Surprise Date #1

Evan and I decided it would be fun to take turns coming up with date ideas and surprising each other. Although we have fun adventures pretty regularly, there is something special about planning a date and watching it unfold as the other (in this case Evan) tries to figure it out. This past weekend I was the mastermind behind our plans -- and how clever I was. I decided to take Evan down to Red Wing, a town close to his hometown of Lake City. Even when we arrived in town he had no idea what we were going to do! He practically lived in this town compared to me far off in New Jersey, but yet I was able to find an activity he had never done before... but I'll get to that later. We first ate dinner at the St. James Hotel on a lovely little patio overlooking the river. I highly recommend this place as the food was very reasonably priced ($8 for a chicken salad croissant and sweet potato fries and about the same for Evan's burger) and it was delicious! The St. James is actually the hotel where we spent our wedding night, so it was kind of special stopping by again. After dinner we started walking along the river and I knew I was looking for a certain park for our final activity, but couldn't find it! So finally I asked for Evan's assistance in finding Bay Point Park and when we got there E discovered we were going to watch Toy Story at an outdoor theater! Funny thing is Evan's date idea was a drive-in movie theater -- looks like I snagged that idea first ; )  The movie was fun even though we got awfully cold. We brought 4 blankets, 2 towels, and were wearing sweatshirts and jeans, yet after an hour and a half of sitting on the ground we were really looking forward to some hot chocolate. We both highly recommend Cinema Under that Stars at Bay Point Park -- their next movie is The Sandlot, showing in a few weeks.