[QUOTE=Oni no Maggie]
It’s a trifle far for you for an after-work date, but a picnic in Griffith Park is an awesome summer date. I like the Old Zoo picnic grounds - you get to explore the old deserted animal cages! Creepy fun.
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Neat, that sounds awesome. I will have to steal that idea for the next time me and Mrs. NAF are looking for something to do on the weekend. Can you get there from the entrance off Vermont or do you need to enter from the Valley side?
This is going to sound cheesy as hell but get some ice cream at a nice place and maybe mini-golf later. I know that I’ll never understand women but when I made those choices for a date her eyes lit up. I know you are a female so try to think like a guy. Baseball game maybe or even bowling can be fun.
Sparks and I are waiting for our next free Friday evening to have a “50s Date”. I’m gonna wear a billowy skirt and sweater set–he’s gonna roll a pack of cigarettes up in his sleeve–we’re gonna have hamburgers and malts at an old-timey diner, then go to the drive-in. It’s gonna be great.
If you’re in the L.A. area and the weather is nice, a stroll down the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica is nice. Good choices for restaurants, a chance to sit next to a dinosaur – what not to love?
Bowling is always fun, especially if you both suck, because you get to laugh at/with each other for a couple hours.
I went on a first date recently that started with me picking her up on my motorcycle and going for about an hour ride before stopping for dinner.
Drinks as a first date is usually my go-to, but I usually stumble onto a group of buddies, and things generally fall apart from there.
I wish there was a zoo in town, I’d take a first date there for sure.
People watching downtown is quite fun, too.
There’s almost always a band playing either downtown or at one of the local breweries.
[QUOTE=NAF1138]
Neat, that sounds awesome. I will have to steal that idea for the next time me and Mrs. NAF are looking for something to do on the weekend. Can you get there from the entrance off Vermont or do you need to enter from the Valley side?
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IIRC we got there from the entrance off Los Feliz. Caveat: I haven’t been there since before the fire, so I’m not positive it’s still open to the public. Also, wear your comfy hiking shoes- you park, then walk up a long-but-not-too-steep slope to the cage area. It was only that long walk and the age of our grandmothers that kept Oni no Husband and I from getting married there…
You could go to Ventura, grab sandwiches and strawberry shakes (malts?) from The Habit (on Thompson) and eat them while watching the surfers on Ventura Beach (over behind the Fairgrounds) or before people watching on Main in downtown Ventura. Surfer watching was my very favorite late afternoon/early evening activity when we lived there. It can be very romantic (contemplating the beauty of the ocean, the grace of the surfers and the birds, yadda yadda) or very silly (laughing at the antics of the gulls and the not-very-good surfers aka Tourists) depending on your mood.
If you both like planes, you could go the Camarillo Air show on Saturday or Sunday. Airplanes, people watching and Festival Food – what’s not to love?
If you like boats, you could wander Channel Island Harbor or Ventura Harbor. Looks like you’re too late for the Tall Ships, but there is usually something interesting to look at and talk about in busy harbors. Those restaurants tend to toward pricey, but you could eat elsewhere afterwards.
Wow, I’m apparently old and stuffy. If it doesn’t involve food, it isn’t an actual date to me. 
[QUOTE=Bricker]
Back in my single days, I used to take dates to a local place here in DC called Kramer Books and Afterwords Cafe – it combined a nice little restaurant with a bookstore. That was always fun.
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Great place! I go every time I’m in town.
[QUOTE=Caffeine.addict]
That definitely a fourth date activity where I come from.
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Prude.
Dinner and a movie is so lame to me that I don’t even consider it anymore. I never Know if I should rest my hand on a Woman’s shoulder, hold her hand or commence on the groping.