Date Night

Last night Kevin and I headed out for dinner with Patrick and Jennifer for a date night. Cameron graciously agreed to watch the girls giving us this time for getting out on our own.  Thank you Cam!!

We decided to go to a town near here called Winter Park to walk around and look at the variety of restaurants until we found one to try.  We had been in this area last June for Jennifer's birthday when Patrick had made arrangements at the PF Chang's near the downtown area and then a cute little wine bistro afterwards.  It rained that night so it didn't allow us to really walk around this pleasant place with it's park in the center and collection of quaint shops and restaurants.

Park Plaza Hotel above and shops below. Loved the plants for color and privacy on the sides of the balcony.

Park in the center of town with the railway lines and old station on the opposite side of the shops.

The unique Wine Room we went to in June for Jennifer's birthday celebration

These tasting machines are what make it so different.  After purchasing a prepaid card you insert it into the various machines like these around the shop and choose the portion size for sampling in the glasses they give you when you begin. There are places to sit inside and out and they are working on a menu to go with the wines they currently have. For now there are some simple cheese and other snacks to have with your wine.

Since the evening was a pleasant one we headed over to just walk and explore and then decide at our leisure where to eat.  We arrived in Winter Park earlier in the evening so there would be more opportunity to explore before the area got more congested with a Saturday evening crowd.  We toured most of the town before crossing over to the park and heading back the opposite direction.

As we came to the end of this walk through the park we then crossed the street to look at restaurants further down until we came to The Paris Bistro.  The maitre'd invited us to join them for dinner that evening as we looked at their menu.  We acknowledged the menu looked good but decided to go a bit further only to walk a bit more then return to eat here.  Though they have a very nice indoor choice of dining rooms we decided since it was so pleasant out to just sit outside and eat our meal.

Menus on entry table

Indoor seating on the interior shop side of Bistro

View into the interior seating area

Us at our nice outdoor sidewalk table

The food was delicious and as always with Patrick and Jennifer the company was great.  We enjoyed a leisurely meal and dessert of crème brulee, then chose to walk back through the downtown area to walk off some of our meal.

Found a chocolate shop where they make a wide variety of delicious goodies.  We bought Cameron something he'd talked about many times since trying it once in the past, as a means of thanking him for his services.  A piece of chocolate covered bacon.  I have to admit as disgusting as that sounded when he insisted I try a small piece, it really wasn't bad.

Chocolate kitchen on the side of the shop

Cam enjoying his chocolate covered bacon.

This is a fun spot to get away for an evening and we spotted several other restaurants we'd like to return to and try.  SOOOO, more "date nights" to come!! 

Lynda