Super Secret Date Night

Travis and I have "date night" every Monday night. That means we aim to get home by 7 p.m., make a meal together, eat and then hang out a bit together before going to bed. These are low key, but I look forward to them because it's a time we carve out for just us during our sometimes chaotic weeks.

I decided recently, though, to surprise Travis with a Super Secret Date Night. Last night was the SSDN! I'd been slowly building up the suspense in the past few days asking if he was excited, how he should be excited and how "I didn't know" if any of the guesses he came up with were at all close to the real thing (volunteering at a cook-off, a show at a local venue, dinner at a fancy restuarant, etc.).

Yesterday I texted Travis at 4:00 p.m. with the address he needed to be at by 6:30 p.m. with instructions to "come hungry and no looking up what resides at the address." I could tell he was excited and playing along because he asked for the cross street so he wouldn't have to look at Google and get too many clues.

I ended up meeting up with Travis just before 6:30 p.m. He was rattling off how he just couldn't imagine what we were up to in the NoPa (North of the Panhandle) neighborhood.

I told him we were heading to dinner first -- that this wasn't the BIG surprise. As we approached Nopalito, his eyes lit up. Time to eat! He ordered some carnitas and I the enchiladas. Yum!


We had some time to spare before the BIG surprise so I suggested we grab dessert. Luckily, we found a lovely dessert bar, Candy Bar, to satisfy my chocolate cake craving! While savoring the flourless chocolate cake and raspberry sorbet, I figured it was time to finally reveal what we were going to do for our SSDN!

I pulled out of my bag a printout and handed it to Travis. Here is his reaction as he read it:

"Fire Escape Planting!" he read. Yep, we were headed to a 2 hour class on planting our own herb planters. He looked up with a look. I laughed. We had a gardener recently come weed out our jungle of a backyard. Travis had instructed her to plant some herbs as well. When I heard that (since I'd already booked our SSDN), I told him absolutely not. He tried to ask questions, but I just told him we couldn't do that right now. He knew something was up and I could tell he was frustrated. He gets it now!

So we were off! Our class was held at the Workshop, a DIY craft studio in San Francisco. Naya from Fire Escape Farms was our instructor and super laid back and helpful. She started by telling us some basics about potting and feeding plants. And then we got down to business!

First, we got to plant some basil, thyme and sage into our pre-made recycled wooden planters:

Lookin' good!

Then, we planted seeds to grow our own lettuce/green mixes:


We got all of our questions answered, rolled up our sleeves, got dirty and went home with 4 new planters! It was great!

Travis is in charge of watering the herbs/greens. We're excited to start adding some fresh, organic edibles to our meals.

BTW... we have a lot of wedding updates so stay tuned!