If you don’t have room for all the house guests you are expecting this Christmas, you might consider renting a cabin in a resort area for the holidays. That is what we did for Thanksgiving and it was a hit!
When we learned that all our children and grandchildren, in addition to our son-in-law’s parents, were coming for Thanksgiving, we knew we wouldn’t have room for everyone. We didn’t want to send anyone to a motel and we wanted everyone under one roof so we could spend as much time together as possible. We only see our daughter and her family once or twice a year so this was very important to us. I started researching resort cabin rentals in our area and found just what we needed.
After looking at many websites with cabins for rent, we finally rented from Heart Pine Hollow Cabins in the Beaver’s Bend Resort area in Oklahoma. Near Broken Bow Lake in the beautiful forested area of southern Oklahoma, this cabin was everything we needed and because we were renting in the off season, the price was very affordable.
The Cabin:
The word cabin is quite misleading. The “cabin” we rented was a two bedroom log home; it ‘s called the Aspen Lodge. The exterior of the Aspen Lodge is beautifully done with a deck on three sides. The back deck featured a large hot tub that was sparkling clean and ready for us to use. The area around the Aspen is wooded and private, as well as very quiet. A very short walk up the dirt road that runs in front of the Lodge revealed a well maintained, large playground for the kids. The deck on the south side of the cabin has a built in picnic table and benches and there is a barbecue grill just down the back steps. The front deck with rocking chairs and a porch swing was a lovely gathering place for us and we could see the children playing on the playground from there. Behind the Lodge in the woods but not far from the cabin, is a large fire pit. We spent evenings here playing music (everyone brought their guitars or whatever instrument they wanted to play), and the children roasted wieners and marshmallows.
Inside the Aspen Lodge:
Upon entering the lodge the first thing that catches your eye is the fireplace. It is beautifully done in gray stone and reaches from floor to ceiling. The decor of the cabin is rustic throughout. The walls are white pine, the floors are hardwood with lovely throw rugs, and the chandeliers and lamps are made of antlers or deer racks in keeping with the lodge’s motif. Even the beds are made locally from logs and are simply gorgeous. The term rustic, in this case, means country not rough, because everything about this cabin is elegant and tastefully done. The stairs that go to the second floor lead to a large open area loft that features a full size pool table. There is a TV upstairs in the loft and a large screen plasma TV downstairs in the great room. The lodge provides satellite television, a DVD player and local stations. This entertainment center also features surround sound! Note: no pets or smoking are allowed inside the cabin.
With only two bedrooms you might think we had trouble with adequate sleeping areas for everyone. Not so! The Lodge sleeps twelve people –there is a queen size bed in the downstairs bedroom, a queen sized bed in the upstairs bedroom, the couch in the great room converts to a full sized bed and in the loft there is a full bed, a set of bunk beds and a full sized futon. Everyone slept comfortably.
The kitchen is furnished with new appliances, including a dish washer, and all the pots and pans, dishes, utensils and small appliances such as a coffee maker, mixer, etc. There is everything we would need to cook and serve a meal except for the food, which we brought with us. On Monday we cooked and served a traditional Thanksgiving feast and had everything we needed in the kitchen to prepare it. Other amenities include towels and other linens, plenty of extra pillows and blankets, a washer and dryer, blow dryers in the bathrooms, an over-sized jacuzzi tub in the master bath, and a full bath upstairs. The dining room featured a large table with seating for eight and a breakfast bar with three bar stools.
The Activities and Attractions:
A 15 minute drive from the cabin will bring you to Beaver’s Bend State Park on Broken Bow Lake. Because we were there in the off season, some attractions like the canoe rentals, bumper boats, paddle boats and jet ski rentals were closed for the season. But there was still plenty for us to do and see. The first thing on our agenda was a trail ride. This was something our oldest grand daughter wanted to do and looked very forward to. We told the trail guides that she was very excited about the ride but was an inexperienced rider (as were we all!). The trail guides were great with the kids, especially our grand daughter. They talked to her about the horses and even let her choose which one she wanted to ride. The trail ride lasted about an hour and took us through the woods where we saw deer, squirrels and even a turkey! The horses were very gentle and had been trained to follow each other and stay on the trail. It was a wonderful ride and everyone had a great time.
The train ride was our next stop and was a lot of fun. Winding through the wooded area with our “engineer” giving us information about the park and the history of the replicated engine pulling the train, I found the ride to be informative and relaxing. While on a girls only outing we ran across a Taxidermy museum. It was recommended to us by the girl working at the local mini-market so we decided to give it a try. I didn’t know what to expect and was pleasantly surprised by what I found there! This museum takes you on a guided tour of it’s exhibits via cassette tape. You receive a cassette player with a recorded tour on it when you arrive—at anytime during the tour you can rewind the tape, stop it or skip forward. The tape follows the tour which takes you past beautiful exhibits of all kinds of wild life. They are so realistic and are displayed in their natural habitat quite perfectly. It takes about an hour to go through the tour and the cost is five dollars for adults and two dollars for kids.
There are plenty of attractions and activities in this lovely area to keep a family busy for a week but we opted for a lot of family time at the beautiful cabin we had rented. With four families splitting the cost this holiday vacation comes out to about 225$ per family. That price was for 5 days/4 nights and you provide your own food. If you are thinking of renting a cabin for your next holiday get-together, be sure you do your on-line search and reserve your cabin well in advance. I started looking for the right cabin for our family in late September and found a lot of them all booked up for Thanksgiving week! The highlight of our holiday vacation truly was the lovely Aspen Lodge. At the end of our stay we decided to make this a yearly tradition and we are already talking about reserving this same cabin for next year.
Cabin website: www.heartpinehollow.com
