On the news today ..... 

After the cavern, we stopped by a country buffet place for lunch @ Burnet.
I slept the whole time but everybody else seemed to enjoy the fried steak and country vege.

We then headed to Buchana damp. This was cool. We can no longer walk on the damp after 9/11, they not only blocked the walk way, they blocked the drive way also. What a shame! It would be a beautiful place to walk on.

The beach was so dry (same as the rest of Texas), we were practically walked on the bottom. We all had fun crawlling/walking in the area, despite the limitation.

Buchanan Lake - Labor Day 06

After breakfast, we headed out for the cavern. It was an easy 10 mins drive from our cabin. It is a state park that was pretty interesting. We went on a 50 mins tour, it was rather cold and dark.

Long Horn Cavern is a very interesting place. It used to hide all sort of ppl before, from illegal wine makers to bank robbers to our president (as LBJ home place is nearby, it is used as his hide out place if there is any attack). We’ve been told they even had party and bar there. They even have church service next to the bar on the Sunday after.

I loved the stone bench, where I can played around with my brothers. Ba & me spent hours (or at least it seemed like hours) taking photo of everything. Anh & Quan were hunting for insects/lizards everywhere. I was on an exploring missing all the times.

Playing around the Cavern-

Check out the images from our Long Horn Cavern trip.

If you click on the image, it will take you to the album.

Longhorn Cavern- Labour day 06

Sep 19, 2006 - 41 Photos

Ink Lake SP - Labor Day 06

Sep 19, 2006 - 43 Photos

We made another road trip over Labor Day weekend this year.
Me booked a cabin at LBJ lake for 3 nights; so we left Dallas late
('cause Me had to do a lot of stuff like packing/feeding us/picking up
food etc) before we could pick Ba up from work & leave Dallas.

After running thru several traffic jamps, took the long round,
we arrivedat the cabin around 1AM :-)
Lesson learnt is never 4getting the road atlas,
Ba missed the exit, we had to follow the intrsuction going around
Austin. The nice thing was after this trip,
Ba Me knew the roads around highland lakes area very well.

The Cabin was at "Long Horn resort" on lake LBJ
http://www.longhornresort.com/
We had two rooms cabin, the bedroom had 2 full beds,
what a luxury - I got to sleep with Bame the first night,
as my bed was still in the cadet space saving, on top of the car.

After baMe's quick late dinner/early breakfast, we were off for the day.

Sumo

There is not much to say about the boating trip apart from the fact that we had a lot of fun :-)

It was Ba's idea after kayaking with the bros to rent a boat, for the entire family to go, especially me. The resort where we camped at has a very good boat rental rate, around $50 cheaper than normal. And when we returned, we've been told that we were among the party that used least fuel for ½ day.

After some confusion from the navigators Anh & Quan, whom did not know how to read the lake map, we got to the middle of the east side. Anh Quan loved driving the boat (see pic).

Parking the boat at the little islands in the middle of the lake seems fun, we went swimming, snookling (sp). If you look carefully at the pics (the one with me swimming) you will be able to see the fish. They all try to have us for lunch, so we fed them bread instead.

Me fed them a lots so I can see them clearly, they were so cute. No snake this time.

Five hours passed very fast, we only had time to stop at 2 islands. Anh was afraid to drive the boat, on the way back, he only did it for 5 mins. After sandwich for picnic, bun cha gio`, BBQ meat seemed to get everyone going well, and Chicken Noodles for me.

P.S Before we went boating, we visited Lake Ouachita state park, particularly the three sister springs, which they claimed the water has power to cure certain sickness. Anh & Quan drank it, I didn't, Me wuold not allow me to, I sat in the car instead.

Me & me

Told u so!

Me- can't drive the boat ?

On our second day, we went to Hot Springs.

