Non-boring, adventurous "date night" ideas

The FW and I are growing pretty bored with the typical dinner/drinks/movie routine. We need some date night ideas that don’t involve sitting on our butts wondering what else there is to talk about that we haven’t already discussed to death. Each of us has agreed to bring 5 ideas to the table tonight and so far I have just 1. The only stipulations are that it involves some kind of activity or adventure, be relatively close to the metro area, and we prefer to stay under $100 for the night (we’re more of a Hamm’s and burgers type couple than steak & pinot). Overnights are OK.

So far I’ve come up with “glamping.” Which I’m pretty sure she’ll hate.

since you live in the city I would say taking a long walk. bring a bottle in a backpack if you like. other ideas include:

– I used to be into urban exploring quite a bit as well as climbing tall structures. is it safe? no. is it legal? no. but you asked for adventure. for me adventure usually incorporates an element of danger otherwise its not very exciting.

other ideas

-bike around the city
-picnic in the park (ive taken 1st dates on winter picnics before in snowsuits and its fun)
-mini road trip. google attractions and just pick one at random. I once drove about 200 miles to look at a giant ball of rubber bands. turned into a fun day.
-you could try a type of food neither of you have ever had. like maybe go to an exotic restaurant like African/middle eastern or south American food.

other less adventurous ideas include

-casino
-comedy clubs
-museum
-theatre

Stillwater or redwing antiquing.

FISHING!

May sound childish but last winter I told the wife we are building a fort, spent a solid 2 hrs on it that incorporated the TV and the fire place. shoved the couch up close to the tv, ran lumber from couch to top of tv, tossed a blanket over the lumber grabbed an air mattress to sleep on, built walls with couch cushions, and our son was ticked he missed out on the fort the next day.

Going for a random drive is always fun too.

Not sure if you have kids or not but that’s a pretty awesome adventure

You won’t have to worry about going out so you’ll save a ton of money! JK, on the saving money part!

The Nook in St. Paul. They have the best burgers within 100,000 miles and they have bowling downstairs.

Dinner in Stillwater and bar hopping afterwards. Bar hopping is an activity.

B&B. We like Woodland Trails near Danbury. It’s on the mn side. They have 80 acres and they have a small pond with fish like bass and panfish. They have mountain bikes, golf carts and trails all over their property. They have massive deer feeders in the yard. It’s way more than $100 but it’s a great place for an active couple.

We love to go mini-golfing. It’s different and sounds like something high-school kids do for a date, but it’s a lot of fun and we have lots of laughs.

Arcades are a lot of fun too, regardless of age. We enjoy playing air hockey when we find one.

Roam around Hudson or Stillwater for an evening. Dress for being outside, walk around, see sights, exercise and visit stores then decide where you want to settle in for dinner. Decide everything on the fly.

Go play vintage arcade, pinball, and video games and then a round of art-as-mini-golf at Can-Can Wonderland in St. Paul. Terrific place, but go early to get on the golf list on Fri/Sat or it’ll fill up. Also full bar, craft brews, etc.

Drive out of town and go star-watching. Download a “star guide” app so you know what you’re looking at. Bring a portable heater/stove for hot drinks and heat in the winter. Good binocs are often good enough to see interesting stuff.

Scrounge for cut-your-losses scalper tickets to a concert right after it starts.

Do a multi-stop small plates dinner.

Mini-trip to Hudson, Stillwater, Red Wing, Hastings, or Prescott to eat.

Grouse

1) https://www.cancanwonderland.com/mini-golf/
2) Escape rooms. There are several in the metro.
3) https://upstairscircus.com/co/mpls/ craft time at a bar basically

An ongoing one that I’ve always thought would be cool is to visit all our state parks. You can start with the ones close to the cities, and work your way out. Or do a small town tour, Stillwater is good, Red Wing, Buffalo has a monthly occasional sale that would be cool to check out, Little Falls has the annual craft fair, Duluth etc. and coordinate it to the “big event” for each town. If you haven’t been to a game at St. John’s, that’s a good way to spend a Saturday, and Collegeville Orchards is right next door and pretty cool too.

Geocaching may fit the bill. Iy’s outdoors, and keeps you moving/thinking. It seems to be popular.

The FW and I go to blacklight bowling on a friday eve occassionaly, and thats always worth a few laughs amd a great stress reliever.

Diac golf? Seems interesting.

I don’t know if they have these in the Cities area yet, but these new axe-throwing venues are popping up all over, no joke. My daughter went to one in Madison last week. You rent a lane for $20/hour. Think darts-with axes.
Also, visiting, tasting, and touring at 45th Parallel Distillery in New Richmond is great. Really good people running it and quality products.

We live in champlin and enjoy what elm creek park has to offer. You could take snowboarding lessons, go cross country skiing, the archery range is also a good time if she is competitive and you have a bow.

