Sam Houston Statue

Hunstville, TX
January 2010

Just outside of Huntsville State Park on the northbound side of the highway is the Sam Houston statue.

This thing is huge! . It is the world’s tallest statue of an American Hero at 67 feet tall on a 10 foot sunset granite base. The locals call it "Big Sam".

There is a noce little gift shop with restrooms that make this a

convenient stop. It is easy to get to and is just off the highway.

My kids really enjoyed it.

Lake Livingston State Park

Lake Livingston State Park

Livingston, TX
January 2010

We took a day trip to this park from Huntsville State Park. It

was about an hour drive away. I was really looking forward to

checking out Lake Livingston. I had heard that it was pretty big.
Boy were they right! The lake is huge. It's about five times the
size of Lake Travis at 93K acres. It is 39 miles long and at it's
widest almost 7 miles wide. I don't think it's too deep, but it sure

is big. It might be too big for my little runabout. It wasn't very

windy, but the lake was pretty choppy. This lake does have
alligators, so there goes swimming and skiing. My kids wouldn't

dare touch the water with that information.

The park was pretty nice with lots to do. There was a horse stable with horseback riding rentals. There was a marina that had a store with paddle boat, bicycle cart and canoe and boat slip rentals. The park also had a good size swimming pool.

The cabins were really neat. They were one and a half story
with the sleeping area on the top level. My kids would love

to stay in one of these.

The park had four camping loops. Stay way from the Pin Oak

Loop if at all possible. We found the pads to be very small and

the campsites were right on top of each other. Almost hard

to figure which table goes to which site.

The other loops looked OK. However, one thing we did not like

is that all of the park roads and pads have drainage ditches on

the sides. I would hate to drop a wheel off of one of those

trying to back in your rig.

None of the sites were on the water, but there were several

that had water views.

Washington On The Brazos Historical Site

Washington On The Brazos Historical Park

Washington, TX
January 2010

This park is located about an hour hour outside of College Station.

It does not offer any camping. It's just a historical site with lots
to offer.

There are three parts to the park. The first is the Barrington
living history farm. This exhibit was where Texas's last

President, Anson Jones lived before we became a state. The house is pretty neat and there are stables with horses and livestock on the farm.

The next part is a Library that is operated by Blinn College

that is in the shape of a star. We didn't take a tour of the library

but we sure did appreciate it's unique shape.

The last part includes the log cabin building where Texas penned

it's constitution and declared it's independence. This section

also has an awesome visitor center. The visitor center has some

really neat exhibits and the kids really enjoyed the gift shop.

I could of spent all day in the visitor's center reading all of the

exhibits (almost a mini Bob Bolluck museum).

This park was a little out of the way, but I would recommend it.

If you drive it just right, you can hit the Blue Bell factory on the way back to Austin. The kids will really enjoy that!

Huntsville State Park

Huntsville State Park
Huntsville, TX

December 2009