Woodloch Pines
by Katrina Hayday Wester

Ever long for a family vacation that has everything you need, or could possibly want to do right at your fingertips? Well, we recently took a visit, over Mother’s Day to Woodloch Pines, a large family run resort, on Lake Teedyuskung in the Pocono Mountains and we found just that!

Some have described Woodloch Pines, as a cruise on land and it’s easy to see why. The resort features miniature golf courses, pools, paddle boats, row boats, kayaks, bumper cars and boats, shooting range, batting cages, go carts, a fitness room, fishing, shuffleboard, hayrides and more! 

After a long and windy drive we arrived at Woodloch just in time for dinner. We quickly left our luggage in our very spacious room in Springbrook, which was a one-bedroom suite with 2 baths, wet bar and 2 TV's. Needless to say this room accommodated the four of us very comfortably.

After unpacking we made our way to the main dining room that seats about 600 guests and we were amazed at the family groups. There were families of four or six like ours and there were family reunions. Some were groups of twenty or more. To see that number of children and grandparents together was great. 

Our waitress, Maina arrived and greeted us and quickly made us feel very comfortable. She was really friendly and attentive and we were glad that she would be our main waitress for most of our meals. The rest of the staff wandered by to introduce say hello as well. This seemed so natural for them it made it pretty clear that everyone really enjoys the guests and their jobs. The son, John Kiesendahl who now runs the place with the fifth brother, Steve, stopped by to greet us as he made the rounds to all the tables in the dining room. Our kids were particularly impressed by his attire, which included a Sponge Bob tie and pants. 

When you stay at Woodloch three meals a day are included and for us arriving on the weekend that included Friday night dinner through Sunday lunch. All the meals are family style with many choices; including wonderful homemade breads, soups and salads and baked goods. Every salad came with a different dressing and being a salad lover each one was great! We decided early on that if we didn’t pace ourselves we’d be gaining at least 10 lbs that weekend!

After dinner we decided to join most of the guests at "Horse Racing." The kids had a great time eating popcorn and “betting” on their “horse” which were like giant pawns moved by the staff on a board following the roll of dice. Our kids were very successful and won almost every race! They were pleased to be leaving with about $10.00 each at the end of the night!

The following day was crisp and beautiful. A half dozen deer grazing on the lawn outside our room greeted us as we headed to the dining room for breakfast. When we arrived at breakfast we were given a large plate of the most delicious crumb cake, a flyer containing the list of daily activities and told our breakfast choices. The kids were so excited they didn’t know what to chose first. They decided we would swim, and then go on the bumper cars followed by miniature golf. They had so much fun at each activity we had to coax them to the next. During the course of the day we also hit balls in the batting cages, visiting the shooting range, went on go carts and drove bumper boats. We raced through lunch (surprised that we were actually hungry) and moved on to the next activity. The kids were worried they would miss something if we didn’t hurry!

Dinner that night was the staff in festive dressing like celebrities and characters from the 1960's. Unfortunately our son, so exhausted from the day’s activities, fell asleep during dinner and missed Spiderman his favorite comic! This leads up to the show after dinner, which is a musical review. Because the kids were so tired we decided to retire early and get in a full day on Sunday, but from what we heard the review was a lot of fun.

Sunday morning, Mother’s Day I decided to get up really early and go running along the bicycle path. It was pretty cool, but made for a really nice brisk run. I only saw two people out during my run and a dozen deer! The path is really nice and a comfortable distance for a walk of all generations. I did the loop enough times to make sure I could justify all the food that was coming during the rest of the day!

When I returned to the room everyone was still asleep so I woke them and reminded them we had breakfast and another day full of activities. My daughter, who had become obsessed with miniature golf the day before insisted we do that first, my son wanted paintball. We opted to do both – after breakfast! At breakfast all mothers were given a potted plant for Mother’s Day to take home – a really nice touch. It was fun to see all the Moms, Grandma’s and Great-Grandma’s walking to the flower table to select their plant.

We spent the day racing from activity to activity – the kids afraid that we would miss something if we didn’t. Given the three-hour ride home we decided we needed to leave by noon, which meant missing the Smorgasbord, but the staff makes courtesy lunch boxes for you to take if you need to leave. We were able to check out the Smorgasbord – which we should have stayed for. There were shrimp, oysters, crab legs, pizza, and steak – just about anything you could imagine. Unfortunately we just knew we had to head home.

Our kids left crying. They said they didn’t want to leave Woodloch. When could they return? They couldn’t have enjoyed their weekend more and we felt the same. We enjoyed the weekend we are figuring out how and when we can return. We hear it’s also great in the winter and fall! Although our hopes is for the summer when it’s warm enough to swim outside!

If you’re looking for a family vacation, a reunion, a trip to take with the grandkids look into Woodloch. You won’t be disappointed in fact you’ll probably do what many Woodloch guests do on their last day – book their return trip!

Woodloch Pines Resort (http://www.woodloch.com)
RR 1 Box 280 
Hawley, PA 18428 
Phone Numbers:
Main Number: 570-685-8000 
Toll-Free: 800-572-6658 (for Reservations Only)

Photographs:  

The personal photographs in the Woodloch article were taken on the Fujifilm FinePix A345 digital camera.   It's amazingly compact design allowed us to take this camera everywhere from beaches and pools to boats.  There is a built in lens covers with  3x optical zoom lens that retracts directly into the camera body.  It's great for keeping out sand and grim - a perfect traveling companion!  The images are great.  the A345 has a 4.1 Megapixel resolution which allows the user to take more robust color pictures.   The camera has built-in modes that help take the guesswork out of camera settings -- auto, manual and four different scene modes.  The LCD is clear and bright and much larger then on my own (older) digital camera.  We were also able to take some short videos that included sound.  It's a great camera at a great price $179.99.

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