"A" Anniversary Recap

Time is just flying by! I meant to post this last week and now I'm almost two weeks behind. Heath and I enjoyed a great weekend in Dallas for our anniversary staycation. Although we were only 30 minutes away from home, it truly felt like we were in a completely different place because we've never explored this part of Dallas before. Following up on our last post here about our new anniversary tradition, below are our best efforts  to meet our "A" theme :)

So thankful for this sweet and loving man. Cheers to more years of anniversary fun!

Academy 

• We set a budget for gifts this year as well as made the rule it had to come from an "A" store or do something with that letter. I got Heath a table gas grill from Academy because he's been wanting a grill for awhile. With an apartment, I don't find it necessary to get a big grill so I figured this would work. He loves it!
  

  

  I already had dinner prepped to cook on our indoor pan grill, but he insisted to cook it on the new gas grill because he was too excited to wait. Although we ate dinner pretty late this night, it was still good!

The Adolphus + Antique + April, Aaron and Amanda

• We took a leap of faith and did a blind purchase from Hotwire, meaning we knew the price point and area of the hotel but not the actual name of the hotel until after we paid. We've done this numerous times before so we figured, why not now? We got an "A" hotel for only $62 a night! The Adolphus also was considered an antique hotel because it's been around for 100+ years. We were nervous at first because I read consumer reviews about the rooms being too old, but we really enjoyed our stay and the bed was very comfortable.
• This could not get more weird, or coincidental. Before arriving, the first person I talked to on the phone was April to ensure we had a king size bed in our room. The second person I talked to on the phone was Aaron to confirm valet parking price. The third person who checked us in was Amanda, who was kind enough to let me check on the large corner room to make sure I "approved" before we settled in. What an "A" team! (Also goes to show my very A type, controlling personality...)
  

  

  Adolphus Busch himself. He is responsible for Budweiser, too.

  

  Funny salutations, but we got a sweet Happy Anniversary welcome note from the hotel

  

  Fish eye mirror that was not centered with the bed - it bothered us the whole time haha

  

  Free treats from the hotel for our celebratory weekend

  

  Outside of The Adolphus

  
  
  

  

  Getting pretty toasty from walking around all day

  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  The famous "French Room" - closed for a bridal shower that day

  
  

Active + Arts District/Art

• I'm trying to get more active because I know it's healthy for you, so I told Heath I would go to the gym with him a few times a week.  He goes every day except the weekends. This explains his gift of Nike workout tights and a top for me, resulting in an "active" themed gift.
• We also were active by going to free yoga in the park at Klyde Warren, which happened to be in the Arts District.  Our hotel was also in the Arts District. We walked across the street to the Dallas Museum of Art and then walked back to the park to indulge in the yummy food truck options.
• Another active activity we did was walk all around the West End District. It wasn't too hot that day so we decided to walk downtown (obviously using our Google Maps). We tried to go to the Aquarium for our "A" theme, but the line was way too long and we didn't feel like waiting. Being outside of it should count, right?

Wearing my new gear!

There's an art station (probably for kids but we did it anyway) where we only had a few materials to create something.

I just noticed Heath has the wrong month down... I wonder if he knows our anniversary date?? ;)

Walking around downtown

So exhausted! Had to rest before dinner time

Avocado

• We had avocado in our sushi for dinner Saturday night :)
  
  
  

Artifacts

• We took the self-guided tour at the Dallas Holocaust Museum, which I got from Groupon at only $8 for two adult admissions. It was very interesting and it helped us take on a new perspective to that time in history. 
  
  

 ATE!!

• Of course, to no surprise, we ate and ate and ate for the weekend! I purchased all of our meals (minus the food trucks) on Groupon to help keep the cost down for the weekend. The sushi place wasn't anything too special, but we loved Primebar and Greenville Ave. Company Pizza. 
  

  

  The most meat-filled quesadilla I've ever had! Loved the food at Primebar

  

  Heath got a grilled cheese from Ruthie's Rolling Cafe food truck

  

  I got a bahn mi from the Nammi food truck

  

  Nutella ice cream sandwich from the Cool Haus food truck

  

  

  More dinner from Hypnotic Sushi

  

  Obviously healthy was not on our mind this weekend

  

  

  Heart-shaped pizza for anniversary weekend :)

  

  

  $3 for an ice cream bar?!  Might as well...

  

  Not sure what I'm doing with this face, but promise it was good.  Not sure if I would pay $3 for it again though.

  

  Heath loved his peanut butter and I got coffee. Have you tried Steel City Pops?

Total "A" count comes to... 11. (Which happens to be Heath's favorite number!)

Quick shoutout to my best friend for a sweet anniversary card and dinner. We used it right away. Couldn't resist the queso and delicious salsa from On the Border. We are thankful for you, Nelly!

It was such a relaxing time for the both of us. We even rented a movie and watched it in the room one night. I brought breakfast items for us to eat while in our room and prepped some mini bottles of wine and water bottles to avoid the high costs of room service. Thanks for reading about our anniversary fun :) The last thing on the list is our anniversary photo shoot, which isn't scheduled until September. Can't wait to see how they turn out!

Until next time,