ON THE WALLS of the Waco, Texas, headquarters of Magnolia, the home and lifestyle brand founded by reality-TV stars Chip and Joanna Gaines, you'll find a bold mission statement. "We believe in unearthing beauty, however hidden and subtle it might be," reads one standout line.
Three blocks away, the Silos is a development that embodies that philosophy. In 2014, the Gaineses, both alumni of Baylor University in Waco, bought the moldering Brazos Valley Cotton Oil Mill. Over the past decade, they have transformed the five-acre downtown property into a retail mecca for fans of their hit HGTV show Fixer Upper and the Magnolia empire it spawned.
In addition to the flagship Magnolia Market, which sells home goods, there's Ferny's: The Retro Plant Shop, curated by Joanna's sister, Mikey (I bought a lovely $34 pot made by a local ceramist); Reverie, which sells women's clothing; and No. 16, with Chipapproved baseball caps, pocket knives, and other stereotypical guy stuff. Need caffeine? There's the Magnolia Press. Craving quiet? Find respite from retail inside the Old Church, a 130-yearold, long-abandoned Presbyterian house of worship that was dismantled, moved a mile down the road, and rebuilt in 2020.
The Silos has proven popular: more than 1 million people visit annually. The rust on the mill's two 120-foot-tall silos is now a beauty mark. Yet Waco lacked luxurious lodgings for those visitors-until last fall, when the Gaineses unveiled Hotel 1928 (doubles from $375).
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Bu hikaye Travel+Leisure US dergisinin May 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
The Luxury of Silence - Grieving a dissolved marriage, Nora Walsh seeks peace and compassion at a meditation retreat in California.
My decade-long marriage to a man I deeply love had dissolved, and I had come to the Spirit Rock Meditation Center, in the secluded hills of Marin County, north of San Francisco, to steady myself. Led by the author and meditation teacher Oren Jay Sofer, the seven-day silent retreat focused on the four brahmavihāra, or Buddhist virtues: loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity.
Family Values - Gay father and blogger Jonathan Bailey shares his proudest moments of traveling with his partner and daughters.
My partner and I grew up in families that didn't travel a lot, so we've always had a sense of wanderlust. Before we had kids, we traveled together, and it was life-changing-travel opened our minds to different ways of life.In 2000, Triton and I decided to have kids. At the time, my mom had terminal cancer, and we were all about connecting with family. We wanted to adopt, because we felt like there were so many children in the world who needed love and a good home. In 2002, my mom passed away, and Sophia was born two weeks later. We welcomed our second daughter, Ava, in 2004.
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I was at the end of a five-day journey that had begun in the UNESCO World Heritage site of Galle Fort, in southwestern Sri Lanka, and taken me across the southern tip of the island to the leopard reserve of Yala National Park. In between I had taken in the dramatic coastline of Weligama and had stopped for some beach time in Hiriketiya. Sri Lanka is a country I'm particularly fond of, so when I was asked to revisit to report this story, I seized the opportunity. Yes, I was dying to go back, but I'd had another motive for coming: I wanted to see if the island nation was ready to welcome international visitors again.
Experiences: Hands On - Single-malt whiskies and triple-cream cheeses are the stuff New York's Hudson Valley is made of.
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