Anniversary #6

We celebrated our six-year anniversary this year, but I just felt clueless about what we should actually do. We had talked about going to Chicago - we're both originally from the area, and we had had our wedding reception at Petterino's, a restaurant in the heart of Chicago's Loop. But things just didn't come together. And I had a job interview on our actual anniversary date, so some things just got pushed aside. We talked about flying out for a weekend in California. But last-minute flights proved to be too expensive.

So, my idea was to celebrate with six ideas - big or small. What did we come up with?

1. Gifts
I went with the traditional 6th wedding anniversary gift of candy. I gave Francisco a box of Fran's Chocolates partially only because of the name. My family has kind of adopted 'Fran' as his nickname.  I visited Chocosphere, which features fine chocolates from around the world, and picked out a few interesting gourmet chocolate items like caramel mushrooms and coffee cups.  Francisco went with the modern anniversary gift of wood...but he is apparently still working on whatever this mystery gift is. :P However, he did give me a Mason Pearson Hairbrush, which had been on my wish list for a really long time.  I was never going to be able to justify buying myself that expensive of a hairbrush, so it was nice of him to splurge a little for me.

2. Hot Dogs
You know no classy anniversary celebration is complete without hot dogs, right? ;-) We ended up re-visiting our favorite hot dog places over our anniversary weekend, and I posted a showdown summary here.

3. Anniversary Cake
Together we made a delicious Dulce de Leche Cheesecake. I attempted a chocolate 6 for decoration. :)

4. More Food
We really, really love our food around here. :) After my job interview on our anniversary, we went to Incline Public House for a late lunch.  I started with a house cocktail called The Sovereign, and then we shared the Fried Stuffed Olives, Grippos (a local potato chip company) crusted mac & cheese, and a Prosciutto Fig Pizza (minus the prosciutto, of course).

Besides some amazing food offerings, this place is also known for their panoramic views of both the Ohio River and Downtown Cincinnati. We were fortunate that the weather was nice enough to allow us to sit on the deck and enjoy the views.

Speaking of amazing views, we also dined at 360 the following week.  This is a revolving restaurant situated on the top floor of the Radisson in Covington, KY.  Now, technically, we were there for a "celebratory dinner" after I was offered a job at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, but it was still close enough to our anniversary to include in this summary.

I have never been to a rotating restaurant before; it is such a novel experience that everyone should really take advantage of.  It takes about an hour and 15 minutes to complete a full rotation, giving you plenty of time to relax, eat, and enjoy the sweeping views of the Ohio River and Cincinnati skyline.  The food itself wasn't fantastic - the Goat Cheese Hushpuppies and Four-Cheese Ravioli were a bit bland and over-priced, although the Mango Raspberry Cheesecake really helped make up for that.  But honestly, the view is the highlight of this experience, so it really didn't bother me that the food was less than spectacular.

5. Fancy Food Box (Haha, yeah, that's more food!)
My husband has been super-awesome lately in that every subscription box I mention being interested in, he signs me up for.  I decided to surprise him and look into a subscription box of his own. He had mentioned before that the only subscription he might be interested in would be food-related. I had gotten him a membership to the Peanut Butter of the Month Club in the past, so I decided to explore some gourmet food options and and found this curated collection of the best gourmet artisan food options around. I think he was surprised to receive this, although I had to explain that one of his presents wouldn't be arriving till April due to when I placed the order and when the box was scheduled to ship. I had missed the cut-off to get the March box, unfortunately. Everything proved to be really tasty - even the hot sauce wasn't bad, and that's something we wouldn't usually enjoy. I was amused to see that it included a box of Queen City Cookies, which is a local business in Cincinnati.  We actually picked up a few Christmas presents from their local cookie shop over the winter. :)

6. Cabin in Tennessee
Finally, we had decided early on that it would be nice to book a cabin near the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. This area in Tennessee was actually the first place we had ever traveled together, and it's coming on 10 years since we'd first been there. We looked into a few options, but everything was pretty pricey, so we kept shying away from making a final decision. Finally, I decided just this past Friday that I would check and see if there was any remaining availability for the weekend. I thought maybe we could get a decent deal if we booked last-minute. American Patriot Getaways had some decent deals posted on their website, and they agreed to allow us book for one night only. Most cabins required a 2-night minimum, which made it pretty pricey and would make for a hectic Friday if we wanted to get there at any decent hour. 
The cabin was actually really nice! It was very secluded, and we took advantage of the hot tub, the pool table, and everything else it had to offer.

So, yeah, it took us just over a month to wrap up our celebrating...it's okay; it took us a year to get around to planning any formal recognition of our wedding, LOL, so it could be worse. All that matters is that we're happy, right??