Date Nights: Exploring the letter Y in KC

It’s time for a date, so “Y” not try one of these?

YaYas Euro Bistro in Overland Park is a restaurant we have been to a number of times, and we have always been impressed by the food and the service. Their complimentary baba ganoush and bread is delicious. We also really enjoy their house soup, made with roasted chicken, tomato broth, zucchini, yellow squash and saffron orzo—silky and flavorful! Some other items we can recommend are the trout almondine, the angel hair pomodoro and the cauliflower steak. Their desserts are very tasty as well. If you don’t want to go in for a meal, they have a great date night to-go menu. For $50, you get two entrees and a bottle of house wine. They also have a good happy hour menu, including flatbread pizza, mussels and truffle fries. And on a nice day, their patio is the place to be. Overall, YaYas is a great choice with a warm, sophisticated atmosphere and staff that treat you like family. You won’t be disappointed.

A nontraditional date that we like to do on occasion is yoga. Limbering up together can be an enjoyable—and often amusing—time. Some of the yoga poses are difficult to maintain for very long and can lead to lots of laughter. A good at-home version of yoga is Yoga with Adriene on YouTube. We especially like her “Morning Yoga Flow.” Great way to get the day started! However, there are other options for yoga that are entertaining as well. Several area parks offer free yoga on Saturday mornings or on weekday evenings. Numerous other venues offer free or low cost classes as well, including wineries, community centers, alpaca farms, goat farms and museums. We definitely want to try yoga with alpacas or goats sometime. It’s a chance to get up close and personal with the animals, all while getting in some exercise and fresh air.

The Young Victoria is a 2009 film about Princess Victoria of Kent and her rise to the throne as queen, but it is also a love story about her and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Victoria’s early life was marked by turbulence due to power struggles in the family and a strained relationship with her mother, the Duchess of Kent. Victoria often dreamed about the day when she would become queen and could make her own decisions. At the age of 18, that dream became a reality, and she moved into the newly completed Buckingham Palace to start her reign. Just about a year earlier, she had been introduced to Albert and the two developed an immediate fondness for each other. After becoming queen, Victoria proposed to Albert, since protocol forbade him from doing so. They married and eventually had nine children. My husband and I had never seen this movie until recently, and we felt that Emily Blunt did a superb job in the lead role.

Hannah Berry is a freelance writer who lives in the Northland with her husband. They love to explore Kansas City and try new restaurants and activities.