Dinner at Michael's

We were up a bit late today and then went for a nice walk in Springbank Park – a lovely, huge green area in the centre of London and along the banks of the Thames. Ollie apparently did his training for the Toronto half marathon here. After a bite of lunch, we accompanied Kris and Dave to Val’s end of summer school ceremony. We met some of Val’s friends, as well as protégés of Ang and Jackie; all bubbling with enthusiasm for the time they had had together. We had a quick skype with Ben (to wish him a happy birthday), Ellie and Freddie.

The meal @ Michaels

After getting back home, we rested up for a while with a beer on the back porch before getting ready to go out for dinner. It was nice to go out with the whole family; all the girls looked stunning, everyone had dressed up except me but as this didn’t seem to worry them, it didn’t worry me. We arrived at the restaurant amid some confusion, the nature of which was unclear but appeared to involve parking. None-the-less as we went in, we were welcomed and shown to our table. We were presented with a card from the Nyhouts and had a superb meal accompanied by affectionate family banter; we had a really great time. I started with a lovely bowl of Jalepeno, cheese and broccoli soup which was nicely spiced. Ollie, Dave and Kris had French onion soup the quantity of which beat everyone. Ollie, Dave and I had a wonderfully tender rib roast steak, Ang & Jackie had pasta and Val chose mussels and had a huge bowl of mussels delivered that I had doubts she would manage but she did!

The presentation

At the end of the meal, the owner, Jack presented us with a plate on which there were two chocolate covered strawberries and an inscription in chocolate – ‘Congratulations from Michaels’. Accompanying this, Jack sang to us in honour of our 37 years together. It was a truly wonderful surprise and we were deeply touched.

The sign

The final surprise was on our exit finding out what had caused the consternation; Dave led us round to the left at the exit instead of the car park. On the restaurant sign, as bold as life was a message that had been forgotten earlier – Happy 37th Wedding anniversary Rick and Sue. A lovely thought and the evening will be a memory to treasure.

written by

rickandsuejohnson on July 27, 2008 from London, Canada

from the travel blog: Two Thumbs up for the Canucks

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