Six Years of Wedded Bliss

Our sixth wedding anniversary weekend . . .

Friday
As I have Friday afternoons off during the summer, Bryan and I headed downtown for Akron's first Hamburger Festival Friday afternoon. Gorgeous day! I was looking forward to this for the last few months as this is one of my favorite foods. But, duh . . . the festival didn't start until Saturday. So, we stayed downtown and had lunch outside at this new Irish restarant, Barley House. Very cool. We both tried Blue Moon beer which is a light tasting wheat beer served with an orange garnish. We split an appetizer sampler full of yummy, greasy food which is sure to clog our arteries: cheese sticks, homemade potato chips, potato skins, wings, fries, chicken and about 6 sauces. Afterward, we stopped at the Jeep dealership to pick up my Jeep. We paid a $400 bill, and our problem was still not fixed (which I won't get into the boring details - stupid stabilizer bars). We headed home, napped, and headed to Wineside. I had Pinot Noir and Bryan had a blend. As usual this quaint, small wine bar was a great ending to the night.

Saturday
Our Anniversary is today and so is the Hamburger Festival. Yeah! Our orginal plan was to grab a burger at the festival and not fill up as Bryan was taking me out for dinner at 5:00pm (it was a surprise). The Hamburger festival was small, which was expected because it's only the first year. We walked around the outside but it didn't seem worth $5 a pop for addmission, plus food on top of that. We decided we will check it out next year instead. So . . . still craving burgers we headed to McDonalds and split a double cheeseburger meal . . . of course super sized. We chowed that down as we headed to MD Garage in Boston to visit an art exhibit. It was the perfect day for driving in the valley with the top off the Jeep. Oh, how I love my Wrangler! On the way we stopped to take a photo of the underside of the bridge in the valley. Everytime we pass this bridge we always want to take a photo, but have no camera. Now that we both have our camera phones we can't resist taking photos . After MD Garage , we stopped by the Winking Lizard Tavern in Peninsula to wet our whistles. It was a typical Saturday in Peninsula with tons of people riding their bikes on the towpath and enjoying the scenery around the Cuyahoga River. We happened to catch of view of the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad Train leaving for it's next adventure. Choo Choo!

Our anniversary dinner was at Wasabi Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar in Montrose. It had just opened a few months ago and it was . . . perfect. We ate dinner in a private room with enclosed shoji screens. The table was recessed into the floor. I was very excited because I've had always wanted to sit in a table like this. We took our shoes off, as requested, as this is Japanese custom. Our server was excellent. Along with an appetizer, soy beans, and miso soup, we enjoyed a sushi dinner for two. The dinner included enough for four, and we felt very guilty for not being able to finish it. It included sushi (fish over rice), sashimi (raw fish solo), and maki rolls (fish and rice in sliced rolls). Although there was one type of shashimi we were grossed out by (Mackerel? All the wasabi and soy sauce in the world could not help), the rest of the meal was excellent.

Afterward, we headed downtown to Fuel for a night cap drink.