4th of July Weekend

Published 7/5/2011

4^th of July Weekend

The Retired Cooks Diary

By Suzette Pennington Munson

The 4^th of July is always a favorite weekend in our family. My birthday is a couple of days after and when I was a little girl we always had Birthday Cake and Homemade Ice cream on the 4^th so I thought that was my birthday. Until I was in school I thought the fireworks show was for my birthday. What a bummer to realize it was for our Nation’s Birthday instead of mine. So we still celebrate on the 4^th even if I have to share by birthday celebration!!!

Doug and I were fortunate to be able to go to Toledo Bend Lake this 4^th. Doug’s brother Randy and his wife Sue live on the shore of this beautiful reservoir. Although the drought has taken its toll on the Hemphill & Lufkin, the pineywoods is always a beautiful place to visit. We did see evidence of the forest fire that plagued the area earlier this spring. It was sad to see the devastation that fire and drought can do to the beautiful landscape.

Doug and Randy were able to fish around the brush piles just off shore they did catch some Sunfish (crappie) and a Big Mouth Bass. The fishing was not very good but they seemed to have a great time catching up with each other and “Playing” at fishing.

Sue and I kept close to the air conditioning. We did venture out one evening to fish off the pier, and that was after the Sun had begun to drop below the horizon. The Sunsets were beautiful and we were really moved by the drama the clouds created over the lake.

On Sunday night we decided to try to find a place to go out to eat so we drove across the bridge that spans the reservoir. Again we saw a beautiful Sun set.

Randy had called the “Cypress Bend Resort Restaurant” to see if they were open and they were. This is a brand new Resort that has been built by the State of Louisiana on the East shore of Toledo Bend. It includes a Golf Course, Spa and Conference Center. I would have never expected such a beautiful Hotel in such an out of the way place. Many, Louisiana, for those of you who don’t speak Louisianan it is “Man eee”. And is probably a town of about 400. So this resort is a real boost for the area.

We were seated in the Cypress Dining Room which is one of two eating places at the resort; the second restaurant being the Cypress Café which is in the Clubhouse on the green of the golf course.

The menu is pretty limited compared to most of the places we eat out here. They offered the usual appetizers, salads, burgers, sandwiches steaks and what makes them different is the entrées that are fresh Louisiana seafood, Crawfish, Shrimp, Red Snapper and several other types of fish. Randy and Sue decided on a chicken dish, Doug went for the Angus Beef Burger and I had to try the Red Snapper with Crawfish sauce. Needless to say the food was excellent. The service was good and the surroundings were beautiful. I would have loved to speak with the Chief but he was not available. I would have loved to know what all was in the sauce that I enjoyed.

Sue and her daughter Debbie had been to the Spa for a day and were totally impressed. She said that it was as good as any in Dallas.

So instead of taking off to Florida Beaches, or the coast of Texas think about a trip to the beach at Toledo Bend either on the Texas side or to the resort on the Louisiana side. Taking the trip to East Texas is a trip into a historic area and if you do a little research you can find some fun interesting places that don’t cost a fortune and are a whole lot of fun. Like Doug and I you might take a drive down the historic “Camino Reale’”, there is also the Historic Nacogdoches area and Angelina National Forest for site seeing and camping.

Our weekend was wonderful and I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe weekend.

If you have any recommendations for restaurants for us to try out and comment on please let me know.

Email me at suzettemunson77@gmail.com