Date night? Sign me up!

25 Jul

I was more than excited when I saw what the July challenge was for Project Marriage. I have to admit, I do get a little nervous waiting to find out what it is each month. Will it be something I’m not going to want to do? Will it be something I’m not going to feel comfortable blogging about since certain family members of ours tend to stop by every now and again? When I saw that our challenge this month was to go on a date night, I think I actually did a little arm pump “YES”. I knew I had this one in the bag and I wasn’t going to have to do too much. The next part is where it got a little tricky for me, we were not supposed to talk about the kids.

Why was not talking about the kids so hard?

Well, Bill and I were going big! We weren’t just going on a Date Night, we were making a weekend out of it. Yeah that’s right, a WEEKEND! If it were only a few hours for dinner I could totally not talk about the kids. It is, after all, summertime and I need a damn break from them. But to go a weekend without even mentioning them? Couldn’t happen.

My in laws were gracious enough to take the boys from Thursday (afternoon) until Sunday (afternoon), and they will never know how grateful we are that they took them. I gleefully dropped them off on Thursday and made my way home to prepare for the rest of the weekend. The first night of our kid-free weekend was a BBQ at my parent’s house. Yeah I know, not really the most romantic time to spend away from the kids, but I promise it gets better.

Date Weekend: Friday

Our first day without the kids would be spent on my sister’s vow renewal. Since my big sis eloped the first time around this was more like a wedding than a vow renewal, so it was a pretty big deal. I was the “maid of honor” and Bill was the officiant, but after our duties were done we enjoyed a night of good food and dancing.

Kids? What kids? I think Bill called to check on them, but honestly I can’t be sure. Oh well, if something would have happened, I’m sure we would have gotten a phone call.

It was the first time in I don’t even remember how long that the two of us had gotten really dressed up to go anywhere, so it was a nice change of pace.

I can’t believe I didn’t get a picture of the two of us together, I hope the photographer did. Here’s a picture of me enjoying myself with a glass of my favorite sparkling wine (Rosa Regale). CHEERS!

After a fun night of dinner and dancing with our friends and family we went home to rest up for the best part of our weekend.

Anything worth doing is worth overdoing!

Anyone can get a babysitter and go on a date night, but it takes some special magic to get away for an entire weekend when you have two kids. Sure, we could have just gone out to dinner around town someplace, but what fun would that have been? So Saturday morning we packed up and headed south to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. We made amazing time getting down there! Once there, we checked into the hotel, parked the car and headed out for a full day of Baltimore fun.

First stop, lunch. We sat outside at Hooter’s…Yes, I said Hooter’s.

Talk about a view. I don’t think it gets much better than this.

After lunch we wandered around talking. I think we probably talked about everything except the kids. OK, they might have come up for about a second in passing, but it’s not like we talked about them. I’ve been visiting Baltimore for years and I’ve never once walked up that big hill to the park. So, we walked up the big hill to the park. The panoramic view of Baltimore was absolutely amazing.

I can’t even remember the last time we held hands, but as we casually strolled around the Inner Harbor we did. Really though, when the kids are around, they’re the ones who need hand holding so there’s no time for mommy and daddy to.

While we waited for our turn at the aquarium, we hopped a water taxi and went to Fells Point. Talk about a cute little town with cobblestone streets and quaint little shops (and bars). I swear we must have some kind of internal homing device when it comes to all things Apple, because what did we stumble upon? An Apple dealer! Of course being the enthusiasts that we are we practically ran in. It was a quaint little shop, but it did have something that is very rare and hard to come by…Apple merchandise. For those who don’t know, the only place to get Apple gear is at their home office in California. This store had a few items and I think we bought about half of them.

We finally made it to my favorite part of any visit to the Inner Harbor, the aquarium. No matter how many times I go there it NEVER gets old. After a few hours of looking at the fishies my feet were killing me, so we headed back to the hotel to rest before dinner and round two.

Thank goodness for Bill, because I wouldn’t have had the foresight to make reservations somewhere and we would have been eating crappy fast food. Being more of a thinker than I, Bill made us reservations at Phillips for a (later) dinner. We sat outside, took our time and enjoyed the view. After dinner we wandered around some more and caught a performance from a street performer. By the time we made it back to the hotel I was beat and I thought my feet and legs were going to fall off. Of course our night didn’t end there…

Get your damn mind out of the gutter!

We hit the terrace and looked out over the city. In my sheltered little life I’d never been on a terrace that looked more like a little park. There were trees and plants, and even a water feature. It was a relaxing way to wind down our evening.

Baltimore at sunset!

Please don’t make me go!

The next morning it was time to pack up and head home. I think I might have even shed a few tiny tears. I had so much fun and felt more relaxed than I had in years and I wasn’t ready to go back to the real world yet. On the ride back home we talked about maybe doing another weekend in Baltimore towards the end of the summer and staying two nights next time. I really hope we can.

If this was the view from your room wouldn’t you want to go back?

A few hours after leaving our fun and carefree time in Baltimore we were at my in law’s house to get the boys. When we walked in all their stuff was packed and the car seats were out of the car and ready to roll…That was helpful. About an hour after that we were back home and our date weekend was over.

Read more date night stories from Project Marriage. I can’t wait to see what August’s challenge is.

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