Cheap Date Idea

Taking a girl out on a date doesn't have to be expensive, in fact it can often be accomplished with no out of pocket expense. The trick is to find something fun and romantic. While there are a number of things you can do for free, a classic free date idea is a picnic. Some expense may be involved if you want to prepare some type of gourmet picnic meal with specialty food and wine. However, the meal can also be made from food in the house that you prepare for eating on the picnic rather than at home.

Here is a simple but elegant picnic date that I prepared for my wife (just because you are married doesn't mean that you still cannot go out and have fun together). This was a breakfast picnic on top of a small mountain where we were able to watch the sun rise as we ate.

I got up early and prepared omelets, coffee, a coffee cake and some fresh fruit. The coffee and omelets were placed in insulated containers to keep them hot, while the coffee cake and fresh fruit were placed in a small box along with plates, bowls for fruit, cups and tableware. Sugar, salsa (Mexican style picante sauce for the omelets), paper napkins, salt and pepper, and a table cloth were also placed in the box. I then picked a couple of flowers from the yard and placed them in a small vase which was also placed in the box with the other things.

After loading the food and other items into the car, my wife and I got in and headed for Gate's Pass, a pass in the Tucson Mountains just west of where we lived. Like much of Arizona, the area around the pass is a combination of Federal National Park lands (since there are no facilities and main roads pass through this land there are no entrance fees) and a county park at the top of the pass. The Tucson Mountains, which form the west end of the valley in which metropolitan Tucson is located, are not very high and Gate's Pass is a little less than a thousand feet in elevation above the surrounding area. At the top of the pass is a small parking area, next to which are a couple of concrete picnic tables.

Laying the table cloth on the table, I laid out the food, small bouquet and dishes. Then I served the food (which was still sufficiently warm) and we sat down to breakfast. Since this was a little after six in the morning, we had the place all to ourselves. The view was fantastic with sun rising over the much larger Santa Catalina Mountains and City of Tucson to the east of us and the vast Sonoran Desert to the west of us.

We enjoyed a quiet meal, alone, atop a mountain while the sun slowly rose and flooded the lands on either side of us with its warming rays.