lost in exploration | waco part 1

an 11-day road trip starting in Indianapolis, visiting 10 cities in five states

*Waco is broken up into two parts because we spent three full days there, so don’t forget to check out waco part 2!

end of day four:

4 | 24 | 2023 (Monday)

Our storage container Airbnb

For probably the first time this whole trip, we made it to the next city/Airbnb at a decent hour, around 6PM. Another beautiful day where I made sure to snap photos of our Airbnb before we unloaded the car.

Something to note: if you read my blog post where I explain the background for the road trip, you know that Waco is what started it. If you haven’t read it yet, check it out here. We didn’t do many Magnolia touristy things until the second full day: day six, which is in Waco Part 2 (coming soon).

After unloading the car, we made our way towards downtown Waco for some food. There wasn’t a concrete plan, so as we were driving around, we happened upon Southern Roots Brewery. We looked at each other and knew: pizza and beer, done. It was a great stop because not only did we each get a flight of beers to try as well as delicious pizza to share, but we got to play some games! They had quite a few to choose from, which made this dinner spot even better. Which games did we play you ask? Connect 4 and Skip-Bo. Who won you ask? I choose to forget, but I did win a few times. :)

We were there for a couple of hours and decided to head back to get much needed rest.

day five:

4 | 25 | 2023 (Tuesday)

Slept in a bit, which was a must considering we had a full day of exploring planned! First stop: breakfast at Magnolia Table. We decided to make two reservations through Open Table (highly recommend if you decide to eat here) one for our first day and another for the second day. I’m glad we went twice because the first round of food wasn’t as enjoyable as the second.

Latte and drip coffee at Magnolia Table

We both had coffee, but I tried the latte; the latte art did not disappoint! Tabs tried the Texas Pecan coffee, and if you enjoy flavored coffee, she recommends trying it. Surprisingly, we both decided on the Farm Breakfast: two eggs cooked to order, breakfast potatoes, and your choice of biscuit or sliced toast + your choice of house sausage or thick-cut peppered bacon. You already know I had to taste-test the biscuit, plus, they offer strawberry butter. Sign us up! However, the biscuit reminded me of cornbread, which isn’t my favorite, and the strawberry butter was just OK. The best part of the meal were the breakfast potatoes and bacon. The restaurant was busy as expected, and the customer service was great!

Magnolia Table

Farm Breakfast at Magnolia Table

Of course, we took a ridiculous amount of photos. It was wild to be there; I kept thinking, “Wow, this isn’t on TV. We’re actually here in real life.” Such a weird feeling and one that continued for the remainder of our trip because we were in so many different cities and states. Once we finished breakfast, we made our way to the Take Away Market, connected to the restaurant. Grab a coffee, baked item, or gifts to go! It’s a cute stop if you don’t have the time for breakfast.

We left Magnolia Table to explore Waco, since we decided to hit up Magnolia and the silos the next day. We started a short list of places to visit, but it wasn’t until we stopped at Fox & Gray, a local boutique across from Magnolia Market, when we expanded our list.

Summer, the owner of the boutique, was great to chat with as she had so much knowledge of the area and plenty of stories to tell! Chatting with her for about 45 minutes was one of the highlights of the day because she also filled us in on some of the best local places to check out.

Small boutique where we met Summer, the owner

BRU Artisan Coffee Works - located in an antique elevator in the historic Praetorian building

This trip was not only about stopping at a local donut shop in each city, but also, stopping at as many local coffee shops as possible. Ha! We love trying new coffee, and Bru Artisan Coffee Works was our first in Waco. It’s in such a unique location: inside an antique elevator of a historic building.

We parked across the street from BRU and decided to take a walk to our next stop not knowing what we might find along the way!

As we made our way toward Fabled Bookshop & Cafe, we came across some murals. Now, a few of these, the more colorful ones after the photo of me, are actually a little further north near Spice Village. I figured putting them all together in a photo gallery would be easier. The Love Your City & Neighbor mural painted in 2016 was definitely a favorite. Loved the message, the colors, the worn paint. It also happened to be on the wall of Fabled. Also, all of the murals we saw in Waco were simply from walking or driving around and stopping to enjoy!

