I love creating itineraries almost as much as I love my wife. We usually go on a trip for my birthday weekend, because it falls on Labour Day and is a great way to end the summer. But we rarely travel during Charlene’s birthday.
My wife loves to travel. She loves going to places that we have never been before. She very much appreciates that there is a lot in this world to see and that cannot be done by sitting on the couch at home.
So why don’t we go out on her birthday?
A few reasons.
First, her birthday falls at the weird time between Hallowe’en and Christmas. Many places she would love to visit are closed, taking down their Hallowe’en setup and setting up for Christmas.
Second, a lot of places we travel to are limited in terms of when they are open. It is frustrating wanting to travel and finding out that the places we want to go are not open during the timeframe that we have.
Third is the weather. Not quite warm enough to do outdoor activities, nor is it cold enough to do a whole range of other outdoor activities.
Still, I was able to put together a plan. The inspiration for this was that I saw my wife watching a trailer for a movie that comes out the day before her birthday. I decided to make the movie the centrepiece of our adventure together.
There is a movie theatre that we discovered about 40 minutes from home. It is Imagine Cinema in Alliston. We heard that they have large, comfortable reclining seats. We decided to check it out, and it is now the only theatre we will go to when we want to see a movie. Plus, it has the best sound system of any theatre we have ever been to.
A couple of years ago, we were out touring the area between Detroit, MI and Toledo, OH, when we had more time on our hands than we could figure out what to do. One option was to find a movie theatre and see something. I do not recall what that something was, but we were very impressed with the theatre we saw it in. Emagine was a great place to go. We have been to a few movie theatres in the USA, and they are better at their food sections and often have free refills, something very much lacking at all Canadian theatres. But Emagine when many steps beyond that. They have an all-you-can-eat menu, which includes not just popcorn, but hot food items as well. Their popcorn is not the standard kind, but also has caramel and cheese flavours.
We fell in love with this theatre and vowed to return time and time again.
That has yet to happen.
Despite our initial impression of Emagine, we have not had the opportunity to revisit one. Emagine is not as widespread as AMC, and we have not had time to fill when we have been in the areas that they service. Yet, I have been tempted to just drive to the Detroit area to watch a movie at an Emagine theatre.
So, when I saw my wife watching the movie trailer for “Die My Love”, I had the perfect excuse to plan a movie trip!
I was able to come up with a plan that included many activities she likes. She loves seeing churches. She loves walking around, checking out murals. She loves interesting, weird places. She loves animals. She even likes seeing old cars.
I also came up with an alternative birthday plan where we spend a day in Buffalo, instead of Detroit. That alternative has a house tour, an orchid show, Christmas shopping and the only fast-food restaurant in the USA that we like.
It is her choice, after all; it is her birthday.
