Category Archives: Local towns

Dallas Dozen: Free Family Fun

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The FREE iBook, Dallas Dozen: Free Family Fun, is packed full of places to explore. It’s your boredom-busting guide for the summer.

Dallas Dozen Free Family FunThe book is written for families wanting adventure without spending a lot of money. All locations are either in or near the Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) Metroplex. Dallas Dozen:  Free Family Fun covers places you may already know about like the Dallas Museum of Art, and others you may not, like Mineral Wells Fossil Park.

Plan an expedition to Ladonia to search for fossils, attend a Star Party in Rockwall, or visit a Buddhist temple in Garland. It’s a great guide to use for trying something new with your kids. Nervous about taking your 5-year-old to an art museum? Are you someone who believes the only way to camp is in a hotel room? The book has helpful tips for “first-timers” so that your art museum junket or camping experience aren’t too daunting.

Almost all listed activities are free. There is a Worth the Splurge section in some chapters to highlight inexpensive opportunities you will not want to miss.

Dallas Dozen: Free Family Fun is available on iBooks and Nook at no cost. A Kindle version is also available for a nominal $.99.

Have fun exploring the DFW area!

Bethany Lakes Park

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Bethany Lakes ParkIn our quest to explore attractions and seek out the unusual, we sometimes forget to look in our own backyard. Bethany Lakes Park falls into that category of overlooked gems. Like any good community park, Bethany Lakes has a playground with small climbing wall for the little kids. There are covered and open picnic areas, and trails to hike and bike. Bethany Lakes Park offers even more with a disc golf course, fishing ponds, and summer concert series.

Disc golf

How about a round of golf? At Bethany Lakes, you’ll find a nine-hole disc golf course. Similar to traditional golf, you play disc golf with a Frisbee instead of club and ball. You throw your disc from the tee, aiming it for the ‘hole.’ At Bethany Lakes, the hole is a raised pole with a chain basket. Just like in golf, your score is the number of throws it takes to land the disc into the basket.Disc Golf

It’s more difficult than it first looks, as many holes require throws over or near water. The first tee is just north of the parking lot. Bring plenty of Frisbees as you might lose a few in the ponds!

Ponds make all the difference

The ponds, and what’s swimming in the ponds, differentiate Bethany Lakes from other community parks. On any given day, you’ll likely find fisherfolk casting their line into one of the parks four ponds. Many set up camp chairs along the water’s edge. Others fish from the fishing pier at Pond C.

Each year, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) stock Bethany Lake with rainbow trout. Most trout stocking occurs between December and March. The trout fishing is best during the cooler months. However, you aren’t restricted to just trout at Bethany Lakes. Other ponds contain blue gill and bass, with fishing even during warmer months. TPWD fishing rules apply at Bethany Lakes. While the ponds are not exclusively ‘catch-and-release,’ you’re unlikely to snag a big enough fish to eat, so please release your catch.

Fishing Tips

Did you know that kids under 17 do not require a license to fish in Texas? Or that the first Saturday in June is Free Fishing Day, when everyone can fish in Texas without a fishing license? Fishing is a great way to get the kids off the couch and outdoors. Here are some tips for first time family fishing:

  • Keep the equipment simple. Little anglers need a child-sized fishing pole, hook, bobber and easy bait like earthworms dug from the garden.
  • Think safety. Position children at least a pole length apart for safe casting.
  • An adult should bait the hook and remove fish for young children.
  • Combine other activities with fishing.  A short fishing trip coupled with a picnic will likely be more successful than a marathon fishing session.

If you want fishing tips specific to Bethany Lakes, check out a website by fisherfolk at www.stockertroutfishing.com. You can find out what fish have recently been caught and with what type of lures.

Summer Sounds

The City of Allen hosts Monday evening outdoor concerts from late May to the end of June at Joe Farmer Amphitheater in Bethany Lakes Park. Concerts cover all music types from classical to country. What a great way to enjoy a summer evening — and best yet — the concerts are free! Light refreshments and snow cones are available for purchase. While the city does not prohibit lawn chairs, they prefer blanket seating for concert goers.

When you go

Bethany Lakes Park is located at 745 South Allen Heights, Allen. Operated by the City of Allen, the park is open dawn to dusk. The Summer Sounds concert series begins May 25 and runs through June 22. Concerts begin at 7 p.m.

 

 

 

Scarborough Renaissance Festival

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What do turkey legs, knife throwing acts, wenches, and men in tights all have in common?

They’re all things you’ll find at the Scarborough Renaissance Festival.

Scarborough FestivalHeld on weekends from April through May, the festival combines high fantasy and courtly adventure, offering visitors an opportunity to enter a whimsical realm. Staged around sixteenth century England, Scarborough Renaissance Festival has a little something for everyone. You can ride a camel, engage in a sword fight, and  enjoy wine tasting at the Vinery. The entertainment is top notch. Be sure to catch Don Juan and Miguel who bill their show as sword fighting, comedy, and romance. These two have performed at Renaissance festivals for almost three decades. The Star Dancers are another crowd favorite, but be careful as you may find yourself onstage and part of the belly dancing.

Visitor tips

Buy a program. If you purchase nothing else, buy the souvenir program. It contains all the information you’ll need for the day including performance times, craft demonstration locations, and information on all the eateries and merchants. Best of all, there’ll be a map.

