Bebe Liaminh Travel

2008-06-28T01:04:00.000-07:00

The weekend after the storm hit us- We made a dash trip to NY
(The reason why I did not have time to post the storm pics or taken any others :-) )
i.e I bought the tickets 3 hours b4 we flew :-)
While everyone packing, I booked hotel, car rental etc then rush to the airport,
(it was 1 hour drive to get there)
pass security with the kids dragging all of our suitcases on board,
jump into the airplane which was delayed twice

With 3 kids and all the luggage in tow, we landed in New jersey at 5:30PM,
took several elevators, train etc to the car rental, discovered we left our GPS at home,
called my friend at the theatre asking for direction just to received the subway direction,
he is after all from Vietnam and never drives anywhere in NY.
Got to the theatre after reading a very vague map at 6:30Pm, oh no- this is NY,
where is the parking garage, another 15 mins, parked the car, we were extremely hungry
so bagel was THE FOOD. walk a few blocks to the theatre, it was 30 mins before the show,
my friend jumped out in his full custume to gave us a quick hug with the audience staring @ us all.

Now this is amazing, after all of that, Sumo sat 70 mins thru the performance like a dream.
Everybody was so impressed, he is the youngest audience of the play, and definitely
one of the best :-) We went out to eat @ one of the most expensive and bad taste Vietnamese
restaurant we ever had, i.e not recommended if you ever go to NY. Then said good bye to our friend,
pick up the car (Quan was so worry about the garage would close since being a southern city kid,
he did not realise that NY lives 24 hours :-) ), drove the kids into Time Square traffic at midnight :-)
Crash into our hotel bed @ 1AM- dead to the wolrd ... :-)

To be continue-
In the mean time, please enjoy the pics :-)

2008-06-28T00:20:00.000-07:00

Our first day in Kauai-

- Mommy read a quick dinning guide book and found a Vietnamese noodle lace but it was closed. We found Jamba Juice and got some instead. Still starved.

- Drove thru Kapaa'a town and saw so many shops. Ran past a noddle house,
it was tempting so we turn around and stop. The was the first time in a long, long time that Mommy had noodle this island style again.

- Full and we head out Kiahuea, Kowlong shopping area. Since Mommy decided to visit a bakery that has very good review there. The bread was good, not much pastry left but we found an island soap company next door, bought a few things. It turns out thay make terrific soap that even Daddy use volunterinly.

- Next stop- Todd, it was easily found (with a GPS), have no idea who is who, where is where, we headed straight into the main house and asked for direction. There was the big nice gentlement gently told us the house is for Todd's guests and family only, and the fans are camping outside. Now I know what the pic on Michele's website is about, the sunset view in the main house :-)

- At the camp side, we have no idea who is who, what is the procedure and what to do. Daddy came back out to get the tent but Mommy found out there are rooms for putting down the tents so it is not very good to put down the tent and leave it there. We decided not to put it down, then found out Sumo ran after the dog and straight into the fire. Thanks the guys who yelled out-

Finaly found out which lady is Michele, did the greet and meet.
Sign up for Mon volunteer to get the ice.
Learning that we can do the registration later with Rebob,
everybody started dinner and we left to check out
our condo.

- Our condo is an ocean front condo, ground floor that has the most beautiful view of the beach, sitting on top of the cliff. The sunset scene was magnificient.
And guess what, there was no AC in the condo.

- Open the windows, turn on the fans and ...

- Now all we need is food.
we found a supermarket in Princeville called Foodland, grab some permanent bags
and go into the price shock of our lives.

2008-06-28T00:02:00.000-07:00

Our note from Kauai:- The Traveling part

- We woke up at 4:30AM, after a few hours sleep and many drink, get to the air port at 6AM and Ian realized that we were 2 hours early, asking why I must drag us there in such a hurry. He must ask why ???? :-)

- At the DFW, we run into Sheila and Abbey, they also went to Todd-camp.
It is so nice to know other ppl that is going.

