My wife and I recently celebrated our 11th anniversary by having a night out in Downtown Rochester . We began the night by slicking ourselves up and heading out of the house. As a side note: you know that you don’t dress up too much when your son says “Dad, you look like a pro golfer!” If only I had a white belt too!
As we proceeded downtown, we passed the hustle and bustle of Main Street and arrived at the quaint little property of the Royal Park Hotel . This would be our first experience in the fine dining room of the hotel. Dinner was fabulous, the service was amazing, and the conversation over dinner with a good wine was perfect. Those moments are ones that you can truly cherish as you look back over the years together. We shared some great memories, some bad ones, and then switched our focus to something even better – where we desired to go.
If I were to walk away and suggest something from our dinner there, it would be to say that the pinot noir and lobster mashed potatoes were delicious. I do wonder though, did our waiter really have an accent or was he faking it to make the experience that much more elegant?
The next question to be pondered is “How do you top that?” Well, I didn’t know if it would be possible to top the intimate conversations that took place at dinner, but the continued exploration in the mind of trying new things moved us on to our next destination. In dates gone by, we would normally head to Fuse Lounge, but this time we decided to try out Fieldstone Winery.
As we entered the store, we ran into some friends from our church. Unbeknownst to us, they shared the 
same anniversary as we did and were out celebrating as well. We sat down with them and the owner, an incredible host, gave us a few samples of their wine. We spent time laughing, sipping, and bantering over the ills of our kids. It was a great time finding impromptu conversation and exploring a new (to us) establishment.
Trying new places is becoming a fun and common practice for our family. You never know what you will find or who you will meet. It made for a wonderful evening on our anniversary, which not only was important to us, but also inspiring! We learned about a man who left his job to start a winery so he could do something that he loved and that his autistic son could do with him. It was truly amazing!
By the end of the night, we had shared a great meal, had some great wine, enjoyed wonderful conversation and laughed a great deal; all while enjoying time together.