Dress the part. First, you don’t have to wear a costume to enjoy the festivities. However, the festival is the ideal place to wear that kilt in your closet, medieval Halloween costume, or leftover Harry Potter wizard cape. Visitors can also rent costumes inside fair grounds. And festival merchants sell everything from medieval robes to belly dancing outfits, though you’ll pay a hefty price for your attire. As for the kids, flower hair wreaths, fairy wings, and wooden swords are big hits with the youngsters.

The festival employs a troupe of paid, costumed actors. The actors set the stage. But it’s the costumed visitors who make for the best people watching.

Eat like a king. Within the festival grounds, food purveyors sell everything from turkey legs to baked potato. You won’t go hungry but you can expect to pay as much to eat as you did for your admission ticket. While you can’t bring outside food into the parks, one economical way to get around the high prices is to enjoy a tailgate picnic back at your car. Just be sure to get your hand stamped for readmission.

Bring dollar bills. Yes, admission includes entertainment on half a dozen stages along with smaller acts scattered around the village. However, expect the performers to pass the hat (or hat facsimile) around for tips following every performance. Tipping is optional. But these folks work hard for minimal wages, and some of the smaller acts working entirely for tips. If you liked the act, tip the performer a buck or two.

Wear sun protection. Don’t forget your sun screen. Texas can be hot even outside the summer months. A hand fan or paper umbrella work well to cool you down or provide a little shade.

When you go.

Scarborough Renaissance Festival is in Waxahachie at 2511 FM 66 (just off of Interstate 35). The festival operates Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. For the best price on admission, purchase your tickets online or visit your local Kroger for discounted tickets. Adult admission begins at $22 and children’s admission begins at $9. Visit the festivals website at www.srfestival.com for more information.

Sam Houston, Tribute in Courage

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The Sam Houston statue at Huntsville puts an exclamation point on the saying everything is bigger in Texas. The 65-foot statue towers alongside Interstate 45, between Dallas and Sam HoustonHouston. Looking distinguished in topcoat, colonial wig, and with his walking stick, Sam Houston dwarfs the surrounding pine trees. If you have the opportunity, stop and pay the old gent a visit.

The City of Huntsville purports that Sam is “tallest free standing statue of an American hero.” President of the Republic of Texas and later Governor of the State of Texas, Sam Houston played a pivotal role in Texas’ early history. What you may not have known, is that the Texas hero spent the last two years of his life in Huntsville. The Texas fore father is buried in nearby Oakwood Cemetery (Avenue I and Ninth Street, Huntsville).

Titled Tribute to Courage, the monument is the work of Houston based artist David Adickes. The statue statistics are impressive. It weighs about 32 tons, stands on a 10-foot marble base, and is the second largest freestanding statue in Texas. Surprisingly, the statue is only 20 years old, installed in 1994. Adickes built the concrete and steel Houston in ten-foot segments. One head segment not used in the final statue, can be seen on the grounds. It’s a great location for a picture!

When you go

Take Interstate 45 exit 109 or 112. The Sam Houston statue is accessed through the visitors center whose hours of operation are Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Be sure to bring your camera!

Eisenhower’s Birthplace in Denison

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It’s almost President’s Day, so how about a day trip to the birthplace of our thirty fourth president? World War II hero and President, Dwight D. “Ike” Eisenhower was born in Denison, Texas.

North Texas Ramblings - Eisenhower's Birthplace in DenisonLocated just 70 miles north of Dallas near the Oklahoma border, Denison thrived as a railroad town in the 1880s. Eisenhower’s father, David, came to Denison to work for the Missouri-Kansas-Texas (KATY) Railroad in 1889. David and his wife, Ida, already had two boys. Dwight, their third child, would be born in 1890. The Eisenhowers lived in Denison only three years, returning to Kansas when Dwight was just a toddler. Ironically, Dwight Eisenhower did not even know he was born in Denison until mid-life. A Denison teacher, Ms Jennie Jackson, thought she remembered the Eisenhowers, and discovered the family’s link to the town by combing through old city records. Following World War II, the local community bought the house where Dwight Eisenhower was born and that his family had rented while living in Texas. Eisenhower visited Denison for the first time as an adult in 1946 having breakfast with community leaders and Ms Jackson at his birthplace home.

The Texas Historical Commission now operates the site. The Dwight D. Eisenhower Library and Museum, in Abiliene Kansas, houses the presidential papers and almost all presidential artifacts. However, Eisenhower’s Birthplace in Denison has a small collection of Eisenhower memorabilia including a painting by the President. A film in the visitor’s center provides a short history of President Eisenhower’s life and legacy. The docent-lead tour is well worth the admission cost. The knowledgeable guides paint a picture of Denison life in the 1890s, and shares a wealth of information about the challenges Eisenhower’s parents faced in those early years when David, Ike’s father, worked for the KATY railroad.

Near the Eisenhower’s home, a larger than life bronze statue stands atop a marble base. This is one of four Robert Dean sculptures of Eisenhower in military uniform. The other three statues are at West Point, the London Embassy and at his presidential library in Abilene.

Eisenhower’s Birthplace (609 S. Lamar, Denison, 903/465-8908) is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and on Sunday from 1:00 until 5:00 p.m. Admission is $4 for adults and $3 for students. There are picnic grounds next to the visitors’ center.