I know I'm late - four days late - but it's been a very busy week!
On Valentine's Day, we were supposed to go out for a mystery shop lunch as a family, but we didn't quite make it. We'll either do that shop on Saturday or, hopefully, Rob and I will get to go tomorrow on a lunch date.
As for presents, no. I'd already gotten my mixer (no, I haven't used it yet!!!), and Rob got some things that I'll hopefully show you later on tonight. I tried to let the kids each pick out a Webkinz for a little love-day present, but they really weren't into it.
They wanted to go to Golden Corral for dinner. Not my favorite choice these days, as buffet-style isn't on par with the post-op lifestyle I'm living, but at least I can get charged the kids' prices. So we went. And left, after seeing the mongo-huge line. It was already 1900 on a Sunday, much too late to be waiting in line for an hour, and the kids were starving.
In September of 2003, we found this great little Greek restaurant, while everything was shut down after Hurricane Isabel hit. Shortly thereafter, that restaurant shut down and became an Italian one. Then, last year, I'd heard where that Greek restaurant had moved to. So I offered Rob the choice when Golden Corral was out: The new-old Greek place, or the Italian-in-its-place place? He chose Greek.
So we drove to Elias, only to find it closed. For good? I don't know. But definitely for the night.
Then he suggested Pho'79, a Vietnamese place nearby. None of us had ever had Vietnamese, and he really wanted to try it, so... we went.
Little did we know, "Pho" means "everything on the menu is beef soup" in various forms. There was maybe one chicken and one shrimp-and-other-seafoody-stuff thrown on the menu, as an obvious afterthought. I totally wasn't feeling it. So we left.
The last thing I suggested was Imperial Palace, the Chinese place literally JUST around the corner from our house, next to our grocery store (Farm Fresh), and the sushi place we like to frequent (Fuji Japan). We had never, in our seven years here, been to Imperial Palace, so I thought maybe it was finally time. We agreed, Imperial Palace it was.
Well, hot damn, am I glad we went!! It was pricey, but well worth every penny. Maybe not so much a kids' restauarnt, but they definitely worked hard to make sure the kids - and the parents - were kept happy throughout the meal.
The service was excellent, and the food was outstanding. We paid every bit as much as we would have for the five of us to go to P.F. Chang's, but between the two, Imperial Palace was by far the winner. The service at Chang's sucked big-time, and the food was underwhelming and overhyped. The Palace has won award after local award, and deservedly so. If you're ever in the area and in the mood for upscale Chinese, that's the place you want to be.
Forgive the iPhone pics; that's all I had with me.
The kids were psyched to go look at the fish; it's all they kept talking about from the moment we walked in the door. It's really kind of crazy that we don't have a fish tank of our own, considering...
The girls joined Daddy at the fish tank, while we waited for the food to arrive.
Chloë insisted I take this picture of her napkin "crown" and the flamingo decoration in her water cup. Each of the kids got a different decoration for their drinks. They loved that part!
We ordered an "Orange Sunshine Cake" (looked like orange puke to me) for the kids for dessert, but we needn't have: we were given this complimentary plate of orange slices, obligatory-but-homemade fortune cookies (with some of the most out-there fortunes I've seen in a long time), and almond cookies. The kids loved it, especially the orange slices. Ain't nothing wrong with that!
Just before we left, the hostess stopped us to give the kids the giant mylar Cupid balloons hanging up all over the restaurant for the holiday. They didn't need them anymore, and hey, kids are a good way to dispose of them, right? They were happy, which made us happy.
All around, it was a good night. Who needs Golden Corral?
How did you spend the day?
Fin.
