I turned 35 yesterday! It’s fine – seems a lot like 34 so far, which was a pretty neat year (sold a house, moved, got pregnant). 35 is bang on target to be rad, too, though (buying a house, moving into said house, have new babby, try out being a stay-at-home mom for a little while).

This year, I told Bob I wanted a proper grown-ups night out – I suggested dinner and a baseball game. It turned out to be a rainy day yesterday, so intsead of the game, we went to cocktails (virgin for me) and dinner with our friends (and my coworker) the Becketts.

For cocktails and nibbles, we went to The Durham, in downtown Durham. I asked the server to surprise me with a coctail, and got a delectable grapefruit fizzy getup. We snacked and chatted as the rain poured down outside. I really enjoyed the atmosphere, and just being around other adults! I took some photos after the rain of the view of Durham. They turned out relatively dark, but we all agreed that one lovely thing about Durham is how green it is.

The place is just lousy with trees. In fact, Tom (one half of the Becketts) said that the reforestation of Durham is actually a big deal right now, as many of the trees are simply reaching the end of their approximately 100 year lifespan, and need to be replaced. I certainly have never thought about the reforestation of a city.

For dinner, we walked down to Mateo for tapas. Mateo is very trendy and was pretty busy. We were seated upstairs in what felt like a private dining room (with a bunch of other people, so not private, but that’s the feel of it), and ordered a whole bunch of food to share. Everything was delicious, almost obnoxiously so. There were so many great flavors, it was hard to pick a favorite. Our server told me that the bartender was really proud of my cocktail here; I specified a floral/herbal profile, and I got a mocktini with basil, cucumber, ginger and simple syrup (and some other things I’ve already forgotten). The bartender was right to be proud.

I had a lovely time; I ate grown-up food, I drank grown-up drinks. I didn’t pay for a thing, and enjoyed some wonderful company. I can’t imagine starting 35 in any better way!