So X-Box is a gaming system that came out in 2001 and you might say that was covered in the post about Video games but this is my blog and I’m using it here too. When hubby and I were in our first apartment together in 1982 we spent many an hour playing Burger Time on what was one of the first systems called Intellivision. While it didn’t happen often, occasionally I even beat him. I wish I had seen this video back then, I really could have used the pointers!
X-O could stand for the game tic-tac-toe, which would be fun to play sometimes but also can get rather boring. X-O is also often used at the end of a letter to stand for hugs and kisses. I have had a few notes from my hubby over the years and these are some of them. While they don’t include the X-O, I definitely feel the love.
I know that by this time you are waiting for X-Rated dating ideas. Since my blog is basically PG there are no pictures of that, I’ll let you use your imagination.
Well, this was another one that was pretty easy to fill, thank goodness. I had to use going to a winery as an idea since we go to the Mountain Winery so often. I haven’t counted but I know we’ve been to at least 40 or 50 shows there over the years. When they started the Loyalty program where you get first access to tickets the next season by attending 4 shows a year, we’ve done that. Gotta love first access. That’s how we can get the up close and personal seats, which sometimes leads to interactions with the band! That is me with Josh Steely of Daughtry. Bill has had a fist bump with Neil Giraldo and we all remember when Kelly Hansen of Foreigner climbed over the seats right next to me!
In addition to the great music though, the scenery around the venue is spectacular. On a clear night you can see so far and once the sun goes down and the lights go on, there is definitely magic. The trees around the concert bowl have lights that make them look like they are on fire. The season starts soon and we already have our four shows scheduled. In fact, we have five as our daughter and I are going to see the Abba tribute band. We will also see a Queen tribute, The Temptations and Four Tops, Pat Benatar and Rick Springfield with Men At Work.
Weekend Getaway is something that we are able to do now a little more than we could when the kids were little. And, in our case weekend doesn’t even really need to be a Saturday/Sunday type thing. Since hubby is retired and I work from home, any day can be a weekend. This makes it easier for us to take advantage of lower prices that you can sometimes get during the week. I talked about our trip to Las Vegas and the times we’ve gone to Reno. We also took a quick trip to Oregon to see Bill’s mom. For the first time we got to go into the United Club! That was a fun experience. Of course you don’t have to fly places to get away. Our trips to Boulder Creek for the golf tournament every September was a nice getaway too.
And finally there is whale watching. Living as close to the ocean as we do, there are a few times that whales have been near enough for us to see if we went to look. We didn’t so I have no pictures.
X, Y and Z are all that remain. We are going to a wedding on Saturday so I may or may not get the last one up before we go. If not, it will be there on Sunday. I’ve come this far, I have to finish!
Video games are not something that we do often but we have been seen playing video poker while sitting at a bar in Reno. We also have played some games on our phones, mostly word games to keep our minds fresh like Word Splash. I guess those count as video games. We like to see who gets farther, although he is way ahead of me since I’m still working and he’s retired.
Volleyball is probably out of the question for us now, although a nice volleyball game on the sand at the beach would be fun.
Lastly is Vista Point. There are many spots on the highways where you can take an unplanned excursion to see the sights from a Vista Point. The one that will always mean the most to me is Logan Shoals Vista Point in Zephyr Cove, Nevada. That is where we had our very small wedding and it was just a wonderful setting. We stopped back by there on our 25th anniversary. It had changed a little from what I remembered but it was still a beautiful spot.
I think it’s time for another visit there, don’t you?
Okay, I really may be stretching it with the letter “U” but what the heck. I have no pictures so it’s going to be a short one too.
Underwater activities like snorkeling or scuba diving might be a fun date. We’ve never done them but anything with water always grabs my attention. I know there are some beautiful things you can see underwater.
Unplugged is something that works in these technological times. We always have our phone at the ready even if it is just to look up something that we’re talking about. In the olden days, there was no such thing so putting the phones away and just communicating is a good idea once in a while. Especially now that the kids are grown and we don’t need to be so available to them. We went to a restaurant for dinner the other night and as I looked around almost everyone was on their phones. I’m sure you’ve seen that too. Of course in our case, if we don’t look up what we were talking about, we won’t remember when we get home so having a paper and pen with us might be helpful – LOL.
Finally, unplanned. Sometimes you can have the most fun when you are just spontaneous and take a detour on a different road or just head out with no real destination in mind. Spontaneity can be exciting.
I’m calling that done. We’re on our last week with some of the hardest (for me) letters. Have a great Monday!
