I just got back from a week-long vacation with the kids.
Usually we go to the beach in North Carolina every summer, but this year we changed things up a little bit and headed to Arrowhead Lake in the Poconos.
We weren’t sure what to expect since we have always been a beach family.
It was a big departure from what we normally do.
And we loved it.
Arrowhead Lake is a private, gated community in Pocono Lake, Pennsylvania.
If you want to go on a vacation where there are lots of restaurants and other attractions nearby, this is not the place for you.
But if you are looking for a quiet, secluded area with some decent ammenities within the community, then this is the place for you.
Arrowhead Lake has four beaches, three pools, seven tennis courts, three or four playgrounds, a big lodge that has a fitness center, pool tables and ping pong tables, and canoe, kayak, and paddle board rentals.
Since there isn’t much of anything within fifteen minutes of the lake, I did all our grocery shopping before we left and brought a car load of food with me.
We rented a house that was about a mile and a half from the main Beach 2, and about a half mile from two of the pools.
I brought four of the kids’ bikes and rented two more for Number 4 and myself at a ski and bike rental place about fifteen minutes away from the house.
The kids really enjoyed being able to ride their bikes to the pool.
The roads are either gravel or paved and pretty quiet and safe for the kids to ride bikes or play a little football.
I cooked every meal at the house — we never went out to eat.
The view at the beach was beautiful.
There were lots of great opportunities for photos.
One of the pools was a 25-yard pool, so Number 3 and 4 were able to get in a couple swim workouts (they wanted to since they were missing a week of practice).
The younger kids swam around and played on the playground at the pool while the older two swam on a couple of the mornings.
One pool has two tennis courts right next to it.
Another pool has three tennis courts and a playground.
The beach we went to just about every day has a nice basketball court. Number 3, 5 and 7 really enjoyed that.
One day we rented kayaks and paddleboards.
We did venture out one time to get ice cream at the only place there is within fifteen minutes for entertainment for the kids.
In addition to ice cream they have miniature golf and some batting cages.
But we just stuck to the ice cream.
I got some good pictures of the kids by the lake.
And this one very rare documentation of Number 3 and 4 getting along.
I even got a nice one of all of us (I brought my tripod to the lake and used the timer on my phone so there was evidence I was there, too)!
We saw lots of wildlife — a bear on our deck, squirrels and chipmunks (who were eating Cheerios out of the kids’ hands), bunnies and tons of deer.
We had a really, really nice time together.
It was quiet, and restorative and just what we all needed.
In the words of Number 7, The only thing that sucked about this vacation is that is was only a week long.
If you are looking for a family friendly, laid back, quiet place to go with your crew, check out Arrowhead Lake.
We discovered it accidentally on a random VRBO search, and we really loved it.
In fact we loved it so much that we will definitely be back again. 💗💗💗
We discovered a lovely place on Lake Champlain in Vt. We are from the Seacoast in NH, so we have plenty of lakes and ocean to swim in (we are a swimming family, except my hubby, but he will kayak) . Found a wonderful place on South Hero, VT, through VRBO this year. Since we reside in a CoVID low state (our average new cases hover around 30 per day), we didn’t have to quarantine. Enjoyed seeing lots of farmland (my youngest was the exception since he complained about the cow poop smell), lovely lake front and access to Burlington. My middle child was interested in Champlain College, so we did a quick “walkabout” around campus, even though it wasn’t open and got so see the layout, plus proximity to Burlington.
Love VRBO.. get to see new places all the time.