Dowell House, McKinney

Instead of having to worry about recovering from some raunchy bachelor/bachelorette party we'd had the night before our wedding, I decided to have our parties two nights prior. But the night before the wedding, I felt it should be something we savored - very special. The last night of the single life, the last night of girlhood/boyhood and doing everything alone. SO, much to my fiancé’s great displeasure, I booked us each a room at a bed and breakfast for our "wedding's eve". He would stay at the Bingham House (see his review of it), and I would stay at the big blue Dowell house just up the road from the Surrey House and Gardens (where we would hold our wedding tomorrow). I stayed in the Red Room. How can I describe it? SO BEAUTIFUL! Rich, red walls...soft classical harp music...a bubbling, candlelit fountain in the bathroom...a warm white Jacuzzi tub for two...aroma bath oils and beads and milks...soft, cuddly robes and slippers...high ceilings...plump pillows...cushioned mattress under silky sheets and a gorgeously woven, thick comforter...comfortable sitting nook...delightful reading materials...a TV and video collection if you can't think of anything better to do in such a delicious place (and therefore have earned my deepest pity)...and many, many quietly undisturbed hours to relish it all. I LOVED LOVED LOVED my room. And as I sipped a cup of hot tea, wrapped up in my robe, warm in my romantic red room against the cold and rain outside, I read through the guest journal entries from years of visitors and discovered just how much love and hope had lived in my room. Maybe the spirit of it all just lingered there, awaiting the next guest to surround them with comfort. It was the last night before I'd be made a part of a new family. Mystical and powerful, all that built up waiting and longing, it could not be ignored. I took a long hot bubble bath in candlelit quiet, only harp strings to talk to me. I let the layers of stress and fear and doubt just melt away, and the next morning, a fresh happy bride awoke to greet a cold sunny day...and start her new journey. It was the perfect beginning alone. It was even better when my husband joined me the following night for a long honeymoon week in McKinney, TX. Breakfasts were hot and sweet and rare. Mornings were spent lounging in the white wicker in the sunroom downstairs surrounded by ferns and other plants. Days were spent walking around historic downtown McKinney...eating lunch at the old fashioned fifties diner and soda fountain shop...browsing through antique shops and the library...meeting surprising people like the Steven, the arborist with a PhD who looked like Paul Bunyan and drove a big blue truck with an old yellow lab at his side and telling us about the history of some of the old downtown trees...taking in a shepherd’s pie dinner and a pool game at the Londoner, an English style pub...just holding hands and coming back to our room for loving with no agenda and no deadlines. We're going back for our anniversary this January. Why don't you pay them a visit? Give them a call, the owners are sweet as can be and you get so much more than you pay for. Recharge by yourself, or bring someone you love. You won't forget your experience here.