Dallas

Last week I flew to Texas with my mom so that we could take a quick little temples and Magnolia road trip.  I had planned on visiting the Dallas, San Antonio and Houston temples when I came last October, but Dallas and San Antonio were closed for cleaning the week we came and then Houston flooded right before so I didn’t end up going to any of them.  It was a great excuse to go again this year for Christmas at Magnolia.  I made it for fall last year, and I will have to plan a trip for the Spring as well, in the future, but I do not intend to come for the summer… I do not believe I will ever be able to tolerate the Texas summer heat.  I can barely handle it in November.  We flew into the Dallas airport on Wednesday afternoon and went to the temple.  It was dark when we got out so we got to see it all lit up.  We then drove down to our hotel in Waco.

Waco

After we got checked into our hotel we wandered over to Magnolia to see if they had any Christmas lights up.  They did, but the grounds were closed so we just walked around the outside to enjoy them.  We had planned on staying the whole day on Thursday at Magnolia, but the crowds were much smaller this time around, so everything took so much less time that we had planned.  We stopped in at the bakery first for a cupcake, and there was no line at all.  I couldn’t believe that.  Then we went over to the market and while there were plenty of people there, it was still nothing compared to my previous trip and when we went to check out there was again no line at all.  I loved all of the Christmas installations so much, all the adorable little houses, and the wall of mantles.  All so cute.  I just love how they display everything, just like it is in a house.  It is so beautiful.  After that we wandered around the grounds and the seed supply shop and were done by 11:30.  So we headed over to Magnolia Table for lunch.  We had to wait just a half an hour, when I have heard people going with a 2 hour wait.  I think it was a perfect time to go because the following weekend was the Christmas celebrations, so maybe a lot of people were waiting to go to that.  I really enjoyed the lunch, everything was so well thought out and intentional.   Once we finished lunch we continued our drive down to Austin.

Austin

Once we got to Austin we went to the Capitol building and this time I actually took a tour.  It was a quick one, and not my favorite.  But they did take us down to some lower levels that I hadn’t been to in my wanderings before and I enjoyed seeing the Christmas decorations and huge trees.  After our tour we drove out to Mount Bonnell park that has a beautiful view of the city and the river below it.  Despite the heat being a bit more than I preferred, it was nice to be there for the fall, to get a second round of it.  Even if it didn’t feel very much like Christmas.  We then headed the rest of the way down to San Antonio.

San Antonio

The first thing we did on Friday morning in San Antonio was go to the temple and we both loved it so much.  It has so many of the most beautiful stained glass windows through out the entire building.  And the fall leaves around it and the fountain in the front and the view over the valley, it was all just so beautiful.  We headed into the city after that, and we walked around downtown, went to the Cathedral where Davy Crockett’s ashes are, then to the old Market and then to the river walk where I had the most delicious pork tacos.  We wandered around the river walk until it was dark and we took a boat tour where all of the lights were shining.  I didn’t think about it until a couple of days later, but we really should have gone back to the temple to see all the stained glass windows at night.   So sad we missed that.

Houston

On Saturday we drove from San Antonio to Houston which took the whole morning and early afternoon.  We got to the temple in the afternoon.  This was the temple I was looking forward to visiting the most.  I saw a picture of it years ago that I loved so much and I have really wanted to come ever since.  We timed it just right so that we just had to stay about a half hour afterwards to catch it at as it was getting dark, as this was the time I really wanted to see it.  I love the design of the building.  We stayed in Houston that night and then flew home the next day.