Parrott Park in Lindale Texas is beginning their second year of annual events and they are kicking it off right with the bigger and better. They asked us to publish this for anyone in East Texas to see. This is a great park and event, I highly recommend you bring out the whole family for this truly unique park and day!
2nd Annual
PIONEER DAY
Parrott Park
Saturday April 7th 2012
10am – 4pm
2900 S. Main St.
Lindale, TX
Including:
Petting Zoo “Country Critters from Shawnee Creek Ranch” featuring all your favorite furry friends!
Easter Egg Hunt @ 1pm for Children age 12 and under! Hosted by local celebrity Bryan Houston
The EASTER BUNNY will be here!
Brookshires Wildlife Museum & Smith County Historical Society will be on site with displays!
Blacksmith Demonstrations by Shadowhawk Blades!
Character actors in period costumes give tours!
Equipment demonstrations!
Doc Wilkes wandering magician!
Wild West Shoot out! Performed by “The Outsiders” of Crossbrand Cowboy Church !
Cowboy Poet Larry Sheppard- entertaining with poetry and stories!
Food & Drink Vendors on Site! & Picnic tables available!
Face Painting and Carnival style Games for the kids to enjoy!
Gift Shop will be open with new items!
Live Music to sing along or dance to!
LIVE BANDS:
Dulcimer in Praise – Celtic/Mountain/Gospel Band – 10am to 12noon
Bongo & The Point – Oldies & Goodies – 10am to 11:45am at the chapel
Percy Wang – Violinist Extraordinaire – 12noon to 2pm
Joyful Noise – Mountain Bluegrass Band – 2pm to 4pm
Sharon Gehring – Mountain Dulcimer Artist – various times ALL DAY!
FREE! To attend!
And for an additional Hoot & Holler….check out our sister museum….
THE HISTORIC McCLENDON HOUSE LIVING HISTORY TOURS!
806 W. HOUSTON ST.
TYLER, TX 75701
Saturday, March 24, 31, & April 7, 2012
6:30pm until 9:30pm
Guided tours and short performed skits by actors in period costumes bring history alive as they portray influential historic residents of the 130 year old famous home including White House correspondent Sarah McClendon. Tours last about 45min and begin every 15min. Blacksmith demonstrations on the lawn and more! $10 adults, children 12 and under FREE! Bring your camera! All proceeds go towards repair and upkeep of the home. Thank you for your support! And please help spread the word!
Also look forward to our 1st ever Arts & Crafts day Saturday May 19th!
And last our friends at …
Hollywood Theaters asked us to let you know about their new “Half Off Tuesdays!” Where ticket prices are just $3.00 before 3pm, only $2.25 between 3pm and 6pm, and $4.00 after 6pm! And hot dogs are $1.50 all day!
Thanks!
George Jones
Parrott Park
Hollywood Theaters
McClendon House
Jericho’s Books
I went to the East Texas State Fair a few days ago on my lunch break and visited everything going on there. I didn’t ride any rides but I did go by the petting zoo, art contest building, business booth area, and the photography contest setup, the food area, an eco/farm building, and I watched some animal showings.
I didn’t end up buying any food but if I had I probably would have gone with a Purple Pig barbeque sandwich and some pie from the Trinity Lutheran shed.
For some reason this years fair seemed kind of blah. Maybe it was because the Pure Energy Band guys were there again touting the healing effects of a plastic bracelet with a hologram sticker.
I would say my favorite things I saw were the art in the art contest building, the petting zoo, and the baby chicks.
I no longer like riding fair rides because I don’t like the spinning sensation in my head.
I recommend the fair for taking your kids to especially for the petting zoo (which is free).
As far as going to the fair for the food…the only thing worth going out of your way for might be the pies at the Trinity Lutheran booth. Stay away from the Turkey Legs, those things are tough as tires and I learned that lesson several years ago.
Every year Marshall Texas become a Christmas wonderland. The whole town is lighten up with colorful lights. The festival includes over one million lights and the town displays hundreds of Christmas light displays. The event begins Wednesday before Thanksgiving and it ends New Year’s Eve. The town will open an outdoor ice skating rink. The ice skating rink will be open through January 17.
