Happy Valentine’s Day! Did you do something fun for date night? Jason and I have been together for a very long time – 21 years to be exact. We don’t really like celebrating on the 14th so we usually do date night afterwards. What do we do on dates? I’ll tell you but first, let us go back in time….
How We Met
Jason and I met in high school when I was a freshman and he was a sophomore. We didn’t go to the same school, let alone, live in the same city. He was visiting at his friend’s house after school and my friend was over my house. Those two friends were “talking” which is the equivalent to dating over the phone (I don’t even know if that’s the right definition) and they decided to introduce us over the phone – it was love at first sound!(?)
This still gives me goosebumps but when I heard his name over the phone, I thought I already knew him. I was so sure I knew him that I combed through my yearbooks looking for his name. Mind you, I went to a small school of 300 students so no way would Jason be in my yearbook. It’s as if I knew him in another lifetime!
Anyways, we talked for a bit over the next few weeks and we finally met in person at the movie theatre. We were supposed to watch Scream but it was rated R; so we ended up watching Michael instead. To this day, I still don’t know what that damn John Travolta movie is about!
Being teenagers, this first meeting was more of a group date with lots of friends. And that’s how the rest of the high school dates went: group dates once or twice a month. Neither of us drove yet so it was public transportation for awhile. Damn, I wish we had Uber back then! We even took the bus/BART/CalTrans to Great America in Santa Clara! We didn’t see each other often but we talked every day (and this was before cell phones). Jason and I officially became boyfriend and girlfriend on February 14, 1997. The two friends who introduced us eventually fizzled out and the rest of our love story is history.
Jenille, don’t you get bored after all these years? What do you and Jason do for fun?
- Movies. NO! We no longer go on group dates to the movies. Thank goodness! We like to catch a movie at the AMC Kabuki or Alamo Drafthouse. At these movie theatres, we get reserved seating, drink adult drinks, mingle with adult people, and eat foods that aren’t just hot dogs and popcorn. It is adulting at the movies.
Sutro Baths, SF - Hiking. Our go-to hiking spot in San Francisco is Lands End. The trail starts at the end of Ocean Beach and isn’t too bad in terms of climb. Lands End is next to Sutro Baths which also a fun place. We enjoy taking the kids with us but if they’re in school, Lands End is our go-to date hike.
- Picnic. San Francisco temps are mild all year round and some days we get a beautiful 72 degrees. Everyone comes out when the weather is nice! On the nice days, you’ll find us grabbing our favorite Roxie’s sandwich and bringing it to Dolores Park or Alamo Square. Sometimes we pack a bottle (or two) of my fave white wine…in my sunscreen flask of course! You know we’re fancy.
- Breakfast/brunch. We are SF foodies and we’ve made it our life goal to eat at all 4,415 restaurants in the city. Our favorite meal of the day and favorite easy day date is breakfast/brunch – we LOVE a great pancake or omelette. Hubby and I will drop off the kids to school and get down at one of our many favorite brunch spots. I must say it is hard to explore all the different SF restaurants when we end up at our favorite one: Boulevard Cafe in Daly City (ok, not in SF but close enough). Bananas foster french toast, I’m coming for you!
- Museum Tours. A couple of years ago, I surprised Jason with a tour of the San Francisco Armory. If you don’t know your California history, the San Francisco Armory, is a historical building in the Mission District that once held armory and arsenal for the US National Guard. Jason loves lots of history! At the time we toured, the Armory was home to kink.com – an internet BDSM pornography website. If those walls could talk! What a fun night that was! Unfortunately, the Armory has a new owner this year and the porn company moved out. Not sure if there will be tours of this historic building anymore.
- Playing tourist. Hubby and I are native San Franciscans but don’t fault us that we still haven’t been to Alcatraz. In fact, we haven’t been to a few places! We love going to the super cheesy tourist spots like Pier 39 or Westfield Downtown. Jason likes talking to the visiting tourists and we laugh when they come in shorts in the summer. San Francisco is chockful of things to do – its fun playing tourist now and then.
Roxie’s sandwich at Dolores Park - A good theatre show. We have been enjoying the theatre recently. We caught Avenue Q and Jersey Boys as a double date with my BFF and her hubby; Hamilton with our boys and Aladdin for Jason’s birthday because Aladdin is his favorite Disney character. 2018 has some promising shows coming up so I’m excited to see what we can catch.
- Clubbing/Bars. As millennial parents, we enjoy happy hour over clubbing now. Not that we didn’t enjoy the boom of the base at the club; it’s just that our stamina is nothing like a 20-year-old anymore. The last club we went to was actually last summer for my sister-in-law’s birthday and it was nostalgic 90s night (omg, I feel so old). We were the first to get there at 9pm and we called an Uber for home by 11pm! I pretended to party like it was 1999 but damn, I regretted it in 2017. My oh my, how the mighty have fallen!
- Late night eats. After clubbing eons ago, we would catch a meal afterwards cuz young adults don’t need sleep. Fast forward to our mid 30s and hubby and I still go out for late night treats: longsilogs and sinigang at 24-hour Lucky Chances, sweet and savory crepes at Crepes-A-Go-Go or Genki Crepes, honeydew boba at Wonderful Foods on Irving, sangrias at Cha Cha Cha, pizookies and wings at BJs, cheesecake and burgers at Nations, super chicken quesadillas at El Farolito – and with the birth of Uber Eats and DoorDash, eating in is fun too. We just make sure to pop a few antacids before bed. No.Big.Deal. <facepalm>
- Hotel/Road trip. As the kids get older and they no longer need babysitting (eye on the prize parents of toddlers!), hubby and I have ventured far without them. We take a night to ourselves far away to…sleep. No, not sexy time sleep….I mean snore in your damn ear kinda sleep! We usually do this for our anniversary and it is the best present ever! Our last anniversary trip was a road trip to Reno. We gambled, buffeted, spa’ed…it was heavenly! #Momguilt eventually kicked in as I missed the boys terribly and vowed to bring them next time.
Through all the years, it doesn’t take much to ignite our flame. We are happily content shopping down the aisles at Costco (no matter how much Jason says he hates Costco). We enjoy each other’s company and we are always laughing and smiling as if we were 16 again. No doubt…
marriage is work; but it doesn’t have
to be hard work.
Keep it light, keep it tight.
What do you like doing for date night? Any ideas to add to our list?
