Date #2: Bowling + Sushi (Bushi?)

Our second week date pulled: bowling! No, not the classiest date ever invented, but it was actually a perfect pull for a rainy Friday afternoon. Tad and I have been discussing our "restaurant rut" as well - how we eat over and over at the same restaurants, even though there are a ton of exciting new places to eat throughout the Tallahassee area. We decided that our dates would be a good time to experience new restaurants as well. And what could class up a bowling date better than...

SUSHI! We decided to experience the Jasmine Cafe, which turned out to be a lot more expensive trendier than I thought it would be. However, it was nice to experience something different, and their Dragon Rolls were really, REALLY good.

And nothing better follows a sushi lunch than a few games of bowling. We entered Seminole Bowl around 2pm and found it like this:

Yep, completely empty, save us and the girl renting out shoes. Tad tried to convince me that he had reserved the facility for our own "Private Party"; I wasn't buying it. He also tried to convince he was not a good bowler. I will let you judge for yourselves if he was sandbagging or not:

Having the whole place to ourselves actually made our date even more amazing. We were not afraid to do victory dances, defeat dances, strike dances, split pin dances... we did a lot of dancing. And I FINALLY found a game in which I do not feel the least bit competitive. Maybe that's because I am so ridiculously bad!

We are pulling a "purple date" - one that takes a little more planning and $$$ - this week and we will plan for it this month. Stay tuned for a future post!

xoxo,

Meghan

What's In The Jar?

People are already asking... what's in the jar? We came up with around 100 dates and then divided them into activities we could do easily and ones that would take a little planning. Many of thse are specific to our area - but I suppose you could adapt them to wherever you live! Here's my list (I will be linking to each post when we actually go on the date):

White Dates (Inexpensive/Minimal Planning)

1. Hit a bucket of balls at the driving range

2. Buy all the ingredients for a new dish and make it together at home

3. Lay out a blanket in the backyard and stargaze... with wine

4. Tour the Antarctic Research Facility at FSU

5. Paint a room in the house we have been meaning to redo (see how I snuck a chore in there! LOL)

6. Enjoy a milkshake at Myra Jean's... with two straws

7. Scrabble Tournament (The Hub says I put that one in there just to beat him at something)

8. Long walk around the block

9. Play corn hole (The Hub put that one in there just to beat me at something).

10. Picnic on the beach... with wine.

11. Rock Band tournament

12. Find a local restaurant with an eating contest and enter, Man v. Food style (I am really looking forward to this one... a lot!)

13. Watch the sunset ... with wine.

14. People watch at the coffee shop

15. Go to the Greyhound racetrack and bet on the dogs with your favorite name

16. Bowling.

17. Drive through neighborhoods and pretend House Hunt.

18. Fishing

19. Plant an herb garden (in pots)

20. Volunteer locally (we are talking about either Wakulla Springs or Second Harvest)

21. Play like a kid at Fun Station - mini golf, laser tag, bumper boats!

22. Go antiquing in Havana

23. Monopoly tournament... with wine.

24. Make homemade ice cream.

25. Dance Battle with the Kinect

26. Shop the Tallahassee Flea Market

27. Test drive cool cars

28. Make S'Mores and camp out in the backyard

29. Go to the shooting range.

30. Invite friends over to play cards... and drink wine.

31. Get up early and go yard sale hunting

32. Have a fondue night

33. Build a frame for the bathroom mirror, a la Pinterest

34. Make chocolate chip cookies from scratch

35. Head to the batting cages

36. Take a boat ride down the St. Mark's river

37. Pick grapes at Monticello Vineyard

38. Write our own "Couples Bucket List" - and then make at least one thing happen

39. Take Cohen (our weimaraner) to the dog park

40. Visit the Mary Brogan Museum

41. Ice Cream Sundae bar (just now noticing how many of our dates involve ice cream...)

42. See a midnight movie showing

43. Make our own sushi

44. Visit the Antique Car Museum

45. IMAX movie

46. Go kayaking

47. Make a layer cake with homemade icing

48. Dress up and head out to a nice dinner

49. Create a vision board for our lives together

50. Organize the garage (Oops, another chore!)

51. Make breakfast together and then eat it in bed

52. Go to the Planetarium Show

53. Play with sparklers/fireworks

54. Take a bubble bath together

55. See a movie at the Dollar Theater

56. Visit the Humane Society and play with the puppies

57. Shop the Downtown Marketplace one Saturday morning

58. Host a BBQ

59. Take a glass-bottom boat ride at the Springs

60. Hike the St. Mark's trail

61. Eat at a "new-to-us" local restaurant

62. Make homemade jam

63. Play strip poker (There will not be a blog entry about this one :).

64. Eat at a food truck

65. Babysit for another couple so they can have a date night

66. Take a tour of Maclay Gardens

67. Make our own pizza

68. Feed the ducks at Lake Ella

69. Make homemade donuts

70. Explore the Tallahassee Museum

71. See a play at a local theater

72. Dance at the Bradfordville Blues Club

73. Karaoke!

74. Explore the Florida Caverns in Marianna

75. Eat oysters and lsiten to live music at Posey's

Purple Dates (More planning/more expensive)

