A Half Day at Magnolia & The Silos

In the fall of 2023, Teddy and I took a 7 day road trip so he could visit states 49 and 50 on his list. We road tripped through Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Oklahoma.

After landing at the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport we started south. I’d never been to Waco before or Magnolia. We decided that since it was not far off our route, we’d stop for a few hours and visit.

Coming up on the area in Waco where Magnolia is located is unassuming. You turn off the highway and onto some smaller streets in town and then the silos kind of appear. The day we visited was an author doing a book signing so there were quite a few people visiting.

We parked in a free parking lot and walked to Magnolia Home first. There were definitely a lot of people inside and it could be overwhelming. I wasn’t there to look at anything in particular, so I just browsed and picked up a few small Christmas gifts that would fit in our luggage.

Next up we walked around outside and popped into the church before browsing the small stand alone shops. These were some of my favorites to visit. They each had their own vibe and were unique. Chapter One and No. 16 were my favorites. We then wandered around to get some food. Since it was November, not all the food trucks outside were open, but we were able to get a pizza and some drinks. The weather was beautiful so we ate pizza right near the silos and just took our time and watched everyone playing outside.

Magnolia Bakery line was long so we opted for bakery items from one of the food trucks instead. Then we grabbed coffee at Magnolia Press. The line was long there too, and we waited a bit for our drinks (Teddy waited while I sat and waited for him) but the latte was incredible. One of the top 5 best lattes I’ve ever had. We browsed the shops a bit more before heading out.

Overall, we spent about 3 or so hours at the Silos. You can certainly spend more time here, but we just wanted to visit on our way through. If we had more time in the area, some other things on my list of things to do include making a reservation for lunch at Magnolia Table (they were booked when we visited) and visiting the Waco Mammoth National Historic Site.

Overall, I think it was worth the visit. I personally don’t need to visit every store or stand in every line, but feel like in just a few hours I was able to experience all that was there. My biggest takeaways were looking at the designs of each shop and the marketing and branding and see the cohesion while also allowing them to have separate personalities. I was impressed. While I wouldn’t make a whole trip out of visiting here, I think it’s a fun stop.