A Road Trip to Waco, Texas…

One of the things we love most about traveling all over our beautiful country is the opportunity to see friends and family on the road. While we were in Las Vegas this past year we discovered a good friend of ours and her husband (whom we had yet to meet although they have been married 7 years)  were also planning to be in Las Vegas while we were there. We arranged to meet for a lovely dinner and thoroughly enjoyed meeting Chuck, as well as reconnecting with Patty.

Fast forward to spring and Patty and Chuck (who reside near Waco) invited us over for a visit. From College Station we drove the two hours west on state highway 6 and before long we pulled up to their beautiful house south of Waco. Their house sits atop a bluff overlooking a large river that empties into Lake Waco. The view high above the watershed is simply fabulous! Who knew there was elevation in the town of Waco Texas? We surely didn’t…

Patty and Chuck's plan for the evening was to show us a few of their favorite spots. A funny story needs to be told before I continue telling about the evening. Patty and Chuck told us about an ingenious idea  they had one day when they happened to be in a men's store in town at the same time as a bunch of fraternity students from Baylor University.  Since cab and Uber services are lacking in Waco Patty spontaneously asked the students if any of them would consider being a designated driver for them when needed for their occasional nights out on the town. The young men readily agreed and gave Patty their phone numbers

Chuck interviewed a few of them and selected a nice young man who has since become their paid-by-the-hour driver. Well for our night out that same young man came to the house to be our driver. He arrived in his own car but switched to Chuck's car for our evening out.  I admit it felt kind of opulent to have a driver but it sure was fun and he was indeed a really nice fellow.

Our first stop was Cricket’s Grill and Draft House. Cricket’s Grill is known mostly for the large selection of craft beer on tap and we planned to sample a few before dinner. Since we were in Texas Sharon and I were focused on tasting Texas brews whereas Patty and Chick tried a few of our favorites from our travels. Chuck particularly like the Stone IPA while my favorite was an IPA brewed in Independence Texas.

After happy hour “our driver” picked us up (he had been back on campus for a softball game awaiting Chuck's text bidding his return) and drove a short distance over to a nice, quaint Italian eatery (and a real Road Treat) called Portofino's. The Shrimp Scarparielli I had was really delicious and Sharon loved her Fettuccini Moth Mia (Artichokes, fresh mushrooms & bacon in pink sauce)… We certainly had a wonderful evening and after dinner we returned to their house where we continued our jovial conversation over a wine night cap on their back porch overlooking the moonlit water listening to a Great Horned Owl hoot every now and then. Fabulous!

We enjoyed breakfast tacos in the morning with coffee poolside savoring the perfect weather. Before we left Patty and Chuck had another treat for us as they took us to the Baylor Club.  The Baylor Club is located inside McLane Stadium (where Baylor University plays their football games). Patty and Chuck knew how much we love visiting University campuses.  We were delighted to visit this fantastic venue at the Baylor campus enjoying an awesome soup and salad bar with great views of the stadium!

Thanks again to our friends Chuck and Patty for their splendid hospitality and for sharing their favorite places in Waco!