76. Host a college football party

77. Go wine tasting at a local vineyard

78. Go to a car show

79. Take a cooking class

80. Get professional pictures taken outside

81. Find a band we both like and go to a concert

82. Take a dancing lesson

83. Go to an FSU sporting event (Baseball! Football!)

84. Go to a roller derby

85. Get a couple's massage

86. Spend the night at a local hotel

87. Go camping

88. Go to a concert at the FSU School of Music

89. Take a hot air balloon ride

90. Find a working drive-in theater and go see a movie

91. Go horseback riding

92. Spend a weekend at a B&B

93. Take a gambling cruise

94. Visit an amusement park and ride every rollercoaster

95. Whitewater rafting

96. Trip to a casino

97. Go tubing down the river

98. Attend a Florida Festival (Blue Crab, Market Days, etc.)

99. Host a Chili Cook-Off

100. Go to a weekend Music Festival (a la Bonaroo, etc)

101. Weekend getaway cruise

As I typed these, I kept thinking of more! What are your favorite date night ideas?

xoxo,

Meghan

#1: Glass-bottom Boat Ride at the Springs

With much anticipation Thursday night, The Hub pulled the first white paper for our first date on this new adventure. The verdict was..................................

taking a glass-bottom boat ride at the Springs!

We are so lucky to live in Florida, close to so many amazing outdoor activites and parks. One of the reasons we started this project was to experience some of them! Very close to our home is Wakulla Springs, a state park where you can swim, take boat rides, hike, explore a lodge - pretty amazing place! Though we had taken a boat tour there before, we had never experienced their famous glass-bottom boat. So - we headed out Friday morning to do just that!

If you live or are visiting Wakulla or Leon County and have some time to tour around - Wakulla Springs is a must-visit. It is BEAUTIFUL! Just the drive in through the woods is gorgeous, very old Florida. When we got there, we headed straight to the docks to buy tickets for the boat tour... only to find this sign waiting for us:

No glass bottom boat tours because the water was too cloudy! We have had some major storms in the area recently, so the water was too dark to see anything through the glass. But NO FEAR - this project is about being together, not just accomplishing tasks - so we bought tickets for the regular boat tour and spent the hour of wait time bumming around and having fun together. We:

Enjoyed a highly nutritious meal at the snack bar, complete with very interesting people-watching:

Visited Giant Old Joe, the stuffed alligator (who was tragically and mysteriously murdered in the 1960s - it's a cold case!)

Flattened a penny to remember our travels:

Waded in the (FREEZING) water... while holding hands. It was very sweet!

And then sat down to share some ice cream and play checkers. Until we realized that neither of us knew how to play checkers. Seriously, we are a cerebral pair.

Then it was BOAT TIME! The boat tour lasts about 45 minutes and it is FULL of wildlife sightings. We spotted five manatees, at least a dozen gators, herds of turtles (do turtles travel in herds? schools? I don't know), a ton of birds (including a snake bird that swam underwater alongside our boat for half the ride), and a funny little kid who sat behind us and giggled every time the tour guide said "river chicken". We had a blast!

What a first date! We had so much fun spending time together that didn't include a television set or a telephone. Looking forward to many more dates to come!

xoxo,
Meghan

Date Jar: The Beginning.

I love my husband. He is bitingly funny (though painfully shy). He's smart (sometimes too smart for his own good). He's outdoorsy, in that he loves hunting and fishing (not like me, who is outdoorsy in the sense that I like to drink wine on my back porch). And he loves me unflinchingly and unwaveringly (are those words?).

But after many, many weekends in a row of watching DVR'd episodes of Game of Thrones and playing "What Can We Make for Dinner Out of What's Left in the Fridge", we were BORED. Bored bored bored.
Enter Pinterest, and this cool idea: The Date Jar. Now I have to admit: I am not as crafty as this lady. Not even a little. I did not have colored popsicle sticks and ribbon floating around my house - nor was I motivated enough to drive to Hobby Lobby and buy some. What I DID have was a blue mason jar, some colored paper, a pen, and more than a few ideas of things The Hub and I have always wanted to do. Oh, and a glass of Pinot. Thus, the date jar was born.

Here are the rules:
1. We will try our utmost to go on at least one date a week. This will probably occur on weekends because, honestly, it's the only time the two of us aren't exhausted from working.

2. We have two colors of paper in our jar. White dates are simple and relatively inexpensive; purple dates take some planning and money. We want to do at least one purple date a month, even if we have to pull it a few weeks in advance to save and plan. Now, I don't know if purple dates will actually happen, but it will be fun to try!

3. The Hub gets to pull. Yep, every time. This was his rule, and I don't mind because, honestly - most of the dates in the jar were my idea so... it's only fair.

4. I will blog about each one. I want to document this piece of our life, this special time when it is just the two of us in our family, where we know each other so well yet still have so much growing and learning to do together. How cool will it be to show our kids this year together? Kind of like... "How I Dated Your Mother".

xoxo,

Meghan