Date Night Last Night {Bart Day}

I'm pretty sure most of our blog-recorded dates are day dates - so maybe I should change the name of these posts from "Date Night Last Night" to something else...?  Either that or we should go on more evening dates...

Anyway, last month I wanted to take husband on a date that was all about him.  I wanted everything to be centered around things he liked and that were for him.  We've been pretty busy lately (duh, who isn't?) and his work is gearing up for the crazy season, so I wanted him to not have to plan anything and to just feel special and loved.  Therefore, I created "Bart Day."  Bart Day is not his birthday.  Bart Day is just a day to celebrate my husband, Bart.

Bart Day included 5 stops and all in San Francisco...because sometimes it's fun to play tourist in a place you consider "home."

One of husband's favorite things to do is take Benny on walks, hikes, or any other type of adventure.  Since we work all week long, we don't get to take him out on many walks outside of our neighborhood, so on the weekends, it's always fun to take him some place new.  I had never been to Golden Gate Park (that I remember anyway), which is a shame since I grew up in the Bay Area, but I thought it would be fun for us to take Benny there.  I'd heard it is dog friendly, so it would be the perfect start to Bart Day.

Golden Gate Park is HUGE.  We decided to only explore parts of it by walking along the trails and ultimately heading to Stow Lake (here's an awesome map of the park that was super helpful!).  There are a bunch of dog parks that you can take your dog off the leash, so it was fun to stop and let Benny run around a little bit.

It was actually a pretty active, yet relaxing morning for us there and the area is beautiful despite the typically overcast San Francisco summer weather.  We brought a picnic lunch so we found a bench overlooking the lake to stop and eat.

But those short little legs of Benny's get tuckered out fast, so in between each stop he crashed harrrrd.

Our second stop was a nearby local coffee shop.  Neither of us are big coffee drinkers (although, I'm starting to get there...), but husband loves to sit and get "hot drinks" together.  He's usually ordering a hot chocolate, so he never calls it a "coffee date."  However, since we ended up getting a later start that day, our coffee stop didn't last as long as I would have liked and we only sat for about 15 minutes before we had to get going to our next stop.

Our 3rd stop was actually for shopping.  You may think it's strange that on a day planned specifically for my husband, I chose shopping, but let me explain.  Husband has a reeeeally hard time finding jeans that fit.  He's pretty picky (and actually very stylish), so he doesn't just grab any jeans he can find.  In San Francisco, they have a store that will custom make pants at a relatively reasonable price. He needs new jeans, so I told him that he gets to get a pair here!

He didn't end up purchasing a pair that day.  He loves to research and isn't a very good impulse buyer, so he wanted to scout it out, do some research online, and then buy the perfect pair later. But it was a start!

We decided to skip our 4th stop and save it for when we come back to get his jeans.  Our 4th stop was supposed to be ice cream at Smitten Ice Cream, but we were still full from lunch and our hot drinks that we thought it would be best to save it for next time.

So, we were off to our 5th and final stop...Twin Peaks lookout.  It was so windy that day that Benny hated it and wanted to hide in husband's jacket, but we got him out for at least one photo.

We took the coastal drive home and just enjoyed our conversation and time together in the car (while Benny slept of course) and we were pretty tired by the time we got home.

Bart Day was a Great Day and I'm already thinking of my next one to plan for him!