CHUNG MEI BUDDHIST TEMPLE…HOUSTON, TEXAS

Wednesday, April 6 – The Houston Elks Lodge is located in a culturally diverse section of Houston. Today we took the opportunity to visit a Chung-Mei Buddhist Temple located across the street from the Elks.

Fifty years ago, Venerable Master began propagating Buddhism in the small rustic town of Llan Northern Taiwan. From very humble beginnings, Venerable Master has established over two hundred Fo Guang Shan Temples worldwide. Venerable Master has dedicated his life to raising the standard of Buddhist culture and education, taking Buddhism to national halls and onto international stages. It is now recognized as one of the world's major religions.

The Venerable Master realized Houston's unique geographical advantage as a city centrally located between North and South America. He decided to establish the temple here, anticipating that it will play a central role in the assimilation and propagation of the Eastern religion in a Western land. The temple is named “Chung Mei” Central America, because it not only signifies the unity between Eastern and Western cultures, but also symbolizes the integration of Asia and America.

We were welcomed to the Temple by the Reverend Dharma, a young lady, who has been in the Houston Temple for four years. She came here from Taiwan. She was delighted to give us a tour and answered our questions. There are numerous colorful Buddhas (Enlightened Beings) and Bodhisattvas (Compassionate Beings) lining on the sidewalls surrounding the Main Shrine. We were also given an explanation of the other objects on the shrine in the front of the Temple and invited us to attend a Sunday Meditation Service.

No inside pictures were permitted. The next two pictures are taken from their website.

The significance of the three Buddhas in the main temple from left to right.....
Amitabha Buddha (Pure Land); Lord Sakyamuni Buddha, the Great Teacher of Buddhism; Medicine Buddha, and Amitabha Buddha (Pure Land).

The other parts of the Temple are the Waterdrop Tea House, which is still under construction; a library, a meditation room, classrooms, and offices.

Waterdrop Tea House

Outside is the Chan Garden with many Buddhist Statues and beautiful landscaping. It is also used for the Meditation garden.

Across the street is the Buddhist Cemetery, Columbarium Memorial Shrine. It is the second of what will be a ten building community that will be built on the 36 acre site. It is a memorial complex built to cherish the memory of the deceased.

One of the advantage of the full-time lifestyle is the opportunity to have so many different experiences. This is just another one of those experiences.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

HONG KONG MALL IN HOUSTON

Tuesday, April 5 – When we played Frisbee golf at the park on Saturday, we noticed some long pine needles under some trees on the course. So Marsha needing needles for her pine baskets, we returned to the park today to gather some. They weren't as long as she would have liked, but at 7-8” she gathered a bag full and may use them.

We also stopped at the Hong Kong Mall in the Chinese/Vietnamese section of Houston. Hong Kong City Mall is one of the largest Asian indoor malls in the U.S.

This was like an Oriental Sam's Club. Most of the items were packaged in Chinese so we couldn't read many of the labels. But we could read some and what was in the packages surprised us.

Lobster crackers and squid crackers?

The Bamboo trees were beautiful

The place did smell like a fishing harbor. There was every time of live fish you can image…for purchase of course.

At the checkout we saw the strangest fruit called Jackfruit for $1.99/lb. It is a Thai food. Enormous and prickly on the outside. Once a jackfruit is cracked open, what you will find inside are pods or "bulbs". The fleshy part (the "bulb") can be eaten as is, or cut up and cooked. When unripe (green), it is remarkably similar in texture to chicken, making jackfruit an excellent vegetarian substitute for meat. In fact, canned jackfruit (in brine) is sometimes referred to as "vegetable meat". We weren’t in an adventurous mood.

It was a neat experience. Unfortunately, the deli isn't open of Tuesdays, so we may visit again to see what's available. We did buy some soup, some shrimp flavored chips, a cream roll and a small tart. We ate the roll and tart in the car for a snack.....yummmm.

The entire mall contained only Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc. type of shops. We only knew what they were selling once we got into the mall.

There was a deep blue pond in front of the mall.

Right down the road is a memorial to the South Viet Nam servicemen.

Spring has sprung all over Houston. The flowers are out in full force. Marsha loves this time of year.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

A WONDERFUL, FUN DAY WITH THE FAMILY!

Saturday, April 2 – We went to the St. Arnold Brewery today.

