Saturday, technically the day before our anniversary, we decided to go out for a little date, while Aunt Kathy watched the boy. It's still hard to believe that our wedding was a year ago, and that we partied on a boat. I've been to a lot of weddings, and I've largely been jealous of most of them. Not ours. It was the best wedding I've ever been to, hands down. We talked about it, and I think the only thing we might have changed is to make it earlier. Have the three hour tour all in day light, and leave more time for partying in the bar in the evening. But then again, you know, the lighting was just right on that beach!
With Simon being so young, the truth is that neither one of us spent all that much time thinking about the anniversary, and we're fortunately not huge gift people who judge the value of the relationship on gift size. But on Friday night, I was thinking a bit about the dinner-and-a-movie thing, which is not original, but it's pretty easy, and we both like movies and eating. :) Then I remembered that Redmond is home to a Gold Class Cinemas location. The premise is pretty simple: Pay up to see a movie while people kiss your ass and bring you shit. Watch the video tour on their Web site. It's impressive.
We decided to see Hot Tub Time Machine, which sounds pretty silly at $30+ a ticket, but whatever. We only got there about 20 minutes early, unfortunately, but the lobby is basically a trendy looking bar with a gas fireplace. It reminded me of the kind of thing you'd see in Vegas, where no club has anything older than six months in it (exaggerating, but you know what I mean). It had a nice vibe to it. The bar service was a little on the slow side, but not to a fault.
Inside the theater, you've got powered recliners with a table in the middle, including a call button. The menu is pretty much all finger food, seeing as how you can't really fumble around with silverware in the dark, in a recliner, but it was pretty top notch. They make their own chips, and we both had pretty good food. I got an Anchor Bar chicken sandwich, which is exactly what it sounds like: Chicken with wing sauce from Anchor Bar in Buffalo, where Buffalo wings were allegedly born. It was delicious, though I wish they would've had a spicier sauce. Diana had some other chicken variety, which she really liked. I had a couple of beers, and she had a couple of really strong margaritas. The food and drink pricing was pretty much in line with any other slightly nicer restaurant or bar.
So what do you get for an extra $20 on the movie ticket itself? No kids (it's 21 and over), better seats than you have at home, theaters that only hold 40 people, pillows and blankets if you so desire, and most importantly, people bringing you stuff. Yes, the outing cost us around $130 for two, but I think it was totally worth it. The next time something comes out that I really, really look forward to seeing, I'll totally do it there.
The only negative is that alcohol has its way of moving quickly, so you might miss a scene if you have to pee (as I did). Fortunately, the restrooms aren't far away, and they're pretty nice as well. Though as Diana pointed out, it's hard to see if something ain't right in a black toilet.
With all of the nice cars driving about the east side, I can't think of a more perfect entertainment venue, where people can obviously afford it. I think we'll likely do it again in a few months. Again, totally worth it. It was exactly what we needed after four weeks with our little man.