Continuing on my theme this month about relationships and marriage health….

For the health of your relationship, it’s so important to dedicated time together where you can have fun just you two. So that inspired me to think up some fun, simple and cheap date night ideas around Seattle.

My husband and I are celebrating our 11th wedding anniversary in May and our 17th dating anniversary in July. Back in 2003, we had only been dating for a couple of years, and I was about to head into an intense 2 year photography program. Knowing that our time together was going to be limited once school started, we implemented a date night. It was Wednesdays for us, and it was our weekly night that we would spend together.

We didn’t start out with any major plans or things to do, it was just a way we made sure to carve out time to spend together. Well, 12 years, a pair of wedding rings, and a pair of children later, date nights are just as important to us, and I think the health of our relationship has a lot to do with how we try to carve out time to spend together.

Truth be told, we no longer can have our weekly date nights (as Pete works nights now), but we still strive to carve out that time to spend together. Being intentional about being together, and it shows in our relationship.

So I thought it would be fun to help with some inspiration for date night ideas. Some big, most small, all intentional. Which I think is the most important part of date night. Not necessarily what you do, as long as you are intentionally spending time together… and it’s healthy to spend that intentional time together doing something other than staring at a TV screen.

I’ve had some fun with this post looking around the internet at ideas others have for date night, and there are so many things you can think to do with your partner that doesn’t involve just sitting in front of the tv.

Here’s a list of some fun date night ideas around Seattle to get you going

• Take a drive : Pull out a map of the area (say within 50/100 miles), close your eyes and put your finger on  the map. Drive to that location and find a diner to have coffee. Then people watch.
• Go Rollerskating (old school!)
• Go ice skating
• Play video games from your childhood (atari anyone??). If you don’t have any old school gaming consoles, check out Georgetown Liquor Company!
• Go to a play at the community theater
• Open mic night at the comedy club. Try out the Comedy Underground
• Make homemade pizza from scratch. Don’t know how? Youtube it and learn together
• Go Geocashing
• Take a Walk around town.  Greenlake, Discovery Park, on the Burke Gilman Trail, or at Olympic Sculpture Park. There are tons of amazing places to walk around in Seattle.
• Go on a hike
• Put together a 500+ piece puzzle
• Bike along the Burke Gilman Trail
• Wine tasting in Woodinville
• Read together… sometimes it’s just the time spent next to each other…
• Plan a trip.. .doesn’t need to be realistic or happen soon… but if you had time to go to (insert destination) and had X days, what would you do?
• Recreate your first date.
• Amusement park like Wild Waves
• Spend an evening in bed together
• Go to the casino and play the dime slots – there are great casinos within an hour drive in pretty much any direction from Seattle.
• Art Walks – check out the art happening in your neighborhood.
• Play a game (cribbage, canasta and qwirkle are our go to games).
• Date Night in a Jar -One of my favorites is a “Date Night in a Jar” post I found over on Lifeinthegreenhouse.com blog. She put together a super simple way of always having something creative to do for date night and putting the ideas on Popsicle sticks in a mason jar. Color coded for type of date: at home,  night out but not too expensive, and more costly, more planning needed dates.

Do you have a favorite date night with your partner? Comment below and share!

Some more inspiration : 101 Things to do with your husband