2012 Memorial Weekend Camping Trip

splash pond

Shades of Sherwood in Zumbrota, MN was our choice of campground over the Memorial Day weekend.  Yes, we pulled a three-nighter our first camping trip of the season.  We all know it rains at least once over the long weekend without fail.  And it did.  Rain.  Several times.  With hail and strong winds.  But we waited it out and it was worth it.  The day after the rain was super nice and warm.  Warm enough to get in some water play time.  The picture above is the splash pond.  New this year and a huge addition to the campground.  I dare say it was a hit with the young and old alike.  The water was a bit cold due to the cooler temps and rain the couple days before.  You can only imagine the fun to be had here, right?!  I was a wimp, though, and didn't go into the cold water.  Feet only for me.  The dear hubs and kiddos were very brave indeed, and onward they went.  I saved myself for the heated pool.  I told you I was a wimp.  

This campground gets a 3 stars out of 5.  We enjoyed our time here and all the amenities, however there were a few dealios we felt could be improved upon.  We really thought the place could be a little more micro-managed in certain areas; pool, jumping pillow; general attention of the grounds.  The pool area was not cleaned up after the pool closed and re-opened.  The ladders were not put in the pool for two days.  There were no trash cans in the pool area or even around the campground.  The bathrooms were very typical of what you'd find at most campgrounds.  Average.  On the plus side, the owners are super nice and the entire staff are way more than friendly.  Like family.  Only you like them.  ;)   

The jumping pillow was awesome and a very popular thing.  However, it could have been better monitored.  There were big kids bullying smaller ones and it just wasn't very pleasant to watch.  We finally had our girlies get off the pillow until the bigger kids were gone.  Something was said to a couple of them, but once the staff was gone, the bullying continued.  :(   At a different campground with a jumping pillow which shall remain nameless, the pillow was severely monitored.  It's funny, because at the time, we thought they were being a little over the top with the monitoring.   But now that we've seen what it looks like without any management, we've changed our opinions. 

We played mini-golf on a course that was less than favorable.  Imagine a course that has potential but no upkeep.  A little bit of paint and a broom could do wonders for the little golf course.  It made me want to go fetch a broom and sweep up the debris myself.  While we played mini-golf, a live band played just across the creek, which was pretty cool.  We walked over later and listened for awhile.  

There were also trails of sorts, if you were in that mood.  River tubing for the more serious (or fun, however you look at it) outdoors person.  We didn't participate in that fun amenity for whatever reason.  We talked about it, but never went forward with it.  Oh, wait.  If I remember correctly, I was thinking in my mind of my back appendage hanging in the water through the tube's hole, scraping the bottom of the "river".  The muddy river after a couple day's worth of storms.  Yeah, I think that was it.  Wasn't really there on that.

The bottom line:  We would camp here again.  Definitely.  It was a comfortable campground.  We had a fantastic site right across from the pool, playground and bathrooms.  I mean, seriously.  Who wouldn't love that, right?  Until next time, happy kids, camping, and beyond.  

~mary