You may think that trivia games are like the Quizzes I mentioned for “Q” but I think they are different. (or maybe I just couldn’t think of three “T’ activities so I’m using it – LOL). Trivial Pursuit was a game that we played sometimes back in the day. I think we may even still have a box in the closet but we haven’t played in a long time.
Tandem bikes sounds like a fun thing to do too. Last year during the A to Z when I was in Union Square I saw a bike rental place and they have tandem bikes for rent. I think that hubby and I could manage something like that, not too much strain on either of us. However, we’d have to make sure we were going on a flat path which is hard in San Francisco!
And last, but probably best, idea is a train trip. We take the train a lot from our house to the City to see the Giants play and we may start taking it to see concerts at Chase Center. It’s a bit farther to walk but doable. I’m really talking about taking a train trip down the coast of California. They have one called the Starlight that goes down the coast from Seattle to LA. It takes 35 hours but I think it would be neat to see the coast that way. The California Zephyr sounds like fun too, especially since we were married in Zephyr Cove. It goes from San Francisco to Chicago, going through Nebraska and Colorado. Even though they are long trips, being on the train would allow the hubby to stand up and stretch his legs without having to pull over and stop.
Just for fun, here’s what I can see from my front porch.
Unfortunately, although the train station is right across the street from us, we’d have to drive to a more inland station to catch one of the Amtrak trains as the end of the line for this one is San Francisco. Still, it would be worth it I think.
Okay. Tomorrow is a day of rest from my silly posts. I’m going to really do my best to visit some new folks. I’ll be back with the rest of the alphabet next week.
We were headed to Reno for a few days because the Silver Legacy had sent us a deal for 2 free nights and so had the El Dorado so we combined them and stayed for 4 days. While we had been to Reno many times before, most of the time we stay in the casinos with an occasional visit to the Reno Aces, the Arizona Diamonback’s AAA baseball club. I knew that we couldn’t gamble all that time so I searched for something else to do and came upon the Scavenger Hunt offered by Let’s Roam. It was the most fun! You start out at a given location and using your cellphone, you are given clues to find objects which will take you to your next destination. The majestic Indian was our first clue. From there we were led to the Wingfield Park Glenn Little Amphitheater. Next was the doors of the church. Toward the end we were led to the World War II monument and our last stop was in front of this bookstore. My husband said he would be quite comfortable sitting on the bench if I wanted to go inside the store but I knew I could get lost in there for hours so I didn’t. If you are really in a competitive mood, you could take the challenge to get through it all in a certain amount of time and while one person uses the app for directions, another one takes pictures and submits them for points. We didn’t do that, preferring to take our time and see all the sights along the way.
One of the places we were led to was the big Believe metal sculpture. I wrote about that before because it was a profoundly moving experience for me. I actually broke down and cried when all the letters came into view.
They have these Scavenger Hunts for cities all around the US, Canada and possibly some other places as well. I was thinking that maybe we should try one in San Francisco, although I kind of did that already with my A to Z last year! I know they have one that centers around Fisherman’s Wharf and Ghirardelli Square. Just have to make sure the hubby is in good shape.
When I went to the site to check the link, I see that they now have an indoor virtual version as well. Guess Covid brought up some new ideas for them. I know that there are different themed experiences you can have like a Bachelorette party or even a team building experience for corporations. Also, if you are interested, they are having a sale right now!
Earlier I talked about going to the beach, but seeing the sunset at the beach is something totally different. I love the colors of the sky and hearing the waves. Just magical. You can still watch the sunset even if you are not by the beach of course. We live so close I’m ashamed to say we don’t get there very often.
Sports Bar is my last offering for the letter “S.” Interestingly, this one was actually one of the stops on the Scavenger Hunt in Reno. It was like being back home because San Francisco teams were the focus of the bar. This stop was in the middle of the hunt so it was a nice place to grab some refreshments. I was a bit shocked to know that the bartender had no idea they were part of the scavenger hunt. When we told them about it, they hadn’t heard of it. I would have thought they might get some extra promotion or something from it. Still it was a nice rest stop before we continued on the rest of the journey.
Of course there are sports bars closer to home. One is the American Bull which, fun fact, used to be a regular bar (well, maybe a dive bar truthfully) called Peabody’s that my girlfriends and I used to go to on a Saturday night. It was there that I met my husband’s brother, which led me to meet my hubby. When I go into the American Bull now I can’t help but remember what it used to look like. Ah, memories.
One more letter this week and then a bunch of really tricky ones! Can she make it?
Road trips are fun to go on occasionally. For longer ones, like to Reno, I do the driving so hubby can stretch his back but for short hops he drives. That allows me to take pictures of the interesting things we see as we go along, like the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile, which is huge, the castle hidden behind some trees, the snow on the mountains and our old friend the Golden Gate Bridge on our return home. We even saw Elvis in his pink Cadillac once. Of course sometimes we have to stop and take a break before we continue.
