Even though this thread is old, it never hurts to have date ideas. Since we are keeping it local as you should now have a toddler, I would vote for The Cellar. Live music is also a good date. Brookside has a pretty nice patio when the weather is nice and is a family run business that promotes music.
A short trip up the hill can be amazing as well. Sutter Creek is a favorite haunt, and if your children are old enough for you to have an overnight, groupon does the Sutter Hotel (90.00 for a room, half bottle of wine and 10.00 dining credit.), or the Sutter Creek Inn is pretty nice with lots of variety in rooms. Both put you right in the middle of downtown so there is no need to worry about driving. The Sutter Creek Theater gets some pretty good musicians as well. A little further out of SC is Avio vinyards. They have a single room for rent (which is awesome) and the winemakers/hosts are incredibly nice. they give you the run of the 75 acre property and a bottle of wine to enjoy. If it is slow, Stephano will bring you "behind the scenes" and might even put you to work!.
Finally, I'll leave you with this. Anyplace can be a "date."
I wrote this 7 years ago about a particularly low key anniversary:
Recently, my wife and I celebrated 17 years of marriage. Now usually we tend to do something involving wine and bed and breakfasts. However, this year, we both felt a kind of malaise regarding doing something "special." We settled on beer and blues at our local establishment instead.
Before we left, we went to Winco to get some pantry stock items. I was pondering the traditional anniversary gifts...crystal, silver, gold...and I remarked that the gift for 17 years must be "paper or plastic." We both laughed, and as I gave her a squeeze, it occurred to me that "special" is where you find it...even if that is on aisle 8 of a no frills grocery store.
17 years of "paper or plastic?" I'll take that over cold, empty crystal every time...
