O'Neal Family Date Night

As joyously anticipated by an earlier post, last night was the first time in Isaac's life where he was left under the supervision of a non-relative. Certain reports have it that Alicia is his favorite teacher at school, and she readily agreed to babysit him while Dad and I went out to dinner to celebrate my birthday/Dad's new job. I really don't think we could have had it any better -- at no time was there even the temptation for me to call home and check up on my special guy, since Alicia looks after him almost as much as we do. However, because I am a new mom and entitled to my freak-outs, I did prepare all of Isaac's dinner beforehand and had it ready in labeled containers for Alicia to nuke, and I also wrote out two pages of notes for her, including a suggested itinerary. I kept asking her if I was leaving anything out, and she basically kicked us out of the house and told me to quit obsessing.

Dad and I left the house giddy. All day long I had been fantasizing about this grown-up world of 'cocktails' and 'coffee with dessert', and here it was, ready to come true! We went to this fancy place where we have had a standing Valentine's Day date for the past few years, so I suppose you could also add "belated V-Day" to the list of things to celebrate. This place is on a marina on Lake Washington, and because it was the most gorgeous day ever, we had a stunning, full-on view of Mt. Rainier from first the bar and then our table. I had wine, red wine (though I held myself at one glass for the sake of the boobie juice)! From their private label! Dad had microbrews from the tap! We chatted with the bartender about Husky basketball and Dad's obsession with raw oysters, a half-dozen of which he consumed right in front of us! Then we were seated at our table and served dinner, which consisted of the juiciest, most delicious hunk of USDA Prime red meat for Dad, and an enormous salmon fillet on a bed of Dungeness crab-filled ravioli for me. Regardless of whether there was actually room for it, of course we were having dessert. And coffee with that dessert to make my fantasy complete. This place is kind of neat with their coffee; it is exceptionally tasty, but what makes it great is that they serve it with its own gourmet condiment bar -- a ramekin of neutron-star-dense whipped cream, cream of the non-whipped variety, brown sugar packed into a ramekin, and an assortment of quality packaged sugars, a la Sugar in the Raw. May I suggest, if you have the opportunity, to take your coffee with whipped cream? It floats for a bit, like grown-up hot chocolate with marshmallows. Also something I have learned from this restaurant: a terribly underrated dessert at high-class establishments = ice cream. Everybody always goes for the cheesecake, and they are missing out. This particular restaurant imports its ice cream from a small artisan ice-cream-craftery that makes their product 3 gallons at a time, and the restaurant only ever has one flavor. This time it was bordeaux cherry chocolate, conveniently served in a hot-fudge-coated bowl (with two chocolate sticks for melting in one's coffee). You would think that there *are* words to describe how fabulous it was to eat a real dinner with just my husband since I've just written a paragraph about it, but really there aren't.

We got home to find an ecstatic Isaac (changed into PJs!) showing Alicia his upstairs domain. He and Alicia went for a long luxurious walk shortly after we left, went swinging, ate a bunch of dinner, and then wrestled around for a bit until he greeted us at the top of the stairs. We were gone for a little less than three hours, which is the *perfect* amount of time to be away from one's baby -- long enough that it feels luxurious, but not so long such that there is much opportunity to miss him. We already asked Alicia if she would hook us up again next month. Where should we go next time?