Birthdays and Date Night

Happy May everyone! Is anyone else amazed at the fact that it’s already May? Wow!

Well, I was completely go-go-go all day yesterday, but before I continue, let me just give a big ‘ol thank you to everyone for your “good luck” and “congrats” comments, tweets, and messages on yesterday’s race. You were all so encouraging and totally made me feel like a rock star!

Birthday Celebrations

Yesterday afternoon, I headed out to the beautiful Washington Park in Albany to meet up with this great group of gals.

Everyone brought some food to share because, well, we love food and that’s how we roll.

Heather even cut the cheese… (<—pun most definitely intended there)

The main reason we were all there was to celebrate Jen & Heather’s Birthdays (Heather’s was Thursday, Jen’s is Monday) so of course we had birthday cake.

And quite possibly my favorite snack at the party…cupcakes!

Since I knew that Jay and I were heading out to dinner shortly after the party, I tried to keep my snacking to a minimum. But really, how could I pass up one of those???

I nabbed the Strawberries & Champagne cupcake which was pretty good and made me very happy.

But dare I say there was actually almost too much alcohol flavor in the frosting? I guess maybe I’ll just have to try to recreate it myself…

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Date Night

After a couple hours, I said my goodbyes and headed back home to see Jay. I was over-the-moon excited to finally have a Date Night, and better yet…we were ridin’ in style!

We headed up to one of our favorite restaurants in Saratoga, the Olde Bryan Inn. There was a bit of a wait when we got there, but we actually enjoy when there’s a wait so we can sit at the bar and enjoy a cocktail.

Thankfully, there were two seats with our names on ‘em, so I settled in an ordered a glass of Pinot Grigio. While we were sitting, I also snacked on some of those Saratoga Chips you see in the basket back there. They are probably my favorite chips ever.

Eventually by the time we got a table, I was one glass of wine deep and feeling its effects more than usual. Wheeeee! So when our waitress brought us a couple fresh rolls, I dug right in.

Then I realized that I was so engrossed in my delicious roll, that I was totally ignoring my lovely date. Woops. Hiiii Jay!

Hiiii Courtney!

For dinner, I was going back and forth with a few things on the menu (no surprise there) but decided to go with the Pecan Encrusted Salmon Salad.

Since I don’t normally cook salmon at home, it’s nice to get it out once in a while. No sense in ordering something I can make myself!

The salmon was cooked absolutely perfect, and the flavor of the pecans encrusted on it was fantastic. Also fantastic was this homemade pumpkin muffin…YUM

By the time we got home last night, I was completely wiped. Between my early morning, running the race, being on the go all day long, and the wine I had at dinner, I was more than ready for bed. I think I was probably asleep before my head even hit the pillow, which was before 10pm.

I woke up this morning feeling much more refreshed; however, my hips and calves are screeeeeaming at me. Grrrrr. Hopefully some stretching and ice will work that out a bit.

Time to go find something for breakfast!

Question for the Day:

What’s one of your favorite restaurants?

Tagged as: birthday, blogger meet up, date night, Olde Bryan Inn, Saratoga restaurant, Washington Park