Take Your Marriage to New Heights!

There are times when all you need to do is go up. Chicago is home to many skyscrapers, in fact, the first skyscraper was built right here in Chicago 130 years ago!  Chicago is now known for its skyscrapers and today there are 116!

The Willis Tower is a cultural landmark in our city. At one point it was the tallest building in the world, now it’s the tallest building in North America at 110 floors!  My Grandma was living in Chicago while it was under construction and she remembers the never-ending hole they dug for the foundation, you couldn’t even see all the way to the bottom!  The Willis Tower is a office building as well as an iconic tourist attraction.  On the 103^rd floor there is a Skydeck with a breathtaking view of the city, it costs $22 per person.

I proposed this date idea to my wife, it sounded like a great place to go out on date and help my wife conquer her fear of heights!  My wife really hates heights and she has a hard time conquering this fear. I have different fears, but heights are not one of them.  When I proposed this date night to her she didn’t want to do it, even just the idea of taking the elevator up 103 stories left her feeling apprehensive. I tried my best on convince her but she was not having it.  I backed off as I remembered a marriage tip about taking a break from a discussion if you cannot come to a conclusion. We tabled the discussion and we both went about our business for the rest of the night.

The next day when I got home from work my wife brought up the topic again! She said that she appreciated the fact that I was trying to help her. I offered a compromise; we could just go downtown and walk around and look at the buildings from the ground.  My wife said she was willing to face her fears with me by her side and said she would like to go inside.  By the end of the date my wife was very grateful that I pushed her to do this. She had faced a fear and I really feel that we grew closer as a couple and improved our marriage on this great date!

GameWorks

If your marriage is like mine, you might be a little bit competitive with each other. When you can find something that you are both good at, it is fun to compete. For our date night this week my wife and I went to a place in Schaumburg, IL called GameWorks. It was great to be able to enjoy some healthy competition and laugh, sweat, and run around together. We even increased the stakes on one of the racing game and who ever loss had to take the trash out when we got home! 

GameWorks has interactive video, ticket and prize games as well as a restaurant. The food was great and they even offer a discount when you purchase a game card with your meal. They also offer half offp games on Mondays.  My wife and I tried to get as many tickets as we could get so that we could exchange them for a prize at the end of the night. My favorite game was a basketball shooting game.

During our date, I tool the time to ask my wife some questions that help us get to know each other better. To make this more fun we played the game “This or That.” In this game you give 2 options and your partner has to decide which option they would prefer.  For example, would you prefer to go to a concert or the theater? This is a great opportunity to get some ideas for future dates! We took turns and found out more about each other.

At the end of our date we both felt great. We had a lot to talk about and felt closer to each other. GameWorks really was a lot of fun and we will probably come back! To my wife’s delight she won the racing game and I had to take the trash out when we got home!

Pinstripes

When my wife and I were just dating before we got married we had a pretty memorable date where we went bowling. So when we were deciding on where we want to go this week for our date, we thought it would be fun to recreate that date. We looked up some local bowling alleys and found Pinstripes. Pinstripes is a level up from that first bowling date we had, it combines classy bistro style dinning with bowling and bocce. The food is fantastic and the prices aren’t bad. They offer some discounts for bowling and bocce if you come on a weeknight or during the day as well as happy hour specials at the bistro.

Recreating a date from your past brings back a lot of fun memories. It reminded us of the time when nothing else mattered but each other. A time when the world was not as busy as it is today. We spent the night reminiscing about our past and talking about other special memories from our courtship. We talked about what we would do differently if we had a chance to do it over and then talk about our hopes and dreams for the future.

I would highly recommend recreating a date with your spouse. It felt great to take a stroll down memory lane and see where we’ve come from. We had a lot of fun together and even allowed a little competitiveness to come out! I highly recommend that you try out Pinstripes next time you are looking for a fun night out!