Bryan & College Station, Texas

We recently went to Central Park in College Station. The grounds are very nice, and although the playground is fairly small, there were other things to do.

There’s a basketball court, pavillions, baseball fields, picnic tables, paved trails, a pond and ducks.

Lots of ducks. And geese. We took peanut butter and honey sandwiches, goldfish crackers and granola bars, and those ducks ate almost everything we threw at them. I mean toward them.

My kids don’t eat the crust of their sandwiches. My mom always made us eat ours, and for the most part we make our kids eat theirs, but not when there are ducks around.

There is one goose in particular that is pretty big, and apparently the scout, well, at least not afraid to come right up to you.

In fact, at one point, I found our 4 year old (who we call the “Bug Whisperer”) petting it…practically hugging it.

I’m not convinced ducks like peanut butter, but they ate just about everything we threw at them.

The pond was very pretty and well kept. Looks like it’s stocked with fish and you can actually catch them, so bring your rod. The regular Texas Parks and Wildlife limits for bagging apply to this pond. The Central Park pond has Trout and Catfish in it.

Here are some tips on releasing fish:

Quickly play and release fish.
Keep fish in water as much as possible.
Remove hook with pliers or cut line.
Gently place fish back into water.
Revive fish by holding upright in water and moving back and forth, gently forcing water through gills.

Enjoy

jorge

Tanglewood park is a great park in town. It’s one of three “Splash Pads” in Bryan and College Station (one at Tiffany Park, and another at Lincoln Center).

These Splash Pads consist of fountains and even a water bucket that fills up and splashes down. It’s great fun in the summer and spring. It’s about the size of a basketball court…maybe smaller, and there’s a controller to turn it on when it turns itself off. The cycle is about 10 minutes, and the controller is just a post with a round top that is touch activated.

I read this about the Splash Pads from the Eagle website:

Based on the popularity splash pads in Bryan/College Station, city officials are considering including more of these features in future projects, so be sure to keep the look out for new splash pads this Summer.

I called the City of Bryan Parks and Recreation, and they told me that the water is City Water, just like you’d get out of your faucet.

Tanglewood park has several covered pavillions, three playgrounds, a sand volleyball court and loads of picnic tables.

We really like this park. Not as much variety as Austin’s Colony (well, except for the Splash Pad) but great playgrounds, and although it’s a well know park, we’ve never had trouble finding empty picnic tables.

You can get there from Villa Maria, 29th or Texas Ave.

And just so you know, here’s a website that sells these Water Play Features. I don’t know if Bryan and College Station get them any cheaper, but we can assume that these are approximately the price our city paid as well. I guess that’s what our taxes are paying for. I’m OK with that. Parks are fun.

Go play.

Jorge

First of all, a little info:

Lake Bryan is owned by the local utilities company (BTU). They use the lake to cool their power plant (which you can see from the lake). The use of the water by the power plant does not affect the consumption of the fish in the lake. Here’s what WikiPedia has to say about it:

Lake Bryan is a power plant cooling reservoir in Brazos County, 5 miles (8 km) west of Bryan, Texas, USA. The dam and lake are managed by Bryan Texas Utilities which uses the reservoir as a cooling pond for the electrical generators in the Dansby Power Plant. The reservoir was officially impounded in 1974.

My family visited for the first time on a very windy day. Our food practically flew off the picnic table. There were wind surfers, jet skiers, water skiers, volleyball players, a few dogs and other people having picnics. We’ll go back to swim and hang out in the Spring or Summer.

• Day use fee $3/car weekdays, $5/car weekends and holidays
• Open 6 am to 7:30 pm November 1-February, 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. March-October

There’s a restaurant (which is closed during the Winter Months), a boat landing and picnic tables just as you enter the park. The main area is across a bridge and into the center of the lake, where there’s a covered pavilion, volleyball courts, picnic tables, a beach, a stage and lots of room to run a play.

Here’s a list of things you can do at Bryan Lake:

1. Picnic: This is what we did. There’s a covered pavilion, and lots of picnic tables all around the area. There are BBQ pits at a few of the tables and a few large Oak trees for shade.

2. Swimming: It was too cold in December, but we will be back in the Spring to swim. In the middle section, at the tip, there’s a beach, and a large area cordoned off for swimming. Not sure how deep it was, but I’ll let you know.

3. Fishing: Looks like there’s Sunfish, Catfish, Crappie and Large Mouth Bass. Here’s what the Texas Parks and Wildlife Website has to say about it:

• Prey species: Sunfish make up the majority of prey fish in Lake Bryan. Gizzard and threadfin shad are present but in low numbers. Bluegill are the most abundant of the sunfish species, and most are < 4 inches in length. Threadfin shad were stocked in 1992 but do not contribute significantly to the prey base in Lake Bryan.
• Catfishes: Channel catfish abundance has declined over the past few years. Only one individual was captured in the 2006 gill net survey. However, the creel survey indicates anglers do target and catch channel catfish. Growth of channel catfish at Lake Bryan is slow.
• Largemouth bass: Largemouth bass are abundant in Lake Bryan with fish up to 21 inches collected in our electrofishing survey in 2005. The 18-inch minimum length limit has allowed the population to produce larger sized bass for anglers. The current lake record is over 7 pounds.
• Crappie: Catches of crappie in our monitoring surveys are typically poor. Though directed angler effort for crappie was low in the 2004 creel survey, anglers did report catching and releasing crappie, with some harvest of black crappie. Hybrid crappie were stocked in 1997 in an attempt to increase the numbers of crappie available for harvest; however, none were collected in the present survey.

