Happy Valentine's Day!

To celebrate Valentine's Day we went out with 3 other couples (Bill & Denise, Jason and Erica, and David and Susan) for dinner and coffee in San Antonio. Of course the big dilemma for the ladies for such an outing was....WHAT TO WEAR???? We had all decided to dress up really nice for the occasion (and I even convinced Marty to wear a TIE...which he NEVER does!) When a cold front blew in some changed their minds about what they were wearing so they wouldn't freeze. I opted to freeze anyway knowing Marty was going to be uncomfortable in the unfamiliar tie and if he was going to dress up so was I.


Doesn't Marty look FABULOUS in a tie?!





We all gathered at Bill and Denise's house where we dropped off Heather to watch 4 of the kids while we all went out. Before leaving we all took pictures as a group (thanks Bethany!) and pictures of each couple....ahem...even David and Jason posed together for one disturbing photo all in good fun! Then we all piled into the Suburban and hit the road.



All of us at Bill and Denise's. Left to right: Susan, David, Denise, Bill, Erica, Jason, me, Marty






Bill and Denise

David and Susan

David and Jason

Our plan was to eat at Bennihana's but not one of us confirmed that the restaurant was still in the location it was believed to be. As we tried to locate it we passed Tokyo Steak House and after determining that Bennihanas is no longer in the location nearby, we all decided we'd just eat at Tokyo Steak House instead. We knew there would be a long wait wherever we went. A quick phone call to Bennihanas proved that we'd have to wait 3 hours for a table. Thanks to Jason's determination, we didn't have to wait too terribly long to be seated at the steak house. I'm sure the wait would have seemed much longer had we not been so entertained while we waited. The men were a riot and kept us laughing the whole evening.

While we waited David decided to check out the sushi bar and ordered some for all brave enough to try it. I always swore I'd never try the stuff...it just never sounded good to me! I decided why not, if I didn't like it then I just wouldn't ever eat any more. The Sushi we tried did not actually contain raw fish, which I had assumed all sushi was. The California Rolls we ate consisted of cooked crab, cucumber, and avacado rolled up in seaweed and rice. I did not like the seaweed and handed it off to Bill but actually liked the rest of it.

The sushi was pretty!

Our Sushi Chef!

Proof that Erica tried the sushi. (and we tried this thinking it really was raw fish and found out later it was not after all)

I even tried it but was very unsure at first!

David tried his sushi with chopsticks!

While we waited for a table we were entertained by such things as David and Bill playing

rock, paper, scissors.

We were seated in a small room and joined by one other couple who I'm sure thought we'd all lost our minds! We laughed and joked and carried on so much! I can't remember the last time I had such a good time.

We asked an employee to take our photo for us and he handed the camera off to someone else but at least we got one!

David and Susan enjoying their appetizers.

Erica and Jason (apparently when taking all the photos at Bill and Denise's house the only photos I took of these two was with ERICA'S camera and not mine! I was sure I had some...till I uploaded all mine and found them missing.) :0(

I've never seen anyone crack an egg by tossing it in the air and cracking it in two with a spatula...till now! Pretty cool!

I was too busy photographing the fire to see it come directly at me across the grill.

Our chef kept us in stitches as he prepared our food before us. Erica and I were teased for all the photos we took...even of the FOOD...but we didnt' care! I simply said, "this is what we DO!!!" As the food cooked all the smoke blew directly in Jason and Erica's faces, making the rest of us thankful we were seated where we were! ha ha

our food on fire

In honor of Valentine's Day our chef fried our rice in the shape of a heart. Awwww.



Our too-funny chef even had a rather creative way to put out the fire from the volcano! I'm sure my grandpa had a toy like this that pees water and that's what this chef used on our food!! But it didn't deter any one of us from eating well!

Our original plan was to roam along the Riverwalk after dinner but it was much too cold so we opted to head to our favorite Starbucks instead for hot coffee!

Thanks everyone for a great night and I can't wait to do something together again soon!