The light display will be the biggest this year than any other year in the past. There will be Ice Dancing performances, celebrity chef cooking classes, a mini-express train ride, a 15 feet tall snow globe for people to take pictures in front of, street performers, and even a petting zoo that will have a reindeer. Santa and his elves will be there to interact with guests and young children.
The Historic Harrison County Courthouse is decorated with over 125,000 tiny white lights, and it is one of Marshall’s prides of the Christmas displays. This is one of the best light displays in East Texas. Your whole family will love the different fun Christmas events. So take the trip to Marshall to see the beautiful displays for yourself and enjoy a great time and enjoy the great food and keep warm with a great hot chocolate.
My family and I set out to do something fun this Saturday and so we settled on going to “Wit’s End Ranch” together. My wife and son had been before and loved it but I had never been. I called them up to see if they were open this Saturday but they now only do private parties.
The lady at Wit’s End Ranch was very nice and referred us to try East Texas Gator and Wildlife Farm. I had never heard of this place before. This sounded very exciting and something my 2 year old son would love so we did it.
We were nothing short of extremely impressed with this place! It has all the East Texas Charm you could expect. Besides watching an alligator wilderness guy feed live several hundred pound alligators you can also pet and see baby alligators and snakes, jump in the bouncy house, rock around in a beached boat, swing on a rope swing, and pet pot bellied pigs, goats, and chicks in the petting zoo.
They also have a restaurant that has a special offer to allow you free admission with the purchase of certain dinner menu meals. The East Texas Gator Farm is located in Grand Saline Texas and is very close to Canton Texas. We drove here from Tyler/Lindale area and found it to be a very nice scenic drive through Lindale and Van Texas.
You will see a sign next to the road to turn on to continue on to to East Texas Gator Farm. This is not a hard place to find and I now consider it one of the East Texas areas best attractions. Some of the adult alligators are over 700 lbs.
These gators are not necessarily tame friendly beasts as we saw evidence of missing fingers from one of the employees here. All the employees seem to truly love their jobs and the alligator tamer/feeder initiated allowing my son to pet some snakes and baby alligators.
This is one of those natural attractions in East Texas that is just real and beautiful and a place you rarely find among the many cookie cutter venues. Of course every attraction has it’s time and place even if it’s the typical amusement but this simply isn’t the norm and definitely worth bringing the whole fam.
1938 E Southeast Loop 323, Tyler TX
Phone: (903) 533-9494
CiCi’s in Tyler is one of those places that may seem like a good idea at the time but never actually fulfills any decent expectations you may have had of it. CiCi’s combines pizza, buffet style dining, and screaming children into a one of a kind restaurant experience. CiCi’s may offer a pizza buffet at a decent price but they know that any sane person will be driven away within half an hour by the accumulated sounds of arcade games, whining kids, and several televisions all projecting angry sports announcers. The over stimulating environment is, I suspect, nothing more than a clever ploy developed by the buffet style restaurant industry to stop you from claiming the seven pizzas your four dollars gives you the right to under the eternal Law of Buffet.
They bombard you with flashing lights, constant loud ringing noises. A petting zoo themed restaurant would have a better family environment. CiCi’s doesn’t have bad pizza either, they show no shame in baking a funnel cake in a pizza oven and then pretending pizza was always covered in chocolate syrup. And I can respect the kind of courage it takes to offer decent quality dessert at a buffet, I imagine strawberry chocolate cheesecake has brought many a great franchise to its knees. CiCi’s could definitely improve its atmosphere. But If you can handle the overwhelming surroundings they have some good pizza.
Every year Marshall Texas become a Christmas wonderland. The whole town is lighten up with colorful lights. The festival includes over one million lights and the town displays hundreds of Christmas light displays. The event begins Wednesday before Thanksgiving and it ends New Year’s Eve. The town will open an outdoor ice skating rink. The ice skating rink will be open through January 17.
