A Thank You Blind Date

As a thank you to Adam and Rachel for hosting us in our homelessness once again, we took them out to dinner. Adam and Rachel are aware of our tradition of blind dates, and Rachel took us up on our offer to make our evening out similar to a blind date. It was a lot of fun. And, I think Rachel had enough fun that Adam is going to have to plan a blind date for her in the future. 

Rachel in the car waiting for the blind date to commence

We started out by driving to one of our favorite dinner spots in Holland, the Itty Bitty Bar. They call themselves a "five star dive bar", which we feel is pretty accurate. It's a bar setting, but the food is nothing like what you would expect from a bar. 

Adam giving Rachel instruction and leading her into the restaurant

Brandon secretively ordered our favorite appetizer for all of us, so that, despite not being blindfolded, Adam would have a surprise too. Rachel kept the blindfold on as Adam ordered a surprise entree for her. She continued to be a great sport and tried the appetizer and a cider without having her sense of sight either. After she guessed the appetizer and drink correctly, we let her take the blindfold off for the rest of our time at the restaurant. It was a tough guessing game as well as the appetizer was a rather complicated and unexpected combination: Garlic mashed potato, pulled pork, and goat cheese quesadilla topped with an apple, jalapeno chutney. Delicious. 

Trying the surprise appetizer

We all enjoyed our entrees and had a great time conversing throughout dinner. It was so fun to share one of our favorite Holland spots with friends. After dinner wrapped up, we had one more place to go in Holland. Rachel put her blindfold back on, and after a short drive we led her out of the car and onto the beach. We let her take her blindfold off pretty quickly to let her see the sunset. 

Adam and Rachel at the beach at sunset

We then all took a little beach walk to the end of the pier and enjoyed being at the lake. Lake Michigan and Holland were definitely putting on a beautiful show that evening. 

Picturesque sunset complete with seagulls and sailboats 

And that was our thank you blind date. Thanks again Adam and Rachel. We hope you had as lovely of an evening as we did.