Saint Arnold was founded in 1994 by a Houston Native attending Rice University. It is the oldest microbrewery in Texas. They brew a variety of full-flavored, big, tasty beers. Examples are Fancy Lawnmower, Texas Wheat, Brown Ale, Amber Ale, Elissa Ipa, and this season's brew, Summer Pils.

St. Arnold is the patron saint of hop pickers. WHY you ask? Following the collapse of the roof of an abbey brewery in Flanders, the good Saint Arnold of Soissons asked God to multiply the stores of beer which were left for the monk's consumption. When Arnold's prayer was answered in abundance, the monks and townspeople were prepared to canonize him on the spot. While Arnold of Soissons is best known for his miraculous provision of beer, he is also credited with a most practical improvement upon the brewing process. Now you know the rest of the story.

The Beer Garden opens at eleven o'clock, and we were there soon after the doors swung open to get a seat in this very popular place.

For $7.00 per person, you get a tour and four glasses of micro-brewed beer. We played cards and Farkle, sampled each of the six different beers, ate some snacks and enjoyed the loud crowd. The noise level was up there.....from the old and young having a great time!

Paul and Kelly


The girls enjoying a little brew.

Our daughters even got to meet a celebrity. On a trip to the bar they noticed Ali Fedotowsky, from last season’s Bachelorette reality TV program, standing with her boyfriend, Roberto Martinez, and several other couples. Our girls didn't want to interfere with her day so didn't approach her. But soon a couple other girls asked her for a picture so our daughters requested one too. She was happy to oblige and handled the fame with grace. They were really a beautiful couple.....made for TV.....ha! ha!

Kelly, Ali, Roberto, Carrie

We then went on a tour of the Brewery. Our tour guide was non other than the founder and owner of the Brewery, Brock Wagner. Brock develops the recipes for the Saint Arnold beers based on his own home-brewing experience coupled with a desire to create world class beers for local tastes. He did an excellent job of explaining the brewing process and delighted the crowd with his humor. The Brewery is currently producing 10,000 barrels of beer and will soon be expanding to about 35,0000 barrels. Quite a few of those barrels were consumed by this huge gang today....LOL

There is a small crew of 29 who does everything at the brewery. They make ten different beers. Five are made year round and five are seasonal.

Each beer tank was named after famous people.

Someone very famous, but we don’t know him.

Not who you think. He is the famous brewer in England.

The place was very clean.

Who knew that drinking more Saint Arnold could help our planet? If a person brings in a twelve-pack and six-pack carriers and we will exchange them for cool Saint Arnold stuff. If a person brings in 200,000 carriers here is what he will get

Tie-dyed 1957 Bentley

We think this was Marsha’s favorite part of the day.

You say what is so great about a bunch of men standing in line…They were in line for the MEN’S RESTROOM. Unheard of!!! There was no line for the women’s room. This was just such a lovely site for the women.

The visit to the Brewery was a fun activity. We enjoyed the tour, the beverages, and met quite a few fun-filled people. We especially enjoyed touring with our daughters and another day filled with laughter and family fun.

After the Brewery, we headed to Elenior Tinsley Park to play Frisbee golf. This is just one of the many parks in Houston. What a beautiful park, tucked right in the middle of downtown skyscrapers and freeways. It is located on 124.05 acres.There is a huge skate park filled with hundreds of kids.

Jogging and biking trails. A beautiful stream, that ate two of our Frisbees by the way, and hundreds of acres of beautiful rolling hills to stroll through and enjoy nature.

HUGE trees.

This is the first time we have ever played Disc Golf. The girls had much better form than we did.

Carrie gets her entire body in it.

Kelly can throw without dropping a drop of her drink.

Paul didn’t tell Marsha he was going to take a picture so she didn’t put her whole body into it.

Paul and the form that landed his Disc in the water.

Beautiful background for a picture of the family. It was a bit hazy on Saturday.

Just one of the many art objects in the park.

We then returned to our daughters house for dinner and to watch NCAA Final Four basketball on TV. If we didn't have enough to do, we could have attended the games live. They were being played in Reliant Stadium this year in downtown Houston! Weren’t we just there about ten days ago at the Houston Rodeo. It didn't take them long to convert the stadium from a Texas Ranch to a College Basketball Arena.

We finished the day with barbeque chicken and grilled vegetables that Paul cooked on the grill. Yummy! We celebrated Kelly’s birthday. What a great day!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!