Let me explain.
If you'll remember, my husband's wedding anniversary gift to me is twelve date nights - one per month - all planned and paid for by him. In my opinion, the best present a girl could ask for!
Last month, he took me to Pizza Farm in Wisconsin. We had a fun time driving through the countryside and waiting 3 hours for local, wood fire pizza (gasp!). And while we didn't end up waiting for 3-hour pizza, we did enjoy spending the evening together and venturing to somewhere new.
For this month's date night, Andi text to me this week to see which options I'd be interested in:
1) 1 hour massage in downtown Minneapolis
2) dinner at a nice restaurant
3) quick dinner at a restaurant, followed by the Parade of Homes Tour to dream up our next big home purchase
My choice: #3. While a 1 hour massage would be nice, it wouldn't be time spent together. #2 - dinner at a nice restaurant - is sometimes hit or miss for me. If we go out to eat together, I want to go somewhere really nice where we have good conversation and drink good wine. It's not my ideal QT activity to go to a restaurant with televisions, noisy music or a stack of City Pages sitting next to the door. It never fails, Andi picks up a copy of the newspaper, I stare out the window or watch the TV while he reads it at the table, and well ... quality date night time not achieved. So when I text back Option 3, Andi wrote back "wanna get married?" Apparently that was his choice too.
We met up at home last night around 5:30pm and drove down the street to the gas station to pick up a Parade of Homes Tour book. One of our favorite things to do together is tour homes to get ideas for our next move up in the world. This activity fuels our on-going discussion as to where we want to live next. Our current duplex isn't the ideal place to raise a family and we knew it the day we bought it. The day we bring home a new baby to our current house is the day we completely out grow it. While it's the perfect size for us today, the moment we add a crib, stroller, pack & play, baby toys, clothes and another little person to the mix is the day we both say in unison, we've got to find a bigger place. Do we move to the suburbs? Should we stay in the city? That's the half-a-million dollar question. Literally.
As we flipped through the book, I noticed the Parade of Homes Tour times boldly on the cover: Thursday-Sunday Noon - 6:00pm. Considering it was now 5:53pm ... we weren't going to make it. So much for Option 3.
Andi made an executive decision and took me to The Strip Club, a trendy sustainable restaurant in a ghetto little neighborhood in St. Paul. Our waiter called the location "transitional." We loved it.
The Strip Club was the perfect date night. We ordered a nice bottle of wine and had an evening of uninterrupted conversation. I ordered Steak Frittes sirloin served with Farmer Bob tomatoes, buttermilk bleu and French fries. Andi had Fresh Divers Scallops, served with a mushroom and corn ragout. Absolutely to die for - one of the greatest meals we've eaten in a long time and the perfect night to unwind and reconnect.
Can't wait to see what's in store for October!
Well considering you have a great sister-in-law / future babysitter half a mile away, I'd suggest getting a gorgeous home on Highland Parkway or down by the river in Highland Park.
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