Mineola Vacation

Jon and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary this weekend! Yea for us! I think we are a great couple! Anyway, I'm not going to blog about my awesome husband here, (although if you know him, then you know I am not exaggerating in the least bit) but about our Mineola experience.
Hey gas prices are SO high! ....and we've been traveling all over the place here lately, so we decided to stick close to home. We are so glad we did! I hope by sharing here, that you will visit this great little Texas town! It charmed our socks off!
Munzesheimer Manor - Where we stayed
So, we couldn't pronounce this sweet little bed and breakfast where we stayed, but we enjoyed every minute of it. We bunked in the Engineer Room. Jon appreciated the non-girly decor. I appreciated the unfinished wood and faux fireplace (it really flickered) that made us feel like we were staying in a cabin in the woods. The reason we booked this particular room is b/c the internet said that it had it's own porch swing. We ending up swinging together in a hammock for hours after dark...reminded us of our honeymoon in Mexico...


Memory Lane, Lee's Old Country Store -Stores we liked
Actually, we liked them all, but these two stood out to us....maybe it's just our taste.
Memory Lane was funny. Crazy manequins everywhere. It was an antique store but not in the least stuffy and you could tell the owner put her personality into it.
Lee's was just yummy. The owner was a hoot. He came out and talked to us for a while....so friendly. He had sweet potato bread still hot from the oven, fresh pints of blackberries and all sorts of yummy homemade salsa syrups and such.
The whole downtown was bustling with activity. Lots of cute shops, several coffee shops that looked fun but we were both hot and dusty. There was even a Chicago hotdog vendor on the corner.

cheesecake from Taste of Italy

La Walfaletta & Taste of Italy- Food We ate
Oh we had some of the best food this weekend!! La Walfaletta was fun and funky and "everything is homemade even our pickles". It truly tasted homemade. I had a Texican chicken wrap/tortilla soup/chips and salsa. It's not Mexican food, in fact there were so many choices it made it hard to decide. Jon had gumbo and a chicken sandwich with great homemade bread. The atmosphere was french/country/funky. Kind of like the painter Toulouse Lautrec(remember the short guy in Moulin Rouge?)meets Texas. We will be back.
Taste of Italy was so romantic. It was on Lake Hawkins, there was live jazz music, plates were priced as low as $8 and the food was authentic Italian. In fact the owners were Italian. Their garlic bread was to die for and the pink sauce on my Chicken Diane was delicious. Jon didn't like his meal as much. It was supposed to be spicy and wasn't.....but it was still good.
Mineola Nature Preserve- Place we hiked for 4.5 miles
We spent a good solid 2 hrs here. We could have stayed longer but we were stupid and didn't bring water or food. This is a beautiful preserve, all 3000 acres of it. I would suggest coming with the intent of staying for a while. Wooded, hilly, feels like you are truly away from civilization. There looked to be a kids park but we didn't drive down to see it.
If your bored in East Texas, then take a little day trip to Mineola. If you want to experience the small town, friendliness of Texas, then this is a good place to stop by or stay awhile!