A Trip To Magnolia
Well it has only been over a month since I took my road trip down to Magnolia and I have YET to share it all. But better late than never friends!
The trip was an 18 hour drive there and 18 hour drive back. With a 9 month old baby. Who broke in his first tooth. 𤤠Yeah, I know. Nuts. Nuts, I tell ya. But I have to say - he cried only twice to get out of the car and stretch. TWICE. I was blessed with a road tripping baby. Hallelujah!
The first day we drove to Memphis and stayed over night to get a little rest and a stretch in the legs! We had some yummy bbq & made a little visit to Graceland!Â
The next morning we drove straight to Magnolia! I thought we'd never make it but my mama and I sure did get in a lot of laughs from being so slap happy. Texas, or what parts of texas we drove through, looked very similar to Ohio. But I started jumping in my seat when we seen the signs for Waco. I felt like a kid going to Disney World!
We stayed at the Red Roof Inn right across the street from Baylor Stadium. It had a pretty cool view and was super convenient to everything but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone to stay there. Spiders, loud A/C, terrible breakfast. Ugh.
But 5 minutes down the way, we made it to the Mother Land. At 5 PM, once the market was closed. But to be completely honest, it was perfect. We got to see the grounds (from outside the gate) when no one was there to obstruct our view. And got some really good selfies too!Â
So here are my thoughts on the market with my first impressions:Â
It's a lot smaller than I was imagining in my head. Not so much the store or the silos, but the whole area itself. It was still just as amazing as you'd think it is!
It's not in the country or a small town. The market is surrounded by buildings and homes. Which I had read this before on other blogs, but I didn't realize how much city it was.
The staff were all so friendly, I just couldn't believe it! The security guard for the grounds that night was so nice, took the picture of us above and talked about Chip and Jo and Waco in such wonderful ways. You'd think by now, people would tire of it but nope!
From what we gathered and experienced, Waco is a college town and little bit on the lower end side. For example, most of the homes are WAY run down, have their living room furniture out on their front lawns and we even seen a "shaved ice" business being run out of someone's bedroom window..yes. The town was a bit 'eclectic'.Â
But there are a lot of parts to Waco that weren't like this. Just the Market was located right in the heart of downtown Waco. I just envisioned it in like a small, country boppin' town.
Later that evening we stopped to get some good steak and then we just had to do it. We had to drive past Chip & Jo's home. The drive there was very pretty and MUCH MORE country. Now while we didn't get invited inside to have a cup of coffee or anything, we did get to see the kiddos outside playing tag and chip and Jo sitting on the front porch with some guests! (I believe from her Instagram posts, it was her little sister and brother in law!) Ok yall, I know this is sounding like MAJOR creeps, but it was an innocent drive past and we were all squeeling with excitement! Their home was so quaint and cute and completely gated off from weirdos like ourselves. đ But the gate was open! So we went up to the house and asked if we could come inside....JUST KIDDING! Hehehe. But the gate was open! Certainly was surprised!Â
The next day we woke up bright and early to make it to the market and the bakery before any lines started to form! We were 3rd in line for the bakery and honestly, I am glad. The temp hit a high of 107 while we were there. 107. Needless to say, it was almost unbearable. But the bakery line fills up fast and stays LONG all day!Â
The first day at the bakery, we decided to only get one cupcake because we knew they wouldn't hold up in the car with the heat and a whole day of shopping. I got a peach pie cupcake and it was the greatest thing I have ever tasted in my life. It was absolutely delicious. We sat on the patio sets right next to the bakery and it was enjoyable for everyone else but me. One word: birds. But the patio table and chairs were so stinking cute!Â
There wasn't many people lining up to go into the store yet so we walked the grounds a little and took an abundance of photos. With the first stop at the #milestomagnolia!
Ok, so I know these photos aren't drool worthy. I'm truly not doing the Market justice with them. But being there for the first time i was so intrigued just soaking it all in, I was just snapping quick shots here and there to really see the beauty of it all. And besides, I figured I'd bring my camera the next day to really capture all the good stuff well. Hmm.
After the photo ops, we got in line for the store. We were about the 5th or 6th people in line and within an hour of waiting, the line was wrapped around the building and down the block. Yeah, so glad we got there when we did because it was HOT. Now the inside of the store I didn't get to take many photos because I was shopping and it was CROWDED!Â
It was everything walking into the store. I was ready to take one of everything. The prices were decent on a lot of things and I had a little bit of sticker shock on others. And even with all the people in there, I still strolled Liam around in his stroller (he fell asleep!) But it certainly was a tight squeeze.Â
I bought a bunch of goodies and when we left, there was no line to get in! I was certainly shocked! We hung on the grounds for a bit before getting lunch at In-N-Out and going through a few other stores around Waco. Like The Findery, Cedars Chest and a few others. All worthy of making a stop into! Then we got some pizza from Shortys Pizzz Shack and hung in the hotel for the evening. It was just SO hot.
The next morning was our last day and it poured the whole morning. So much for pictures! We got our bakery treats for home, shopped the market again (no line! Lucky us!) And ate lunch at the food trucks. We were disappointed. The food just wasn't what we were hoping. And the lines were ridiculous. Like 45 minute wait. Yeah, insane.Â
But it was all part of the experience. đ And the food trucks aren't there all day long too! They close up early!
Because it was such a dreary day, I quickly made up a little road trip drive list to visit some of the Fixer Upper homes, Bed and Breakfast and the old Magnolia shop on Bosque. This was certainly another highlight of the trip!!
We stopped at Common Grounds and I got a Snickers Latte. Ohhhhh yum! Be sure to walk through to the back of the shop off to the right. It's so cute back there and such a surprise!
Then we stopped at Clints shop, Harp Design Co. Prices were high but fun to stop in and in the back, sometimes you get to catch a glimpse of Clint working!
Clints old home is right next door to the shop!
The Bed & Breakfast is located in quaint little small town (McGregor) and was very darling. No one was around taking photos so we hopped out and took the opportunity!
Then we continued our drive around looking at all the homes and Rachel and Luke's was by far all our faves!Â
We made it to the old store and boy it's amazing to see where it all started from! A parking lot with MAYBE 20 car spaces to this huge empire they are creating.Â
And then at the veryyyyyy end of our driving extravaganza, something awesome happened. We decided to drive around this cute little neighborhood and see if we could guess if any of the homes would be on season 5 of fixer upper! We knew it would be one because of the infamous magnolia tree in the landscaping! WELL, we stumbled upon this cute little blue house that was so darling and had a LOT of cars around it and since it was dark and gloomy they had the lights on. We were driving slow to admire the home and we look in one of the windows that had the lights on and see none other than a magnolia furniture bed frame. So we start to freak out a little. We drive back around to the front of the house and see people STAGING the house! What! But then someone peeked out the window and waved!!! So we had to do some research and sure enough Jo posted a photo of this house a while back when they first began to renovate it! Y'all! How awesome is that??! We believe it was getting ready to be revealed the next day! We are hoping our car makes it into the background of the episode!! đ
So our trip came to an end and we drove to Nashville the next day and had some yummy Mexican food and a nice refreshing pool swim. And we were jam packed in the cars with all our treasures. We certainly did get some great stuff!
We are already planning a trip back but hopefully another time in the fall when football season is among us! We'd love to see how Texans tailgate! đ
Is there something you want to know about our trip? Ask me below!Â
P.S. I forgot to share and don't ask me how - we drove out to Jimmy Dons shop and we met Jo's mama!!!Â
