My Clever Husband

Last Thursday I had a mystery date set up by my dh. He had been telling me for about a week that I would love my date but he wouldn't tell me any details. Then the day of the date arrived and I got 4 hints via email during the course of the day. Here are the hints.

Hint 1: Remember the movie das boot? That reminds me of your surprise tonight.
On a boot with Germans nearby.

So now I start thinking about a boat ride. Boot meaning boat in German. I know that there is a dinner cruise on the Saginaw river and a wine and cheese boat ride on the Au Sable river but since Joe isn't too wild about boats, I can't imagine that we're on a dinner cruise.

Hint 2: Communion elements will be present.

I get this one right away. Wine and bread.

Hint 3: From a strip mall to a freeway.

I email him back saying "We're going to meet one of our German last named friends at a strip mall and drive down the freeway to the dinner cruise. My dh emails back and says that I'm way way off.

Hint 4:
When you go to Kim's house you also see Dale's.
When you go to the beach you see sand.
When you go to the florist you see a rose.

Now I am really confused. It seems like one of those logic puzzles that you got on the SAT. I have no idea what he is talking about.

So in the evening, I'm still thinking about the boat and the three couples that have German last names. It turns out that I am right on one of the German couples. We go to their house and pick them up. After leaving from their house, I finally think that perhaps boot doesn't mean boat but actually means boot. Then I think "the boot of Italy" and there is an Italian restaurant that used to be in a strip mall and is now located somewhat near the freeway that runs through town.

So hint 1 was going to an Italian restaurant with our German friends, hint 2 was bread and wine, and hint 3 related to the restaurant's move. But I couldn't figure out how hint 4 helped. It turned out that the last three words (Dale's sand rose) when said together sound just like the restaurant's name. Wasn't my husband clever?

The date (which I did love as he had predicted) was a Tuscany wine dinner. The restaurant served us outdoors on the patio and we were served family style. They had four different wines and they explained why they had chosen these wines to accompany the food. The weather was cooperative and we all had a wonderful time on the patio drinking very good wine and eating very good food.