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This past week, while Ohio was experiencing the thirty-five degrees, feel like twenty degrees, this farmgirl was wearing short sleeves and enjoying the seventy-degree sunshine at our Dream Destination Waco, Texas, Magnolia bound, visiting none other than the Magnolia Silos.We shucked off our warm Ohio clothes for short sleeves later that day enjoying the 70 degree Texas weather.
For those who might not know, the revitalization has been made by Chip and Joanna Gaines stars of the Fixer Upper, HGTV show. My daughter Christi and I and our families watch the show as they fix up homes with her signature farmhouse designs. Chip is the grunt of the operations, a true entrepreneur, and Joanna the designer. And if you haven’t read any of their books, you should. They have a magnificent story of, “get after it” as Chip tells in his book encouraging one to follow their dreams.
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| Of course we made our way over to the Magnolia Table once the Elite restaurant a hundred year old establishment of Waco that even Elvis visited back in the day when he was stationed nearby. I bought the T-Shirt with the saying in this photo cause I believe it. |
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| In the Magnolia Baking Company, as seen on one of their Fixer Upper episodes, the magnificent cupcakes are big and puffy and moist and the best, I do believe, I’ve ever eaten. |
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And, if you ever hear of long lines, don’t worry, they are well staffed and their lines move very quickly.
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| I loved all the wonderful things on the shelves through the grain barn. Christmas music piped into the buildings and on the grounds=Heaven! |
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| We sat at a community table and conversed with an older couple sitting across from us. It was wonderful to get to know each other. The waitress was so happy to see the “community table” working. The food was good, too. I had the pimento cheese sandwich. Yum. |
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| It’s a wonderful place. Next, on to tour Baylor for grandson CJ to explore. The barn in the middle is their bakery and to the right, their market place grain barn with offices upstairs. |
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| Lots of photo op spots on the Silo property. Daughter Christi got the bag! |
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| This is so cool! Wooden spoons feels like a chandelier. |
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| CJ and Christi enjoying Joanna’s chicken salad on croissant along with a glass of her lavender-lemonade was a huge hit as we enjoyed the lunch near the towering silos |
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| I squealed like a school girl when I saw the Silos come into view. LOOK! The Silos. We are here!!! Give me the camera. |
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| The Baylor Campus covers hundreds of acres. It is fabulous and Chip and Jo both attended Baylor. And the writer in me was super ecstatic when I discovered they house a library with poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s works. It was full of antiques and stained glass and gorgeous. Here’s a popular phrase from one of her poems, “How do I love thee? Let me count the way.” |
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| On Thursday evening we purchased the Waco tour. At first we thought $79 too pricey, but hey, we are in Waco, so why not do it. We were not disappointed. It was two and a half hours in a Mercedes and the most enjoyable time and guides. We stopped for ice cream at the Heritage Creamery, toured the Common Grounds coffee shop hangout, even took a bathroom break, saw some of the homes as seen on the show and stopped at Clint Harps place to shop. If you go to Waco, the tour is a MUST DO. Well worth the money. |
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| And so unexpected we drive into a lovely neighbor out near Crawford and just by chance we find three homes in there with, low and behold, a Magnolia sign in the yard. This is one of them. How lucky is this? Lucky people who buy them. |
And guess who was at the Silos on Friday morning? None other than Jimmy Don! Of course we got our picture taken with him. He is “humble and kind” just like the metal word art says that we both purchased from him. And wise Christi bought another suitcase to ship all our Waco Silos stuff back via the plane for $30. (That is cheaper than postal.)
On our way to see the Magnolia B&B that aired as one of their episodes, the afternoon before we were to fly home, we thought we might sashay over to nearby Crawford to see if we could find the Gaines’ place as seen on their show. I don’t know how we did this with no address, “look for a silver roof,” was all we had to go with. I must say it was a total fluke, but my daughter found it like a rabbit dog on a scent trail—a sixth sense perhaps, I do believe. We were not disappointed. Their place is picturesque and fronted by white board fence. That find of course made our day and a perfect ending to a wonderful getaway trip for this Brown County farm girl!
Goodbye Waco.
We were not disappointed.
Thank you Chip and Joanna.
Take Joy!
Sherry Phillips Mitchell
