Alphabet Dates: J

We haven't had a date night in a loooong time, so were were due for "J" date/Valentines date.  I racked my brain looking for "J" ideas, but decided to focus more on the Valentine's Day date and throw in little "J" things.

First we went to dinner....at 3:30pm.  That was the latest reservation time at the Melting Pot for the day after Valentine's Day.  No matter, we had a movie to catch anyways.  We just had cheese and chocolate fondues.  

After we got all fattened up, we stopped by Jason's Deli for a sandwich to sneak into the movie for 2nd dinner (just in case 5lbs of cheese and chocolate wasn't enough).

We headed to the Keystone Arts Cinema to see American Hussle. I made sure to tell Chris some jokes and we listened to the band Journey in the car. 

At the theater, I busted out some juice and Jolly Ranchers I snuck in.  After the movie, we headed home since we couldn't even remember what else people do when they're out on dates.  Plus, we had to watch the season finally of House of Cards : )

Alphabet Dates - "I"

We took a short detour at the start of our date to see our new infant neice, Cece (I don't have a photo on me!).  After we got our baby fix, we headed to dinner at Iozzo's Garden of Italy Restaurant.  It's a nice, small, family restaurant we have never been to before.  I thought it was good and Chris thought it was mediocre for the price.

After dinner, we went to an Indianapolis Indian's game at Victory Field.  It has been a long time since I went to a baseball game and we enjoyed people watching and hanging out.  It was a bit chilly, so we left before the game was over.  We wanted to get ice cream sundays in the baseball helmets they sell, but we were too cold.  We ate ice cream at home once we warmed up : )

Alphabet Dates - "G"

Chris has been talking about wanting to shoot guns for awhile, so naturally he took advantage of planning the "G" date brought me gun shooting!  Our soon to be brother-in-law, Steve, works at Indy Trading Post, so he got us a lane in the shooting range.  It was pretty fun and a little intense.  I maaaay have yelled a couple times (against the rules)...but I was startled!  Now I feel more comfortable with the idea of handling a gun.

After that adventure, we got some dinner at the Greek Islands restaurant.  Although the waiter tried to convince us to try something a little different, we both got gyros (it being the "G" date and all).

On our way home, we went a bit out of the way to Ritter's Frozen Custard to get Glaciers (like a blizzard from DQ).  They were very tasty!  Too bad there isn't one around us anymore.

We got home and decided to finally bust out this game, Carcassonne, we had bought awhile ago.  We've been putting off playing due to the complex directions, but we finally figured it out and played.  It was a lot of fun and a great two player game.

We then wanted to watch a "G" rated movie, but decided on Bernie instead.  "G" or not, we both enjoyed it!

Alphabet Dates: H

We skipped over "G" to do our "H" date, but we'll do "G" at a later time.

We started our "H" date with a dinner at Harry & Izzy's which was DELICIOUS.  We had a gift card from Chris' friend whose dog we watched for a week, so it wasn't too expensive.

We decided to get the famous St. Elmo's shrimp cocktail (H&I's is owned by the same person).  It is super spicy due to the horseradish. 

Then we walked to an Indiana Ice Hockey game at Pan Am Plaza.  We joined up with Liz and Steve (who ended up eating at Hooters...their own "H" date!) at the game.  

It was a fun change from our typical date, but I would say I prefer to not have to wear a coat when I watch a sport : )

Alphabet Date "F"

I finally got around to planning our "F" date.  We started the evening by visiting the Fashion Mall at Keystone at the Crossing.  I had heard they just remodeled some of it, so we wanted to check it out since we never go there.  Once there, I remembered why we never go there...the stores are so expensive!  We did enjoy seeing all the Christmas decor.

new food court

On our way to the next stop, Chris mentioned how he would never spend his money on a crazy thing like a $4 cupcake at a fancy cupcake place.  Little did he know we were almost to our next stop, The Flying Cupcake.  We both laughed as we pulled into the parking lot!  He and I ended up getting $4 cupcakes, despite his previous comment.

Me - excited for cupcakes

Chris - $4 cupcakes?!?

For dinner, we ate at Fox and the Hound.  Nothing fancy, but we both enjoyed our "Fox Fave" items.  

Since Chris will take any opportunity to see a movie (since we rarely do anymore), we decided to see a film at AMC to end our evening.  

Alphabet Dates - E

Chris decided we'd have an afternoon "E" date this time.  We started by going to lunch at On the Border Mexican restaurant.  We ordered empenadas and enchiladas!  We also split a Dos Equis beer (maybe repeat this idea for our "X" date?).  Empenadas are yummy!

After lunch we drove down to the Edinburgh Outlet Mall.  Neither of us had been there in ages and Chris thought it would be nice to walk around and check it out again.  We also got some ice cream on the way home.  I know it doesn't start with "E", but we don't have a Ritters by us and we wanted to get some while we could!

Alphabet Dates - "D"

This "D" date consisted of dinner at Divvy and dance!

We started by going to Divvy just down the road from our house for dinner.  It was a really neat place to eat kind of served tapas style (small plate).  We ended up spending more than we intended, but we tried some neat items including duckadillas.

After dinner we went to see my sister-in-law, Melanie, perform with her professional dance company (Gregory Hancock Dance Theatre).  They were performing The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and it was so good!  They are the resident dance company at the new Tarkington across from the Palladium in Carmel.  It is so cool having a family member who has such a unique and interesting profession!

I didn't get to take any photos there, so I stole some : )

Palladim

Alphabet Dates - "C"

To start off our "C" date (planned by Chris) we took a nice long stroll on the canal.  Chris had told me to wear comfortable shoes for walking, so I figured this is where we'd be going (Indianapolis isn't all that big, you know).

The path also happened to be part of the Cultural Trail that now runs through Indy

We finished our walk by having dinner at Creation Cafe which is located at the end of the canal.  The only other time we had been there was for my brother, Adam's, wedding reception.  It was very tasty!  The couple sitting near us had a dog with them, and the waitress brought him a doggie bowl with ice cream!  Then his owners took him home in a bike carrier...that is one lucky pooch!

After dinner we walked to two different places that ended up being closed...the Chase tower observation deck and the top of the Soldier's and Sailor's Monument on the circle.  We ended up just walking around the circle anyways.  We stopped into the Chocolate Cafe for some chocolates to take home.

Next we were off to Circle Center Mall to look around.  We visited the Collector's Den.

We found this photo at the Collector's Den awhile back when we made a very random visit to the mall:

We noticed it was taken at a Colts game that we had attended (and it is the only Colt's game I have ever been to).

See anyone you know?  Chris told me we HAD to buy it...I tried to object but I couldn't.  Really, what are the odds that we would find ourselves and have our faces visible?  So now the photo is in our basement : )

We also visited the Colt's Pro Shop.

Our final stop was Cinnabon.  You can't help but want a yummy Cinnamon roll once you smell them baking.  They were actually giving out free rolls to nurses for nurses week, but I didn't have my badge on me.  She did add caramel and nuts for free, so I guess she must have sort of believed me when I said I was a nurse.

On our walk to the car, we strolled around the Capitol

We considered going to the cinema next, but there wasn't anything we wanted to see bad enough (sleep > expensive mediocre movie).  I give Chris an "A" for coming up with "C" activities!