Lana G.
Yelp
This is a very large, multi-million dollar resort on Gull Lake. It boasts two and a half golf courses, two or three restaurants and a pizza parlor, tennis courts, croquet, multiple cabins, multiple motels, a marina, a laundry, a bakery, a store, a spa, a large meeting hall and probably other facilities that we never saw. You can rent boats and fishing gear or take classes -- learn to water ski, for example -- or hire the float plane. Madden's well-trained, uniformly polite employees are very helpful and their attitudes range from pleasant to cheerful. The multiple restaurants probably are uniformly good. We had only one meal in one of them, a lunch, but my smoked salmon sandwich was one of the best sandwiches I've ever eaten, big and filling with real smoked salmon, not chemically enhanced, in a real Kaiser roll, not the white balloon bread imitations sometimes found in midwest restaurants. In sum, Madden's is disgustingly nice, well kept and reasonably priced.
There were a few problems, of course -- there always are -- but the most common were mere faux pas. Our motel room -- which was, of course, quite spacious and very nice, with a great view of the lake from the large covered deck -- was curiously outfitted. While most colors were coordinated, styles ran riot. Walls and fixtures ranged from a raw plywood sink surround to plastic and formica countertops to rustic, unfinished knotty pine paneling to commercial carpet and mass produced reproductions of "artwork," to expensive tile and formal wallpaper, to a modern, scuplted, plastic, individual wall-mounted HVAC unit (the hotel industry's answer to medieval thumbscrews and airline economy seating) that matched nothing else, even for color, and blew air across the bed all night long. The room's furnishings were similarly eclectic, ranging from an oak country look table to a formal mahogany headboard. Yet, while nothing matched, almost everything worked. As for problems that actually affected functionality, bad TV reception and the too small, too low bath counter common to most motels is the worst that I can report. When the bed is supremely comfortable, as it was . . . who cares? Madden's is bourgeoise heaven.