Date Night: Holiday Lights in the Park

Andi and I went on our monthly date night last night. If you'll remember, he gifted me one year of date nights for our anniversary, all planned and paid for by him. So far he's treated me to the Pizza Farm, The Strip Club, Pumpkin Carving and for November, the Holiday Lights in the Park event.

Originally he planned to take me to a new restaurant in Northeast Minneapolis, but at the last minute I suggested we go to the grand opening of the Holiday Lights in the Park which is held at Lake Phalen in Saint Paul every year. I'm a sucker for holiday lights and I saw the opening announcement on the news the other day so I thought this would be the perfect date night idea. Andi agreed; I think he enjoys Christmas lights too (although, probably not as obsessively as I do)! We arrived at Lake Phalen and paid $15 for park admission which included a CD of Minnesota Christmas songs. We were seriously the only car there and I felt so badly for all the volunteers who were standing outside in freezing weather with no business. Although, it was only the first day of the event and not even Thanksgiving yet, so I'm sure it gets busier closer to the holidays. We actually loved that we were the only there because we took our time through the park and stopped and took pictures of all the decorations. Some of the light displays were a little goofy - spaceships and aliens, a pirate ship, sharks - non-denominational? I guess you have to offer something for everyone these days.

After the Christmas lights, we drove back to our neighborhood to get a bite to eat. I wanted to go to Longfellow Grill because I was craving Sweet Potato Fries but the wait was too long so we left. (I was really pushing it anyway for deciding on TWO activities in one night. Usually it's Andi that makes all of our entertainment decisions and I completely jinxed myself by bragging we were doing something I thought of on my own). He suggested Town Talk Diner down the street so we went there. It was not the greatest date night experience - not a place I'd recommend to any of you. I'd been there a few years ago when they first opened and my food was sub-par and service was horrible. Last night, our food was good but the service was still slow and the entire restaurant smelled like urine (Andi and I were looking around wondering why no one else could smell what we were smelling. We even looked under our table to see if it was just near us!). I convinced Andi to order their Frickles (deep fried pickles) which were delicious and understandably, complete gut rot. That, and the cheeseburger we split left us feeling like we had rocks in our stomachs. Popping Tums at the end of a date is never a good sign for things to come.

In summary, the holiday lights were fun and dinner was just so-so but we still had a really great time together. That's the meaning of date night anyway, isn't it?