Dinner with the Obamas

Obamas' Valentine's getaway

It was date night for President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama on Saturday at they dined out at the exclusive Chicago restaurant Table Fifty-Two, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. The eatery's executive chef is Art Smith, formerly Oprah Winfrey's personal chef. Table Fifty-Two offers Southern-style food, including grits, jambalaya and maple sugar short ribs.

The tidbit you just read was part of a gossipy roundup of how politicians spent their Valentine's Day. It caught my attention for two reasons:

1. When Lori and I were in Chicago in August 2008 for a journalism convention that morphed into a long weekend/mini-vacation, we ate at this very restaurant. And I think we would agree that of four very nice restaurants we tried that week, Table Fifty-Two topped the list in terms of quality of the food and overall dining experience.

2. Turns out the Obamas weren't there this past weekend. The schlep that put together the Names & Faces roundup for The Washington Post (a lowly news aide) pulled the information from the Internet and got the date wrong. The Obamas dined there on Valentine's Day in 2009. Ouch. The Post's ombudsman called attention to the error on his blog.

This year, the Obamas spent Valentine's Day at Camp David with Sasha and Malia. Lori and George, meanwhile, had a wonderful seafood paella dinner at Petisco on Northeast Broadway.

We'll have to check our 2011 calendar. Might be nice to meet up with Barack and Michelle next year.

Photo: Table 52

A double celebration

Three weeks ago, we observed our 34th anniversary. This weekend, we celebrate it. We're headed -- no, not to Chicago, despite the above photo -- but to Mt. Adams Lodge at the Flying L Ranch. It's roughly 90 miles east of Portland in the Columbia River Gorge on the Washington state side.

We'll arrive in the early afternoon and just hang out, with a little time set aside for hiking. We'll go into Hood River for dinner, then head back and settle in for the evening.

When we wake up Sunday, it will be Lori's birthday. So...there's the double celebration. We planned this weekend away several weeks ago. Given how crazy busy we've been of late, this will be a nice respite for us.

A word about the photo: It was taken at Wrigley Field on July 27, 2008. We saw the Cubs beat the Florida Marlins in a game that featured five home runs. We headed out to the game the same day we joined hundreds of others in a hotel ballroom, where we were part of the audience that saw Barack Obama, then a presidential candidate, interviewed on CNN.

That was quite a day. And this will be quite a weekend...