Date Night

Last night was a wonderful night for Erin and me. We cashed in on Becky Benoon's offer to babysit Dawson and went downtown for dinner and First Friday's. I wanted to take Erin to a French restaurant and after some google searching, set up a reservation at a nice place in the Rivermarket district. It was a really nice place and even though I was dressed up by my standards, I was still a bit underdressed. When the waiter cracked some wine joke we didn't understand and then gave us that "cheap-skate" look when we ordered water, we started thinking we were in the wrong place. When we looked at the menu we saw that the prices were higher than the price range indicated on the review from The Pitch. For a few minutes, I was trying to figure out how we could split a meal and maybe an appetizer and still stay in our date budget but it was stressing me out. The combination of prices, that we wanted to enjoy our date, that we were right by the door, that we hadn't ordered anything and that our 10 second interaction with the waiter assured us he wasn't looking forward to waiting on us and Erin's insistence we do it, convinced me to lead the way and just walk out of the restaurant. We grabbed our stuff, walked out the door and booked it to the car. With a HUGE sense of relief and a bit of embarrassment, we peeled out of the parking lot.
15 minutes later, we walked into a place called the Kansas City Cafe at the corner of 16th and Grand because of their sign for 3 Tapas for $5. We both had a 3 course meal that was slightly more than an appetizer at the other place and thoroughly enjoyed our dinner. I'm not exaggerating when I say that meal was probably the best I'd ever had in a KC restaurant. I'm feeling the high that came with stooping to the low of leaving a restraurant that would've drained our wallet. It was embarassing for about 15 seconds but I'm so glad my wife made that suggestion.

We then walked through some art galleries and hung out with a friend who is planting a church in the heart of the downtown art district, Scott Johnson and Riverfront Church. It was really cool to hang out with Scott and hear his passion for the community he's leading. Riverfront is a great example of how "church" takes so many different forms.

We got home about 10:00, exhausted and missing our little boy. Well, since I'm with him all day while she works, Erin was missing him a little more than me. And on top of everything else, we walked into a spotless house thanks to Elizabeth Messamer's gift of housecleaning.