celebrating five years

It's hard to believe that it's been five years since Shelby and were married. In some respects it seems like just yesterday, and in others like she has always been with me. Praise God for the amnesia he has blessed me with so that I seem to forget all those painful, lonely years.

Now that we have two kids it is very unusual that we go out on a date, just Mama and Daddy. It has been a while, and mostly because of the cost of babysitting. It's just been prohibitive. That is, until our babysitter needed chiropractic care...

So just in time for anniversary number five we find ourselves able to spend some quality time together sans children. We decided to head to Cambridge, where there are a large number of great places to eat and drink as well as fun places to just hang out.

I've come to have a great love of "having tea" as long as it means tea as a meal, not just a drink. We've been to Alice's Tea Cup in NYC a number of times, and decided to start our afternoon / evening out with tea at Upstairs On the Square. Some pictures:

To get Upstairs you enter downstairs...















My beautiful date enjoying her tea















The interior decorating was fun if kind of crazy



















The food was very tasty



















The Happy Couple















Anniversary Turtle















The food was excellent. Tasty, different...with extremely small portions. It was an appetizer that cost like a very good meal. (Very different from Alice's!) It was a fun place though, and thankfully the cost was defrayed by an anniversary gift card from Shelby's folks (thanks Mom & Dad!) It did leave us looking for more to eat though, so on we went...

The next stop was another spot in Harvard Square that we had been told had VERY good coffee. The Crema Cafe also had some very tasty desserts to help us make it through to dinner. Some pictures:

Crema Cafe















Inside















Yummy Crema stuff














I had the Orange Rhubarb Cobbler on the left, and Shelby had the Lemon Chiffon Cupcake on the right. Yummy stuff indeed.

Once we had enough food to sustain us for a bit we headed off to do a bit of browsing in the stores. We missed the Curious George store (got there 5 minutes after it closed) but we did get to spend some time in Eastern Mountain Sports where Shelby got to try on the latest in fashion footwear:

Five Finger trail running shoes















Very attractive. We'll see if she ever takes up 'barefoot' running. These will be what she needs if so.

Next it was time for a snack. There was a chocolate theme that ran through the evening, with Burdick's Cafe being the most obvious part. Burdick's is amazing chocolate. We also had hot chocolate which is not like hot cocoa. If you ever had a Chantico at Starbuck's this is similar...but better. Kind of like drinking a melted chocolate bar. Wow.

This is how you do hot chocolate.















After a bit more wandering around Cambridge it was time for our final stop of the night: Finale. Finale is a restaurant that specializes in desserts. It is the place that I got Shelby's birthday cake from, and we've never had anything from the place that hasn't been amazing. In particular they have a special dinner and dessert special that we decided to take advantage of. The highlights:

Continuing on the theme of chocolate, the Chocolate Martini...
















Which was greatly enjoyed















Continuing on the theme of small portions, this is the Shrimp and Avocado Salad. One shrimp.















That was a MAIN COURSE folks. The white pizza I had was better, but still small. The desserts, however, were portioned well.

Molten Chocolate















Lemon Pound Cake















The night ended with a visit with our friends the Zivans who were house sitting (enabling us to have a nice place to park close by...) I almost had a chance to finally get my fill when they offered homemade Thai food...but we had to leave. So sad.

It was a great night out and it was really great to get some alone time with my bride. It's something that will be at a premium for a while now. It makes the time spent that much more special.

Five years. I still haven't hit one of those times that our pastor talks about during weddings, the one where you wonder what you got married for. I've had five really good years. Better than I would have expected marriage to be. God blessed me with a good wife, and as I told her, I've had five years and I want more. Many, many more.

I guess sometimes good things do come to those who wait. I'm very grateful.


Jonathan