Ann and Barry Bennick were born and raised in big cities and were satisfied with city living B.C. (Before Canoeing). Once workaholics, the recession of the early 1980's led them to restructure their life patterns and ultimately resulted in their association with Caddo Lake and Pine Needle Lodge

Both first worked in full time jobs as school teachers from junior highs through junior colleges. Ann and Barry are both real estate brokers and have advanced college degrees, with Ann earning her doctorate in 1981. While Pine Needle Lodge is not a hobby business, each supplements the family funds through real estate rentals, sales, and ventures. Ann is also a renowned Records and Information professional, having worked along all three U.S. coasts and in London and The Hague. Most of her present contracts have been with Dallas-area companies who need the expertise of an experienced Certified Records Manager.

One above statement is not really true. We are still workaholics -- it's just that we work only at what we want to do. Here at Cypresswood and Pine Needle Lodge, we constantly have stimulating guests with whom we mingle. And, as former teachers, we are able to help them and their children enjoy our great wilderness and its small civilized outposts such as Jefferson, Texas.

One job we enjoy, perhaps above all, is teaching basic paddling skills that will ease you through a moss-draped forest world without thorns or poison ivy. Our many years of teaching teens and adults in a formal classroom, we hope, allow us to do a reasonable job in the short time available.

By the way, our night life at Cypresswood is wild -- owls, frogs, deer, beavers, mink, coons, and an occasional chorus of coyotes down the road. We enjoy campfires and group singing. It is, in fact, relatively easy to get Ann to break out her ukulele. We also enjoy moonlight canoeing on Caddo Lake -- just ask us about the full-moon beauty of our cypress forest!