4. Water Skiing: We saw some water skiing over by the dam. Looks fun.

5. Wind Surfing: There were two wind surfers on the windy day we went.

6. Mountain Biking: At the time of this writing, the trails are closed because of rain and mud, but I am definitely looking forward to hitting those trails. There’s an organization in town that even goes out periodically and services the trails to keep them nice and safe. Here’s a map of the Lake Bryan trails, and a place to find out the status of the trails at any given moment. (although the trails are not actually “closed” when they say “closed”, it’s just a reminder that the less they are taken care of, the more possibility there will be that they won’t be rideable in the future).

7. Hiking: Although the trails are perfect for mountain bikes, they are great for walking and birdwatching. Being a water area, there will always be interesting birds to look for.

8. Boating: There’s a boat ramp

9. Jet Skiing: Saw a couple of these while we were there.

10. Volleyball: There was at least one sand volleyball court that we saw. Looked in good shape.

11. Watch a show: There’s a stage out there. Not sure what ever happens on it, but it’s out there. Looks like a perfect place for an open mic night.

12. Eat at the Restaurant: Called The Hook Lakeside Bar & Grill“. They offer Catfish Tacos, Burgers, Po Boys and seafood platters at fairly decent prices.

13. Camping: I believe there’s an RV hookup per day charge as well as a tent charge. I can’t remember what it is, but I remember that there’s a thing called the “Honor Pole” where you pay what you owe. That’s fun.

Have fun.

jorge

We love the library. Each week we go and check out on average about 40 books. The limit per is 50 at one time, which we’ve never hit, probably because our library bag can’t hold that many books.

The Bryan and College Station (Larry J. Ringer) libraries are connected, so you can return your books to either library. They told me they make a round trip every morning for various reasons.

Both libraries have a 7 movie limit (DVD and VHS), and the movies are due back in a week. The late charges are pretty steep, so get them back on time.

We like the Bryan library most, although for convenience, we end up at the College Station one.

The Bryan library has the most children’s books of the two, in fact, there’s a whole second floor dedicated to children’s books. They also have a “new books” section for children’s books that is where we go first. We love the new stories and new illustrators featured in the new books.

The College Station library used to have a new children’s book section, but they got rid of it. I asked them about it and they asked me to fill out a request form, but nothing has happened since.

Both libraries have internet, and everything else you’d expect at a library.

Their movies are pretty good. They don’t have a huge selection, but it’s OK. We actually found “Meerkat Manor” the other day (which is great, if you haven’t seen it, check it out). They’ve got a bunch of “Reading Rainbow”, (remember LeVar Burton?), and although you won’t find too many new releases, if you are patient, some of them make it to their shelves. We’ve checked out the TV series “24″, the BBC series “Planet Earth”, March of the Penguins, various National Geographic episodes and Veggie Tales to name a few.

Something really cool about these libraries is that with your library card number, you can go online and manage your account. You can search for and request books, you can reserve copies of books (if there’s a wait, you can set up how they tell you it’s available…either by phone call or email). You can even renew checked out books and see when your checked out books are due back.

The one thing I have to go to their website for is their hours of operation. It’s all over the place.

Here they are:

Do you see the confusion? I don’t know how many times I’ve forgotten the hours and gone to one or the other and found it closed, only to have to drive across town to get to the other one.

And what’s up with Fridays and Saturdays closing at 5? I guess Librarians need some “personal” time too…I guess.

Besides the silly hours, the librarians are all very nice and very helpful. At the College Station Library, there’s a librarian there named “Autumn” who knows her way around the children’s section like nobody’s business. Ask her about anything and she’ll have a book for you, in fact, she’ll most likely have 5 or 6 books for you to have a look at.

We love the library.

It seems that children’s books can be late without incurring a fee. I haven’t asked them what the deal is with that (and have actually been pretty late and not been charged), but the movies are expensive if you go over. I think it’s like $1.50 per day over the due date. Ouch. Regular books incur a late fee too.

We just recently accidentally ruined a book (someone spilled water on it) and had to pay for a new book. That was a bummer.

I guess I’ve been talking all about the children’s books, but it’s where we spend most of our time. Both libraries also have a toys section with puzzles and legos and puppets. Pretty nice of them. But the rest of the library is great too. Again, everything you’d expect from a library.

The Bryan Library is in Downtown Bryan, and looks more like what a library should look like, whatever that means, and the College Station library is more modern, higher ceilings, more light, etc.

We’ll be there this week I’m sure.

jorge

Just South of College Station is a race track, you know, for cars and stuff. Well, just about every weekend (not quite every weekend), they have something going on. It may not be NASCAR high speed racing, but it’s still cool.

I’ve been to several events out there, and for the most part, being a spectator is free. I’m assuming that when there’s some big race it’s not free, but for clubs that go out there and use the track, you can watch all day.

Like for example, one weekend, there was a motorcycle school, where you could take your motorcycle, pay the dues and race. I took my oldest out here that day, and my mom and dad were in town and they went too.

We talked to one of the drivers and he said that top speed on this track for the 1000cc bikes is about 175mph. You’d be surprised what that looks like…and what it sounds like.

Another time there was a Porsche Club out there running their cars out there. Most were student drivers with instructors, but the faster ones were loud and awesome.

You’ll just have to go to the website (which is not very informative, actually) and find out what’s going on.

By “not very informative” I mean that it doesn’t tell you what time or the cost of these smaller events. But considering it’s not too far from town, it’s not too far out of the way to go and ask.

We’re still looking forward to seeing really fast cars race on that track. The turns are banked. The fast Porsches had to be going 180mph and they didn’t use the banked turns. My dad was telling me that gravity would mess with the shocks on the cars not built for taking those turns at high speed, so maybe that’s why.

Here’s the Texas World Speedway website, and a map of how to get there.

Jorge