Valentines Day Teddy Bear Date

The most creative date that Rod ever planned was for the woman who ended up marrying him. This “Teddy Bear Date” shows just how memorable an experience can be if you take the time to listen to the things your significant other really loves:

The most creative date that I ever went on was my first Valentine’s Day with the woman who ended up becoming my wife. 11 years later, we’re still going strong, so I guess it worked. Early on in our relationship, I learned two things about her: 1) she loves stuffed animals and 2) she had never had a teddy bear as a child. I filed that away and found out that there was a company in San Francisco—the Basic Brown Bear Factory—which gave tours of their production facility and offered a build-your-own-bear experience (in fact, the Build-A-Bear Workshop settled out of court when they were sued by BBF!). We were, at the time, living about a hundred miles away, so that morning, I grabbed her and put her in the car. About 90 minutes later, we exited off of the freeway into a crappy industrial part of San Francisco. As I drove up the hill past the UPS building and the Anchor Brewery (giving that up was a sacrifice!), we saw the Basic Brown Bear factory, and there was even a parking space right next to it. I took her in for the tour—we were the only couple in there—other than that it was all moms and kids. Of course, she loved it. At the end of the tour, I took her into the store to get her own bear. She stuffed it herself and even put some extra stuffing in the tummy (so that it would look like me). Teddy got belted into the car and came home with us. We did something else (probably dinner at a nice restaurant), but, at the end of the day, it didn’t really matter. That was in 1999. It’s now 2010 and not only are we still together, but Teddy still has pride-of-place in our bedroom. Interestingly enough, we’ve done a lot of Valentine’s days, and a lot of different things (surprise trips, various and sundry fancy meals, candlelit walks through beautiful gardens, etc.). Nothing, though, has ever stuck with her the way that the trip to the Basic Brown Bear Factory did. Skip the hearts and flowers and find something that your honey really loves, and you’ll have a great Valentine’s Day!