The places that don't make you apologize for the kids. Restaurants with crayons that aren't an afterthought, parks with shade and bathrooms, the ice-cream stop with the line on a hot Tuesday.
A four-acre lifeguarded beach on the Minocqua island, walking distance from downtown — sand volleyball, tennis, a playground, and free Thursday-evening concerts through the summer. Converts to an ice rink in winter, making it one of the few amenities on this list that works year-round.
The world's oldest continually running amateur water ski show, performing free on Lake Minocqua since 1950 — barefooting, jumping, and doubles acts that originated with this club decades before other shows adopted them. Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday at 7pm, June through August. Free to watch; donations and concession sales fund the equipment.
Wisconsin's second-largest zoo after Milwaukee County, with over 1,700 animals across 229 species on State Road 70 — a giraffe feeding platform, a parakeet walk-through, a petting zoo, and a safari tram. Budget about three hours; it's the rainy-day and kid-day answer when the lake itself isn't the plan.