Top golf. Its pro probably at the 100 dollar limit. But it is a blast. Off 252 in fridley

Ma and I go somewhere at least once a month for a day trip….usually within 150 miles, but its amazing how many places there are to go to that are interesting visits or have some really destination type of feature. We always eat our day’s big meal there and snack later if we’re hungry when we get home.

Bentleyville is coming up in Duluth soon…. mid-November. Drive to Duluth one day and get a room. Then do the light show that evening. Its free so go thru twice. Or three times. I suggest Dub-linn Inn on Superior Street for eats. Great food and the Scotch and Irish Whiskey selection will boggle the mind.

The next morning stroll the board walk along Lake Superior or spend time sight seeing. Before leaving for home stop at the malt shop just north of Fitgers for a road treat.

Canal Park is full of things to get into. There are a couple breweries and a distiller there. The distiller makes a super good sipping whiskey along with a host of other alcohols plus they have a unique cocktail lounge.

Trap shooting
Sporting Clays
Handgun range
High end go-carts
Axe throwing (not sure if there is anywhere by you, but its fun if there is a spot)

Not sure if you are into beer at all, but my wife and went to lienenkugal brewery last friday. 10 bucks for a tour, some samples and a glass. Chippewa falls seemed to be a nice town and the drive ther from the cities is like 1.5 hours and beautiful right now with the colors.

I think we will be doing the New Glarus one next.

This is a good thread. My wife and I bike and run together when we have a chance. That allows us to explore different parks/bike trails to train together. Then we’ll look for a local triathlon or 10k to do together. This creates ongoing reasons to hang out.

I would also look at hiking at the state parks – tons around the city or just across the river in WI. Getting a bit late but you can also get on the local lakes and rent a canoe to hang out.

Last thing – do a bike tour in downtown. Rent the Nice Ride bike and hit a few different spots whether it’s bar hopping, going to the sculpture garden, the art museum, etc.

BigWerm wrote:

If you haven’t been to a game at St. John’s, that’s a good way to spend a Saturday, and Collegeville Orchards is right next door and pretty cool too.

What?!?! Gustavus might just revoke your degree for that.

(though I wholeheartedly agree with you)

We enjoy bowling on occasion. Friendly competition, beer & bar food. Plus bowling alleys are great places to people watch!

Sex, suprised it hasn’t been mentioned.

It leads to kids which will engulf every waking moment of your life….and will even keep you busy during sleeping moments.

Then one day, you can pay someone $90 to watch them for an afternoon.

You and the wife can spend that rare time staring at the wall….and enjoy every second lol

B-man wrote:

Sex, suprised it hasn’t been mentioned.

It leads to kids which will engulf every waking moment of your life….and will even keep you busy during sleeping moments.

Then one day, somebody will watch them for you for an afternoon.

You and the wife can spend that rare time staring at the wall….and enjoy every second lol

Yeah. we tried that twice. It was ok I guess. Went 2-2 on the kids thing so nobody can say I’m not effective when I put in the effort!

All seriousness, thanks to everyone for the great ideas. Lots to mull, can’t wait to see her reaction to axe throwing which I think sounds incredible.

The state parks tour is basically how we spend our weekends with the kids. That sticker is the best deal in the state.

Start going to some local high school sports activities and cheer on the local teams. Don’t need to have a kid on the team to enjoy watching.

Not in to sports, take an evening class together thru you local vocational school, basic woodworking, photography, jewelry making, pottery, painting.

Speaking of painting, my adult daughter and a few of her friends go to a wine and painting class at a business. (bring your own wine, get a taxi home if needed)

Take yourselves out of your comfort zones and explore. Google twin city events charitable or not. There are lots of interesting things to choose from. Like http://www.exploreminnesota.com/events/38605/the-big-carve-at-lift-bridge-brewery/details.aspx

Too many things to list. Hiking local parks is at the top of the list for my wife and I. We but the parks pass every year. We are working our way through 60 hikes with 60 miles of the Twin Cities now. Each area, whether near or far has its own little spots too. Like a local diner or restaurant.

Local papers and websites also are great resources for events in the Twin Cities area. We have found numerous little festivals and things looking at sites like City Pages and others for activities.

Best of luck. Most important though is to be open to new things.

Live music! Regardless of what you like, there’s lots of acts and venues to go see in the metro. In fact, I’m going to Surly on Saturday to see The Hold Steady, pretty dang excited about that!

Axe throwing sound great. Please share if you know of any location(s).

Community education classes. They can open up new doors to new hobbies that you can do together.

Getting kicked out of professional sport venues. On that note, one hasn’t truely bonded with their significant other until you’ve made out in back of a squad car while handcuffed.

Cooking oil and 6 mil plastic sheeting. ‘Nuff said.