Mural on the side of Fabled Bookshop & Cafe

After admiring the murals and snapping all the pics, we went into Fabled Bookshop & Cafe; it was bigger than I thought and also super cute! From the sheer number of books, to the beautiful plants, to the cafe, it is a great spot to spend some time alone or with friends. I also really loved the kids section of the shop where they had papier-mâché hot air balloons, dress-up clothes, and other fun things! Would highly recommend visiting and staying for a while!

Fabled Bookshop & Cafe

The biggest and beautifulest Bird of Paradise I’ve ever seen!

Such a cute kiddos book and dress-up section!

Eventually, we left the bookshop and walked back to the car to drive to Spice Village, which Summer suggested. It’s a spacious collection of 60+ small boutiques located under one roof. If you decide to go, plan to spend quite a bit of time to walk around looking through everything.

Tabs and I loved the contour faces wallcovering in one of the boutique areas as well as a beautiful black and white console table. The dressing rooms also had really colorful tile on the floor. Would recommend if you’re looking for a ton of shopping in one place. There are a few other shops in the same building that are worth checking out, too!

From Spice Village we walked south past the Dr Pepper Museum and what is formerly known as The Containery: colorful shipping containers that will eventually be repainted and constructed into various retail, dining and lodging businesses. There’s a whole story behind the shipping containers that Summer told us. Basically, the man who purchased them a few years ago, for the purpose of having small business tenants, was supposed to paint them neutral and did the opposite, painted them in primary/secondary colors. They’ve since been sold to a San Diego based company that will turn them into what will be known as “Herringbone”. You can read more about it here. Despite the project not being complete, I quite enjoyed the colorful scene, especially next to the mural. You may also be wondering if it rained on us by the look of the clouds. It did not. Maybe a sprinkle here or there, but we lucked out as we did most of the trip. Well, until the next day, which you’ll read about in part 2.

Mural on side of the Dr Pepper Museum

Formerly known as The Containery

After admiring another mural and unplanned piece of container art, we walked to Magnolia Market and the silos. Keep in mind, the time is about 5:30PM, and all of Magnolia Market (it’s about two city blocks) closes at 6PM. The grounds/gates remain open until 7PM. Summer informed us that Silos Baking Co. has previously marked their cupcakes down as it gets closer to closing, and we figured why not stop by to see. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case for us, but we still bought two cupcakes - Strawberries ‘n Cream and The Chocolatier.

 
 

Cupcakes secured at Silos Baking Co.

We tasted-tested them once we got back to the Airbnb. Both of us enjoyed the strawberry flavor, which was stronger in the frosting than the cupcake. The chocolate one was decent, but overall, they reminded us of any other cupcake but with a cute frosted swirl!

Once we secured the cupcakes, we walked around the grounds a bit because people were leaving, which meant it was prime photo time. Not to mention, rain was forecasted the next day. It was great to take all the photos we wanted without having to wait for people to move.

My favorite part of the grounds, at least from our quick visit that evening: the block letters on the side of Magnolia Market: EVERYONE HAS A STORY WORTH TELLING. A message I try to remind myself for myself and when thinking about others.

What a day packed full of memories! On our way back to the Airbnb, we changed plans and decided to grab In-N-Out and Whataburger for dinner, to compare of course. We both tried half of a cheeseburger and fries (not animal style) from In-N-Out as well as half a bacon and cheese Whataburger. In-N-Out automatically lost points due to its simple menu without bacon, the small burger size, and bland fries but did get points for presentation. Whataburger gained points for menu size, bacon, burger size, and overall taste. Whataburger won eight to four. Sorry not sorry. :)

To end the evening, we poured ourselves some Flybird wine margaritas, grabbed the JBL for some tunes, and sat on the roof of our cute Airbnb storage container in the middle of Waco, Texas. Not a bad first full day, Waco.

Have suggestions for Waco that you don’t see listed below? Drop them in the comments so I can add them to my list!

mapping the details:

For reference, pink pin is our Airbnb. Otherwise, all locations listed from top to bottom.

*Something to note: this is a complete list of places we visited the entire time we were in Waco, which is broken up into two blog posts. Check out Waco part 2 (coming soon).

on our list for next time:

  • Barnett’s Whiskey House

  • Little Shop on Bosque (was temporarily closed but hopefully they reopen it)

  • Glory Bell Coffee

  • Union Hall (urban eateries similar to Garage Food Hall in Indy)

Lost in Exploration 2023Jen Scherr DesignsRoad trip, bestie road trip, waco, waco texas, magnoliaComment