Home > Wendy Does Waco > Archives > 2008 > July > 21
Monday, July 21, 2008
Home again
It’s Monday and I’m finally back in Waco. I hope you all missed me dearly and celebrated my 33rd birthday with gusto on Friday. I know I did. Though, getting old has changed the meaning of the word gusto for me. “Celebrating with gusto” used to mean successive shots and now means an evening of sophisticated dining and good friends.
Something you should know about me is that I’m obnoxious about my birthday. I have a tendency to tell everyone I run into on the day that is is MY day. But it pays off. My friends and I had our double queen room at the Hotel Indigo upgraded to a king suite and an adorable Indigo employee hooked me up with free desert, coffee, breakfast and bottle of champagne.
I was reminded this morning that Waco is getting a Hotel Indigo as part of all this development, and I’m thrilled. The decor is fresh and fun (see my pictures) and there are haikus everywhere, written about every subject from the room key to the pad of paper on the desk. The hotel also has a shuttle that takes you anywhere within a 3 mile radius.
We headed for West End, because that’s what a lot of people suggested, but it was DEAD and most of the eateries were chain. So the shuttle picked us back up and dropped us in Uptown where we wandered into Breadwinners and had the most amazing dish of green chile mac and cheese. mention of my b-day also got us free cake from the restaurant/bakery.
Despite a late night, I was up at 6 a.m. to walk around Dallas. My Waco walks have made me a bit more fearless about wandering the streets of a downtown. It’s a nice feeling. Though, when a corner-lingerer tried to invite himself on my walk with me, I began to really miss the familiarity of Waco and its regular cast of street characters. I trotted down to Dealey Plaza and then the grassy knoll and had the rare pleasure of contemplating the historic spot without throngs of tourists around me.
All in all, I had a great time last week catching up with friends and family. But by Sunday, I longed for Waco with an affection I ususally have only for the Carolinas. Vacation is wonderful, but it’s almost more pleasing to have a place you actually enjoy coming home to.
