No Peeking: A Creative Date Night Idea

Our goal is to go on a date once a week, but it doesn't always work out that way.  Alex and I take turns planning for Date Night, picking where we're going and what we're doing.  Over the summer, I decided to deviate from the typical restaurant dinner date by planning something a little unique.  The kicker, though, was that Alex was kept in the dark (literally) until the big reveal.

As we got on the road, I had Alex close his eyes so that he wouldn't know where we were going.  For dinner, I decided to stop at Jimmy John's to pick up a couple of sandwiches.  The restaurant had just opened, and neither of us had gotten the chance to try it yet.  We'd discussed waiting to eat there until we were together.  I just deviated from the plan a weensy bit by getting the food to-go instead of eating in.  ...He did become a bit antsy waiting in the car while I went into the restaurant to order the food.  Obviously, I couldn't just go through the drive through and expect to keep dinner a secret!

It just so happened that this date night took place on a gorgeous summer day (it wasn't hot as hades just yet), so the weather was perfect for a picnic.  I took us over to West Monroe for an evening at Kiroli Park.  We'd visited this park the year before when Alex's mom was in town visiting from North Carolina, but we really hadn't done a whole lot of exploring that day.  After enjoying our picnic, we decided to check out some of the walking trails.  It was really fun to put aside distractions from technology and just focus on having authentic conversations with one another.  The trails were mostly rustic, and appropriately scenic.  We had a great time!

We worked up a bit of a sweat hiking through the trails, so froyo dessert was called for!  Making one final stop at Orange Leaf was just the perfect way to end our night.  I guess by that point, the surprises were over so I'd given up on the photo documentation aspect of the date.  (You're all disappointed, right?)

So anyway, Alex didn't find out what the evening entailed until we arrived at the park and I told him to open his eyes.  He tried to figure out where we were by imagining which turns I made while driving, but he really had no idea.  It was fun to maintain that element of surprise for as long as I could, and he was definitely surprised for the big reveal.  The whole night was so much fun, and I can't wait until conditions are right for another "No Peeking" night out!

-Lauren