{"id":318,"date":"2018-04-04T13:00:51","date_gmt":"2018-04-04T17:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/?p=318"},"modified":"2018-04-04T13:00:51","modified_gmt":"2018-04-04T17:00:51","slug":"abc-date-nights-burgers-and-baskets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/04\/abc-date-nights-burgers-and-baskets\/","title":{"rendered":"B Is For Burgers and Baskets"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"P1019013\"<\/a><\/p>\n

BURGERS AND BASKETS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some nineteen years ago, around\u00a0the time our youngest son turned two, we\u00a0had\u00a0committed to a\u00a0weekly or bi-weekly date night.\u00a0\u00a0When our children were young, I didn’t like to leave them.\u00a0\u00a0Occasionally we hired a sitter but\u00a0mostly we just made time for each other at home.\u00a0\u00a0We learned from early on in our marriage, that time was the most precious thing we could give each other.\u00a0\u00a0 During those early years, \u00a0Alan worked 90-120 hours a week, trying to establish our new company.\u00a0 I was a busy home\u00a0educating mom, I worked nights on a little side business and volunteered\u00a0with a teen parent program.\u00a0 I had the\u00a0added challenge of answering our business phones all day.\u00a0\u00a0Time was not something Alan and I felt could ever be wasted.<\/p>\n

After thirty years of marriage, \u00a0were\u00a0had become\u00a0conditioned to movie and dinner type dates.\u00a0 With our schedules, just sitting down was a luxury!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Our children had been gone from home for a couple of years, when we set the goal to date through the alphabet.\u00a0 As empty nesters, we were instantly lost how to spend our time.\u00a0 So we found ourselves at the second of our 26, alphabet inspired dates.\u00a0 Once again we\u00a0began with\u00a0food!\u00a0 We reasoned that food should always be part of every date, especially if it contained dessert!\u00a0 We hadn’t really planned anything for our B themed date, already we were falling short on our goals.\u00a0 Alan had brought home a beautiful bouquet of flowers.\u00a0 These were really brightening the\u00a0early spring\u00a0day.\u00a0 B words were beginning to flow.\"P1019015\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Determined to find something to do, we headed out for dinner.\u00a0 We decided to head to Scott’s Harbor Grill.\u00a0 Except for burgers, there was nothing on the menu that began with the letter b.\u00a0 What a dilema!\u00a0 Alan ordered fish.\u00a0 Waiting for our meal to arrive, we passed the time pondering b words.\u00a0 We were seated by a window, overlooking the boat docks and the bay… we were on a roll.\u00a0 A bird landed nearby.\u00a0\u00a0 We got the giggles, people were beginning to stare.<\/p>\n

\"P1019012\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My husband is very witty. \u00a0 As he realized how much he was making me laugh, \u00a0B words soon began to flow out of him.\u00a0We were both babbling silly nonsensical things.\u00a0 Then\u00a0he\u00a0began calling me all sorts of lovely names, like\u00a0his best friend, his\u00a0beauty and his babydoll.\u00a0 Soon I was blushing!\u00a0\u00a0 As our dinner arrived, we looked at each other and began laughing all over again.\u00a0 An inside joke had formed as we realized his fish had come, served in a basket.\u00a0 We were pleased with ourselves as we realized how talented we had become with this alphabet thing! \u00a0We could now call this date Burgers and Baskets.\u00a0 We had our B theme and so far, it had not been boring!\u00a0 The winter chill had been brightened by our banter.<\/p>\n

If you don’t like the cold or snow, there is not much to do in a Northern Michigan\u00a0town, that caters mostly\u00a0to\u00a0summer tourism.\u00a0 True, we could have gone bowling but we were both making excuses…it was too far away, it was too much work, blah, blah, blah.\u00a0 We considered trying to find a bar and a band…hmmm, neither of us drink and it was a Sunday evening.\u00a0 Oh, and did I mention we live in a small town? We thought about what was nearby and finally decided to explore a little theater that we had never been to.\u00a0\u00a0It is called the Bay<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 Even though we had still ended up on a dinner and movie type date, we had been creative, so we felt that we had fulfilled our date night goal.\u00a0 The theater\u00a0is situated in a historical building, built during the 1930’s.\u00a0 Formerly it\u00a0had housed the towns blacksmith, followed by the volunteer fire department.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The\u00a0building\u00a0then sat empty throughout WW II and was eventually purchased as a theater in 1946.\u00a0\u00a0 Unlike\u00a0the plush luxury found in many modern theaters,\u00a0we found ourselves sitting upon hard, wooden, body forming seats, the standard of the 1940’s and 50’s.\u00a0 These were set on the original hardwood floors.\u00a0 There is a quiet charm to discovering a place like this, a\u00a0step back to a\u00a0less complicated\u00a0time.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Alan and I\u00a0had a lovely evening, watching the\u00a0block buster movie, OZ, The Great and Powerful.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Next time perhaps we’ll be more creative.\u00a0 For today,\u00a0 we will just enjoy being.<\/p>\n

\"P1019014\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BURGERS AND BASKETS Some nineteen years ago, around\u00a0the time our youngest son turned two, we\u00a0had\u00a0committed to a\u00a0weekly or bi-weekly date night.\u00a0\u00a0When our children were young, I didn’t like to leave them.\u00a0\u00a0Occasionally we hired a sitter but\u00a0mostly we just made time for each other at home.\u00a0\u00a0We learned from early on in our marriage, that time was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[109,115,123,163,190,252,362],"class_list":["post-318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventures","category-abc-lists","tag-alphabet","tag-appetite","tag-bay","tag-date","tag-food-and-drink","tag-michigan","tag-winter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abcexplorers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}