Remembering Veterans And My Wonder Years On The Way To Arlington's Chinatown

No, that is not the Shadow of the Tandy Hills Thin Man you are looking at here. What you are looking at here is the Shadow of the Veterans Park Thin Man.

Today I needed to replenish my ginger supply. I acquire ginger at the Saigon Cho Market in Arlington's Chinatown.

Veterans Park is accessed via the same road, Arkansas Lane, as Saigon Cho Market is accessed, with Saigon Cho Market a few miles further east.

When I visited my Favorite Nephew Joey on Wednesday the subject of the Tandy Hills came up. Joey asked me if there are a lot of nice parks here. Joey opined that every where you look it looks flat, so where are the hills?

I think I mentioned before that I thought when I moved to Texas I would be giving up mountain biking, due to the short supply of mountains. Somehow I knew that Tyler State Park in East Texas had well regarded mountain bike trails. And so a couple months after arrival in Texas I drove myself about 100 miles east  to pedal those trails.

I was surprised by how challenging the Tyler State Park trails were. At one point I was stopped looking at a directional map. Another biker rolled up. We started talking. I said I'd just moved from Washington thinking I would be giving up mountain biking, and that I was surprised to find such good trails only 100 miles from my abode. The other biker asked where I was located.  Haslet, said I, north end of Fort Worth. The other biker then informed me that there were good mountain bike trails all over the Metroplex.

I was shocked. But it's so flat said I. The other biker told me to find my way to Cedar Hills State Park, southwest of Dallas and see if it changes my mind about it being so flat. Soon I was finding the D/FW Metro zone's mountain bike trails, including the trails in Cedar Hills State Park. Rockledge, Horsehoe Trails, Knob Hills, all at Lake Grapevine. L. B. Houston in Dallas and others I am not remembering right now.

Changing the subject back to Veterans Park. Since I last saw it a couple weeks ago a lot of progress has been made in the construction of the Vietnam War Memorial, as you can see below.

A crew was busy working on the new memorial today. There was a stack of shiny black granite looking slabs laying on the ground. I suspect those are to be attacked to the multiple walls which have risen from the ground, with names etched into the granite.

On Wednesday I told Joey that the parks in Arlington are very well done. I mentioned Veterans Park and how a large part of the park is basically wild wilderness. An example of that is below.

My feeble photographer skills do not do justice to how steep the hill you are looking at here is.

Years ago there was a half-hearted attempt to make a mountain bike trail in the backwoods part of Veterans Park. If I remember right heavy rain and a flash flood washed out that effort.

Changing the subject again.

Overnight some text messaging between Texas and Arizona and Washington caused a treasure trove of documents to arrive via email. This treasure trove of documents is documenting some of what I remember from long ago, you know, my wonder years....

Today I Got Myself Stocked With Asian Goods From Saigon Cho In Arlington's Chinatown

No, that is not the Fosdick Fountain in Fosdick Lake in Oakland Lake Park in Fort Worth you are looking at here.

This body of water and its fountain is located in Veterans Park in Arlington.

I stopped at Veterans Park for a short walking commune with nature before continuing on to Arlington's Chinatown to go get myself some much needed Asian grocery supplies at my favorite Asian grocery store, Saigon Cho.

Or is it Cho Saigon? One would think I could remember.

Today I got a lot of bottled sauces, including fish sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce and chili sauce.  In addition to a lot of sauce I got a big bottle of siracha. Oh, I think that is a sauce too. A really hot sauce. I also got a big bottle of sesame oil, a big bag of vermicelli rice noodles, garlic and other stuff I am not remembering right now.

So, I am now well stocked with Asian sauces, which tomorrow will render cashew chicken over those aforementioned rice noodles. But, right now, enchiladas are baking in the oven. Apparently I am very multi-cultural, spanning the globe for the various cuisines which spew from my kitchen.

The lunch bell is gonging. Talk to you later.....

Taking A Sunday Walk With The Roses In Arlington's Veterans Park

The last time I visited the soldier who stands guard at the memorial in Arlington's Veterans Park was way back in July of last year.

I don't know why 10 months have gone by without me returning to one of my favorite parks in the Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington Metroplex zone.

It'd also been 10 months since I'd been to Arlington's International District to get Asian goodies at my favorite Asian grocery store, that being Saigon Cho Market on Pioneer Parkway.

The best Asian goodie I got at Saigon Cho today was 5 pounds of very lean ground beef. Asian ground beef is coarsely ground, which will make it excellent for a big pot of chili.

Nothing much had changed at Veterans Park since my last visit.

The view you see below I always find enjoyable. One would never think one was in the center of a metropolitan area with a population over 6 million when one looks at this view with nary an element of civilization as far as one can see.

Veterans Park was blooming a lot of wildflowers today. Flowers that weren't wildflowers were also blooming a lot of color, in the Xeriscape area.

Including a lot of red roses. Red roses smell good.

The above patch of pink Evening Primroses is the biggest Primrose patch I have seen this wildflower season.

I had myself a might fine time swimming this morning. At that point in time I did not need sunglasses. I think I may go for another swim this afternoon, along with some lounging under the now fully exposed sun. I am trying to reduce my pastiness level so I can lounge on a sunny beach without getting sunburned

A Freezing Monday Morning In Texas With Sweet Chili Sauce

You are looking out at my icy 2nd Monday of the last year of 2010 view, this early morning of December 13.

It is 26 degrees out there. Brrrrr.

It is about twice as hot here up in the Seattle zone. Where heavy rain continues to fall with the rivers now in flood mode, closing a lot of roads, due to mudslides, with Amtrak no longer able to make it to Portland.

My distressing ailments of the last week seem to have abated for the most part. This pleases me.

Yesterday I went to Chinatown in Arlington for the first time in a couple months. I'd run out of chili sweet sauce, oyster sauce and some other good stuff. I went to Saigon Cho Market at Pioneer Parkway and Collins Street first. They did not have the sweet chili sauce I wanted. So, I went to where the former occupant of Saigon Cho moved to, to a former Albertsons near 360 on Pioneer Parkway.

I forget what the name was of the market that moved from Pioneer/Collins to Pioneer/360, but it is no more. Yesterday I saw it had turned into Hiep Thai Arlington. And it was its Grand Opening. So, I got a lot of unexpected good stuff.

I don't know why the Chinatown markets are not more popular with the Anglo population. I love how I go in one of these markets and I am the only white guy. It is like getting to visit Viet Nam, Thailand and China. Actually, mostly Viet Nam. One of the strange unplanned for consequences of one of America's ubiquitous wars. As in a large number of Vietnamese Boat People ended up in Arlington, creating a thriving community and adding one more nice patch to the beautiful American quilt.

I am going to brace myself against the cold and get in some aerobicizing today. I have been borderline sedentary the past couple days.

It is currently not windy, unlike yesterday. I am hoping the current no wind remains steady.