It was 20 mins from the cabin, and famous for the Bath Houses row.
This time we got to tour the Information Center, which was a big bath house.
It was so interesting to go thru the entire process, visiting each room
from hot tub, to cooling area, changing area and relaxing area.
Anh Viet-Anh particularly impressed with the gym, very advance considering its time.
I wanted to go it, but they stopped me. Anh Viet-Anh was too protective, pushing me
around every where.
The bros scared of the hot tub so they were backing out the bath house experience last min-
sigh, Mom was pretty upset, sending them to get hot springs water instead :-)

It was to hot to do any hiking hence
this time we drove the car on the Hot Springs Reserve drive, up to the Tower,
get souvenirs then drove to the West Mountain Area.

On the way down, after getting some info from visitor center,
we did a Clinton tour. In case you didn't know, Hot Springs was Clinton home town :-)
We first spotted the church where he we baptized,
(What is baptized :-)) - that was the question :-))
then he birth house (even thou a sign posted there said no tour,
but the house also have a big sign
with the street number for tourists' convenient :-))

While visiting a whole bunch of his hang out places, we got to a treat shop,
which now woned by a Vietnamese family, whom told us their life story
which Anh & Quan may remember better than Clinton's life story :-)

Walmart is every where. We stopped by Walmart to
pickup food the the next boating day, there is only 1 walmart for the whole region,
imagening the q- sigh It was good to have the bros to entertain me.

Too lazy to cook, we got BBQ from Clinton's favourte restaurant (was and still is)
just down the street (it was good according to the growups, btw)-

Deciding taking on the scenic round home, we forgot to fuel our car up.
We got lost in the mountain, skip a turn, was so happy to see a gas station finally
- you learn to appreciate civilization here.
And Mom ran out of milk for me, I was so hungry.
Relief to get home, went swiming abit, then
Mom got the cabin all clean up & food is on the table.

Sumo

West Mountain- Hot Spring- Look I am on the top of the world!

The future president ?

Swming at the dam- Sumo

We went to a Spillway resort at lake Ouachita
in a city called Mountain Pine
It was an 5 hours drive from Dallas.
http://www.spillwayresort.com/contact.htm

The resort was located in the spillway area next to
a Blakely Mountain Dam, as you may guess the lake was man-made.

The swimming beach was beautiful, the water was so clear.
We've never seen anything like it before.

Next day, on our way to find a hiking trail, we stumpled on to the dam,
we decided to camp there.
Ba bought this inflatable kayak to try out, it took him about 30 mins
to set it up, but after that, only 10 mins each time :-)
Anh & Quan loved to be able to kayaking alone :-)
I was swiming along the shore line with Me instead.

The fish, is one of many kind floating around us, while we were swimming.
They even think that we were their lunch/dinner, so some of us did have fish bite :-)
Anh & Quan loved to snookel, diving down to search for big fish.
They saw many things.
Ba has been training them how to snookel for awhile.

While we were having fun, some divers told us we have an unexpected
visitor, the water snake (pic) was in the area.
We had to evacuate quickly - sigh :-(

Back to our cabin (quite cheap, $90/night, including a queen bed & a queen sleeper sofa,
BaMe brought my own crib along)
Ba & Anh &Quan went kayaking again, this time thru the marina at the resort.
I've been told later that they parked the boat along a shore & swam to the middle of the lake,
having fun. Me, cooking at home with me :-)

The fun part about having the cabin is the food,
we enjoy home cook food in the middle of nowhere.
Cell phone is not working and there is no internet :-) Nice place to have vacation :-)
The worst part about having a cabin is those creepy crawling creatures.
You name it, we had it :-(
They even said, on the hiking trail, there are snakes,
if u see them, stop so theycan go away quickly by themselves.

Oh, btw, Me was stopped by a deer on the way to deliver lunch back to the
party at the dam, he would not move for a while.

Enjoy the photo, more later - with Anh & Quan driving a boat :-)
Sumo

My first ocean swim :-)

Hi,

It is a wonderful weekend, I haved my first road trip.

I have log 650 miles on April 8 & 9th (2006) from Dallas to Houston ;-)
I visited many people, aunty Thu?y & uncle Ha?i with their two daughters
An & Chau :-) Then I got to see uncle Tuan, and ong ba A'nh with uncle Nino :-)

More details later with pictures :-)
Liaminh -