The Perfect Date

I love it when birthdays come around so we have a good excuse to eat at a nice restaurant and try new things. Because of Todd's birthday in September, we have a few new favorite spots in the Bay Area. Half Moon Bay turned out to be a romantic date spot, thanks to the Kwak family who babysat Jake for us, and to a good restaurant suggestion from the Beckers.



It was a beautiful night for a walk on the beach, which you would think is a gimme on a date, but around here the beaches can be really cold and windy, so we were pretty happy that it was a nice, although chilly, night. We even saw dolphins jumping in the waves close to the shore. Seriously? Could I have ordered a more perfect moment?



Anyway, then we headed to The Pasta Moon for dinner and couldn't get over the delicious menu and huge portion sizes. For a "fine dining" kind of place, it was generous. I made reservations just to be formal about the whole date night thing, but man, I was so happy I did because the place was packed and the waiting list was long. We ended up spending two hours eating dinner there and didn't even know it.



I wasn't sure the last part of the date would turn out because I'd never been to the Ritz Carlton HMB before, but I saw online that they had a hot chocolate bar there. I have HONESTLY never had hot chocolate like this.





I think they imported the chocolate and melted it down right there because it was like drinking something straight from Belgium. And they put cinnamon whipped topping on top and you can add as many toppings as you would like to it. Toasted coconut was an nice addition to our drink. I'm glad we shared because it was so rich, and because it was $9 a cup, but it was worth every dollar. They serve it in a gazebo in back of the hotel overlooking one of the greens on their prize golf course with the ocean just below.





So there we were sitting in big wooden lawn chairs around a fire pits listening to the ocean waves crash against the shore with Todd salivating about playing the course someday. It was really cool. If you live around here you have to check it out sometime.