While I never went for ice skating, rollerskating is something I really liked to do. I even got myself a pair of skates. The old fashioned kind with four wheels, not rollerblades where they are all in a line like ice skates. Bill was a pretty good skater in his time too. We both enjoyed skating around the rink to the great music. I am not sure it would be such a good idea to do that now, even though my recent bone density scan shows that I have good bones. No sense asking for trouble, right?
And my final suggestion for a date is to go to a rooftop and check out the view. No pictures for that but I know that there are a lot of rooftop restaurants. In fact, there is a new one called Rooftop 25 that recently opened in San Francisco. I can remember going to the Top of the Mark when I was younger and while that wasn’t exactly outside on the rooftop, it was at the top of the Mark Hopkins hotel and the room would spin in a circle so you could see the whole city while you ate. We did have dinner on the rooftop at the Mountain Winery once but won’t do that again as we didn’t think it was worth the price.
Okay, that covers R. As I look in my draft folder I see there are less and less posts in there. We must be moving right along!
Okay, I’ll admit I’m really stretching it with this one but come on, Q? As in Jigsaw puzzles, quizzes can be something that you do together. Our newspaper has some fun ones on the comic pages and my husband loves to test my knowledge on different things. Mostly he likes to try to stump me with the literary themed ones since I read a lot. I don’t watch much television but I think that even watching shows like Jeopardy together could count as a quiz date.
And then there is the quiet time where you are just in the same room relaxing together. Maybe you share a dog. Sometimes I work on my card making or organize my supplies in the living room just so I can spend some time with him. It works for us.
And then there are the “quickies.” No pictures and not much detail but I think most everyone who has kids and a busy life knows what a “quickie” is. There were many times when the kids were little or when my husband had weird working hours like the graveyard shift from 11 PM to 7 AM or even the swing shift from 3 PM to 11 PM when a quickie was all we could manage. You do what you can, right?
Hope that wasn’t TMI for you. Thank goodness I still have some fun letters left!
Picnics can be lots of fun, either with a bunch of friends at the beach or a more romantic setting like the picnic we had on the ledge of the Grand Canyon when we took the helicopter ride. They had a cute basket filled with sandwiches and champagne. I really am so glad we went on that adventure.
How about a paint night? This is us painting the walls of my studio. I love that color but there is so much stuff in there now you can hardly see it! There is also a new painting experience in our town called Pinot’s Palette where you can go and have a glass or two of beer or wine and paint a picture. It looks like fun but I don’t know what I’d do with them when they are done. I mean, yes, we could hang one but do we really need two of the same picture? Maybe we could give one as a Christmas gift? And then how do we choose which one to keep? Would we fight over whose is “better?”
Finally there is pool time. I searched high and low for a picture of the hubby that I know I have somewhere but couldn’t find it so you just get me.
There is the other kind of pool too, the one with the balls and pool cue but I don’t have any pictures of those either. Told you I was winging it! 10 letters left and some of them are pretty tricky. Whatever will I do with Q and X? Guess you just have to keep checking!
In case you are just joining, my theme this year for the A to Z is all about date ideas. Since my husband and I have been married for almost 38 years, we have been on a few dates and I am a firm believer that you need to continue dating even after marriage, maybe ESPECIALLY after marriage. I’m wandering through the alphabet sharing some of our past dates and getting ideas for new ones.
Being in the outdoors is a good way to connect with a date. One of our first dates included this stop by the side of the road. My hubby was into photography at the time and asked me to let him take some pictures of me. This is what happened.
Yes, at the time I was a smoker. Benson and Hedges Menthol Lights, long. Sometimes I wish I could go back to that version of me. I had hair but no boobs. Those didn’t come until after I had kids. Still, it was a fun time. I loved that suede jacket too. With my curly hair some said I looked a little like Barbra Streisand. Ahhh the memories of youth.
Concerts and musicals are okay but opera is really not my thing even though it might be a good date idea for someone else. We did go to a Grand Ole Opry performance that was quite fun. Oddly enough, we were there for the birthday of his ex-wife! Even though they weren’t together anymore she remained in the circle of friends for a while.
And last but not least for the letter “O” is operations. When you have a spouse with issues, sometimes being with him in the hospital is as close to a date as you get. I can tell you I have spent at least one anniversary and one birthday sitting by his bedside.
When you say your wedding vows they usually include for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health. I can tell you we’ve gone through all of those things in the last 37 years!
Okay, we are into the third week of the A to Z. Still with me?
Janet's Smiles 