Father Daughter Dance

The Girl Scouts organize a father daughter dance at one of the hotels downtown every year.  It's supposed to be a fancy evening for the girls.  Jeff was out of town last year, so he and Vivian didn't go.  He was in town this year, but still not super thrilled about going.  Obviously, he loves hanging out with Vivian, but dancing and formal parties are not really his thing.  He cleans up real good though, and he and Vivian ended up looking fantastic for their night out.

The dance started at six, and Vivian usually goes to bed at eight.  It seemed a little silly for them to spend as much time in the car as they did at the dance, so we got an Airbnb apartment downtown near the hotel and planned some other fun activities to make a full trip of it.

The apartment came with parking, so Viv and I waited in the building lobby while Jeff parked the car.

The apartment itself was perfectly serviceable.  It had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a balcony, and a living room that was big enough for having friends over, which was our evening plan.

We got there around lunch time, and decided to have a fun, fancy lunch out.  The Hotel Muse was right next to our apartment, and it has a couple nice restaurants.  Their steak restaurant, Babette's,  had a good lunch deal.  For about $30 Vivian and I got a 200g Australian tenderloin steak with a side, and either an appetizer or dessert to go with it.  Jeff branched out and got beef brisket, but we all agreed that the tenderloin was better.  The Hotel Muse has some pretty dramatic decor, and the restaurant was no different.  Vivian felt like it was all very fancy, and said she was going to try and be "proper."

We had a nice table with a great view, and we were the only people sitting in our section, so it was like a private lunch.  We really enjoyed it.

After lunch, we went back to the apartment to rest for a bit, and then some of our friends came over to enjoy wine with meats and cheeses and play some board games.  We had brought Disney's Beat the Parents from home, and Vivian was so excited to have a full crew of players.  We played a couple rounds with her, before it was time to get ready for the dance.  When I asked her what her favorite part of the weekend was, she said playing board games :-)

Jeff and Vivian got ready and posed for their picture on the balcony.  We all admired them and then sent them on their way.  

Part of the reason for our friends showing up was for me to have someone to eat dinner with while Jeff and Vivian were off at the dance.  I had also bumped into another mom who was staying with her family in the same building.  We invited her to join us, so we ended up with a group of five for dinner.  We didn't go far.  Crepes and Co. is a restaurant that serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and it was just a few steps from the apartment building.

I was so full from our steak lunch, that I ordered a salad for dinner, but it ended up being a huge salad.  Luckily, they gave it to me with serving utensils, so I was able to share it with everyone.  I also wanted to make sure that I saved room for dessert.  They had a whole menu of different, delicious sounding crepe concoctions.  Two people at the table split a flaming crepe, but I thought I'd go local, and ordered the crepe with mangoes and coconut ice cream.  It was HUGE!

I couldn't finish the whole thing, but I enjoyed the part I ate.

After dinner, we went back to the apartment.  Jeff and Vivian were back from the dance by then, and they were hanging out and watching a movie.  We let Vivian play one more round of board games, and then put her to bed.

We still had plenty of wine and more games to play, so the adults stayed up for quite a while longer.  I haven't done a game night in a while, and it was a lot of fun.

The next day was Mother's Day.  Our plan from the start had been to go to Crepes and Co. for breakfast, so we went ahead with that even though I had gone for dinner the night before.  For breakfast, I decided to try one of their breakfast crepes.  I started eating it before I remembered to take a picture, so it's a little messy.

It was only alright.  The dessert crepe was definitely better.  Jeff got an omelet and Vivian got pancakes.  They both really liked their food, so if we go back, I'll just get something different.  We all were missing Elena, so we headed home.  She was very pleased to see us all, and I got lots of hugs as my Mother's Day present.  We spent the rest of the day just relaxing and having family time.  It was a fun weekend.