- The flight to Phoenix is relatively short, we rush to eat at the airport,
the food is awful, the line is long while the hot dog is burned and the bread is so dry. We were hungry and rush.

- The flight to Kauai is such a mess, a lots of family is broken apart.
AQ ended up at 2 seperate seat but at least close to us. The fligh is long and
we ran out of money to buy food :-)

- Finally, we were there. The view of the airport from the plane is breathtaking.
Took a while to get the suit cases, since we got the car check in online,
we got to the bus, get the Alamo parking lot and got to pick the car we like from the parking lot. It is so nice.

Now we are hopelessly lost, GPS is out, we starved.

2007-07-23T16:00:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun there- I loved the water area.

The was the day before Me.miscarried my little bro/sister.

Botanical Garden-07

2007-07-23T15:54:00.001-07:00

Moody Garden- Easter Break-

It was a very cold weekend so Ba Me. decided to do thing indoor.
We went down to Moddy Garden in Galveston, the place is nice
including the cold swiming pool.

We ate breakfast at the restaurant, ate mi` goi for mid-night snack.

We went to see all of the exhibition and went out to eat
a very good sea food dinner, with real Cajun food.

Liaminh-

Moody Garden- easter07

2007-07-23T15:42:00.001-07:00

I guess I had not written for a while-

We went on so many trip this year and it was hard to keep up.

The first big trip was back to Hill Country for the Memorial Day weekend.
And it was rainning most of them time, just never at the place we were.
How lucky was that!

The rental house was very nice, you can see it here.

We went boating, attending crawfish festival,
went cycling, swiming ath the river ...

We saw a lot of deers while riding, that was great!

And wow, it was flooding very badly so we have grea fun in the fast water area.

Me. had an emergency but she did not want to go to hospital.
And she still cooked.

And yes, we have a few company, it was nice.

Liaminh-

Memorial_07

2007-07-23T15:31:00.000-07:00

We went to Broken Bow this year for July 4th break.

It was fun- the whole lake was flooding, so we swam to the picnic table.
We swam at the cross road between islands.

Anh & Quan & Ba got stucked in the middle of the river while kayaking
down Mt Fork river. Anh got stucked on a tree while our boat doubled up.
Me. droved me back to the pickup point thru all of that dirt road.
We got a local showed us the way to the fall, the path is off road.
You will need a SUV to get there and I mean it.,

We loved the hot tub, it was the coolest thing we ever had.

We went horse riding, Anh was the naturtal and I fell asleep most of the ride.

Anh also fell of the bike at the park. We saw a turtle at Lost Creek,
and it was so fast.

Me. even cooked macaroni & Cheese using Bobby Flay's recipe,
we had plenty of good food and not enough desert :-)

I guess those were the moment that made up the trip :-)

Liaminh-

Beavers Bend, 4July07

2007-01-14T22:46:00.000-08:00

I am at the ForthWorth Children Science Museum!

What a cool place to be, a cool baby section.
Check out this drive-thru ATM, it lits up :-)

2006-10-30T09:38:00.000-08:00

On the news today .....

2006-10-11T15:19:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-11T15:18:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-09-19T13:27:00.000-07:00

Playing around the Cavern-

2006-09-19T13:26:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-19T13:25:00.000-07:00

Ink Lake SP - Labor Day 06

Sep 19, 2006 - 43 Photos

2006-09-12T21:31:00.000-07:00

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

2006-08-11T12:59:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-08-10T23:01:00.000-07:00

Me & me

2006-08-10T23:00:00.000-07:00

Told u so!

2006-08-10T22:59:00.000-07:00

Me- can't drive the boat ?

2006-08-09T12:59:00.000-07:00

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

2006-08-08T22:01:00.000-07:00

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

2006-08-08T21:36:00.000-07:00

The future president ?

2006-08-08T21:28:00.000-07:00

Swming at the dam- Sumo

2006-08-08T21:21:00.000-07:00

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

2006-05-03T20:03:00.000-07:00

My first ocean swim :-)

2006-04-12T10:41:00.000-07:00

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 -