Thursday, June 14, 2012

50 Free Dates Special Edition: Anniversary Weekend (Day 1)

On June 4th, Brook and I celebrated 7 years of marriage. Since we had never really done anything spectacular for our anniversary, we decided this year would be different. Using our list of free dates as a rough guide, we planned a fun weekend that required a small amount of money, thanks to the wonderful anniversary gift from the "Faux-parents" Nancy and Vince: a wonderful kitchen suite at the Residence Inn in downtown SLC.
Brook noticed her bags followed a similar color theme
After leaving the care of the boys in the capable care of our Utah family for the weekend, Brook and I made our way to the farmers market at Gardner Village. We were initially disappointed that the downtown farmers market (that is located in Pioneer Park, which happens to be right across the street from our hotel) didn't start till the following weekend, but were glad we happened upon the one at Gardner Village. The farmers market is a wonderful place to just get outside and enjoy the sights and smells, whether you spend money or not. We did get a brick oven pizza and a fresh limeade to share for lunch, but spent the remainder of the time walking around and looking at the various odds and ends for sale.
Listening to some live music while we waited for our pizza
We still had some time to kill before we could check into our hotel, so we decided to go see a movie at the dollar theater.  On the way, we stopped by a collection of local shops, known as "9th and 9th" (900 S 900 E) to do some window shopping.  This is a fun activity that we enjoy doing, especially when I know we don't have money to spend on random things.  We eventually made our way to the theater and saw "Mirror, Mirror", which Brook found entertaining and I found cheesy.  The best part was eating the chips and salsa we got at the farmer's market during the movie.
9th and 9th Baby!!
After the movie, we went to the hotel to scope out our weekend home.  we were surprised to find that not only was there a kitchen, there were two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a washer and dryer, 3 flat screen TVs, and two safes.  We took the opportunity to relax and watch some TV while lying down on our bed, which increased our desire to put a TV in our bedroom.  
This is the life.

After watching Food Network for a while, we decided it was time to eat.  We went to our favorite Thai place Sawadee and shared a heaping plate of pad thai.  We finished our travels for the day by checking out the new Harmon's grocery store that is downtown by the new City Creek Center to get some food for our hike the next day.  It was a fun start to a wonderful weekend.