Your Top 3 Contest For February 2020 - Favorite Date Night Ideas
A new month means a new @yourtop3 contest over on the Steem platform. And just in time for the upcoming love fest that is the 14th, this time we're picking our top 3 Favorite Date Night Ideas!
First, a bit about my dating street cred (or lack thereof...lol). I had a handful of dates during high school & college, but never had an actual relationship. Then I met hubby in July of '87 and we were living together by August married by the fall of '89. Over the past 33 years though, we've managed to on at least a half dozen dates, so I'm definitely an expert! 😂
In all seriousness though, we do make a point of spending time with each other on a fairly regular basis - even if it's just going grocery shopping together. As far as "official" dates, these are my three favorites...
My Top 3 Favorite Date Night Ideas
Nomination 1 - Dinner & Drinks
REASON
Our very first date ended up being a sort of "Dinner & Drinks" kind of thing. I was still living with my family in Magnolia, MA and the cute guy I met at the office supply store a couple weeks before was about ninety minutes away in New Hampshire. He called and asked if I could go with him to a company picnic, but I was working that particular day. He then offered to drive down after the event so we could go out - I'm not sure who came up with the idea, but we ended up having a cookout at my parents house (nothing like meeting the family on a first date!) then we met up with friends at a wicked awesome (now sadly closed) local bar called "The Outrigger."
Long story short, after the bar closed, we sat in his car and talked (and yes seriously, just talked) until almost 5am! Definitely one of my all time favorite dates.
Different date about a year and a half later, taken (obviously by a camera with a good flash) at hubby's work xmas party, which turned into drinks without dinner - while it was fun at the time, it's not something I recommend... 😝
Nomination 2 - Order in
REASON
In the early years while hubby was more of a fan of eating out, I preferred dining at home. For a glorious-yet-sadly-short-lived period of time, we found a way to do both with style! There was a wicked cool restaurant that opened in town, called (if I recall correctly), "Room Service." You ordered your food, and it was delivered to you by a person dressed as a waiter from a high end restaurant, complete with eating utensils, napkins, and I think there was even a little vase of flowers or something like that. They'd come in, set up your table and serve up the food before they left (is it any wonder they couldn't maintain that high bar?). I believe one of the first times we ordered from them was to celebrate our engagement in 1988. And now that we're old fogies a bit older (and given my somewhat recent propensity for dancing even when I'm sitting), having a meal at home that we didn't have to cook makes for a nice occasional date night in.
One of our engagement photos from 1988.
Nomination 3 - Go for a drive
REASON
I know it doesn't sound like anything much (and this just barely edged out my other pick for third place, which was the ever popular Movie Date), but some of the best times (and talks) we've had have been in our car, or during a motorcycle ride. And I'm not talking a regular going-out-to-do-errands kind of thing (although those are nice too), but making a point to head out and just cruise around to nowhere in particular. I suppose it makes sense, given our hours-long marathon discussion during our very first date that chatting in the car holds a special place in my heart.
Selfie when we stopped for a bite to eat during a motorcycle ride in 2016.
BONUS - My Least Favorite Date Night Idea
Renting a date
Yep, I speak from experience, although it's not quite as sketchy as it sounds...LOL! For my sixteenth birthday, my mother got the cute (in hindsight - at the time I was mildly mortified! 😂 ) idea to get me a balloon-o-gram and had it delivered during my party. So there I was, hanging out with some friends (we decided to dress up for the occasion) when a guy dressed in a tux and carrying a bunch of balloons walks in. I think the look on my face says it all...
This was the only photo I could find at the moment, which sadly doesn't show the huge bunch of balloons in my right hand.
There are my choices! And while the contest prizes are limited to bloggers on the Steem blockchain, I figure there are lots of bloggers out there who might want to share their faves too. Instead of offering crypto prizes like the @yourtop3 crew, I thought I'd offer a little social media exposure instead.
So if anyone wants to jump aboard and share your Top 3 Favorite Date Night Ideas, please feel free to drop a link to your own post (no time limit) in my comment section (along with your Twitter handle, if you have one), and I'll do my best to take a peek and give it a tweet!
Lastly, a big thank you to the awesomesauce peeps behind this monthly crypto contest (now with the wicked awesomesauce addition of a Champions League!) @plantstoplanks, @nickyhavey, @foxyspirit, and @cheese4ead - you guys and gals ROCK!
Thanks for stopping by!
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Ah, Traci! I loved these stories and agree that the best dates are the ones you'd do over and over again.
I do think, though, you've hit on a suggestion for @yourtop3: worst dates. I have a few, too, I could talk about. No photographs, and with hindsight, they do make me laugh. A lot!
You just received DERANGED @traciyork Keep up the great work. Congrats, you have been gifted 1 DerangedCoin. You can redeem 20 of them for an upvote from the deranged.coin account. Redeem your tokens by sending to deranged.coin through Steem Engine with your post URL in the memo field, view all your tokens at steem-engine.com
Wonderful memories @traciyork, great to hear your stories!
I've been very tempted to do this one as well but the temptation would be even greater to again share my funny bell bottom story date so am refraining;);)
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I love the Dinner and Drinks story @traciyork Meeting the parents on the first date. Wow, isn't he a brave soul. You should have known you had him hooked then. And you are so beautiful. No wonder he wanted to show you off at his office party. Look at my new lady. Isn't she beautiful. I can just imagine you all going for long drives just talking. That's what we do now. Just being together is all that matters.
I love your history with each other and how you presented it. I was like WTH "balloon-a-gram". I would have been so embarrassed. I love your way of storytelling. It flows so smooth.
Thanks for sharing your life. It was an awesome story.
The Queen of the Good Juju strikes late in the day but gets her wicked awesome sauce entry in (I'm learning the lingo)!
Talking until 5am? That's pretty good going! I think my record of staying up talking to someone is 10am the next morning but man, I was exhausted the next day! When you find someone who is as chatty as you are, it's easy to do!
Eating in is a good call as well for those lazy nights in, I do love a takeaway! And road trips are just awesome, end of!
Thanks for entering this month and good luck with the contest!
For #PoSH & #oc...
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Hey, it’s Q here - the mascot of the Your Top 3 Contest - just swinging by to say thanks for these awesome suggestions for our contest this month! I've given you an upvote and logged your nominations, ready for the dpoll - keep an eye on our blog for the dpoll post!
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Q
Balloon-o-date! Maybe it was just a way for that dude to get paid to meet a bunch of cute girls! While you were thinking "eeeewww" he was thinking "chugga chugga."
Aww, some lovely memories Traci! Well, maybe except the balloons. ;) The only time I see 5am now is because I've already woken up for work, but gosh does that bring up those butterflies just thinking about that initial "getting to know you" phase where you can just talk for hours. That dinner in does sound fantastic. Though I can also see why the overhead might have been just a bit much to make it sustainable! My dad recently sold his Harley, but he and my mom used to go on drives like that years ago. Sometimes they would go with friends, other times just the two of them would hop on and go drive around for hours with no particular endpoint in mind. Really happy you made it in time for this round! We're always glad to see you get to join us, and many thanks for supporting other people looking to enter, as well!