Waco Trip

 My girls trip to Waco, Texas, with five dear friends was SO fun! We left on a Wednesday and came home Saturday. We talked and talked, ate delicious food and treats, drove around looking at Fixer Upper houses, relaxed, shopped (lots of shopping), walked around the Baylor campus and met one of bears, went to the Dr Pepper museum, and just made a lot of fun memories. Magnolia was our sole reason for going, and it did not disappoint! We went to the Silos every day. One of the days we sat in beanbag chairs in the covered area and ended up sitting there for an hour and a half, just relaxing, people watching, and chatting. It was wonderful! 

Our first night had a bit of excitement. We drove just a head of a lightning storm all the way to Waco, and then around 11:30pm as we were getting ready for bed, someone pounded on the back door very loudly. Jen called the police just in case and handed out knives to keep at our bedsides. :-) We discovered later that it was likely just some kids who were bored and making mischief. We saw a crew of them outside other nights we were there. 

We made friends with an older couple from Arkansas one day. We met them at Magnolia Table (our 2nd time there). They were sitting at the table next to us, and we got to talking. Then we ran into them two other times at the Silos. They invited us to sit with them at the coffee shop, and we had a lovely little chat. :) Southern hospitality is so great! 

Dinner on our last night was pretty epic. We even saw Chip Gaines in their driveway from afar on the highway on our way there. We ate BBQ, the most delicious chicken I have ever tasted, and amazing banana pudding. 

Getting out of Oregon was refreshing. Texas, even with the humidity, was a big breath of fresh air. While waiting in line for our dinner on our first full day there, Tiffany had an old man tell her, "Take off your damn mask! We don't need them sons o' b****es!" Completely taken off guard, she said, "Oh, I want to!" and took it right off. We laughed so hard about that interaction. Such a different culture from what we've been used to back home. When people heard where we were from (we were obviously tourists), they looked at us with sadness and said things like, "I'm so sorry. We heard it's bad there in Portland." We made sure to tell them it is bad and that we liked Texas better. :) 

We had an eventful return trip to the airport, as we got caught in a severe rain storm. It was a little tense for a while there on the road (emergency alerts on our phones, water pouring off of overpasses, cars pulled over on the side of the highway), but we made it safely without incident, going slowly and keeping our flashers on, which we realized we were supposed to do when we saw everyone else with flashers on. We were relieved to finally be at the airport!

Such an amazing trip. So thankful we got to go!