to have their last cup of coffee after breakfast, or you can ride them back to your guest home. Just bring them back when you are finished enjoying them, as they are for everyone - but there's about twenty of them, from little bikes, to big sturdy John Deere green tricycles (yes, built as sturdy as a tractor!) and double tandem bikes for giggly honeymooners, strong teenagers and parents who want to help you ride. This is not a fussy place - all this is just here for kids to enjoy, but remember to bring your own helmets and other safety equipment.

The boats without motors are fun - there are rowboats, canoes, sailboat, hydro-bikes. You must sign these out in the office and get a lifejacket of course. To run the motor boats, the law in Wisconsin says you must be ….? or have passed your Wis. or home state boating safety course - but your parents will know about it, and if you are qualified, there are plenty of boats here, including three big pontoon boats to keep the little ones safely contained but to allow them freedom to ramble.

The golf course is also a place for you to have fun. Not on your own, of course, but you will not need to be left home with a babysitter when your parents play. Family golf is encouraged after 11 am. and there is special pricing to encourage your parents to take you out and get you started. Or if you are too young to play yet, we have special four-seater golf carts so you can ride along with those who are playing - we call these the "Surreys" (did you ever watch Oklahoma?) and if you are real little, tell them to take your car seat and we can find some yellow boat rope and strap you in safely in the back seat for a nap while they play - that's the best of all possible worlds on vacation! If you are old enough to begin playing, ask the golf pro for a little putter just your size, or a whole special set of kids clubs for rent. ( shhh… secret … if you are on the golf very late in the day, around 6 pm it is wonderful frog catching around the bridges and swamps - if you remembered to get a net and a bucket from the Lodge before you went out).

The driving range at the golf club is a great place for kids to learn to swing a club. This driving range is only for those before they go golfing, or for those staying at the resort. You must check in with the golf pro, but it is only a little bit of money for a bucket if you are not playing. It is fun to hit a bucket of balls in the afternoon or evening - see how far they go or where they land. It takes a lot of balls to become a good golfer.

Babysitters are sometimes needed in spite of all the fun. Adults can go and have their own fun, or go to dinner here at the resort or elsewhere. Or maybe they want to play golf seriously, with just other adults or your big brothers or sisters, or go with a fishing guide and catch a fish as big as you. We have lots and lots of nice babysitters, boys and girls. Many of them come from Europe, places like Poland, to work here so they can perfect their English. They have new ideas and new games. They can always go to the office if there is any problem. So, for just a nap, or an evening, or during the day, the babysitters will be nice people. Have them ask us in advance, if possible, not at the last minute!

Badminton is a favorite game with all ages. It is a big court, with a high net and a funny lightweight raquet that you have to hit with a lot of gusto (but doesn't hurt if you hit some else by mistake). Instead of ball you play with a silly thing with fake feathers, called a birdie. You can try to get it stuck in a tree, or up on the roof as well as over the net. There is also shuffleboard.

Lastly, let me tell you about the dogs. There are three big friendly labradors that live here, who get so bored in the winter when there are not enough kids around. In the summer they love to play with you, and visit with you and walk with you back to your home. Some kids just roll on the floor or the grass with the world's biggest live teddy bears! Now, don't feed them too much. If they think you are teasing them, they might want to eat too quickly, so talk to the people in the office first. Some people who don't have dogs at home, even go to the store and buy a box of dog biscuits, because they know this food is good for them. If you have your own pets who do not like to be left at home, you can bring them with you too.