Dinner with Sam

Last night there was no reception or dinner scheduled for our conference, so I had a chance to have dinner out on my own. My cousin Sam (dad's sister's younger daughter) just walked in her college graduation from San Diego State this May and is in town finishing her last credits this summer. Lucky for me, she was able to drive down for dinner last night and we got some good girl cousin time. She is from the Portland area, so I haven't had too many chances to see her, but the times that we've had to visit have been oh so nice.

I made a reservation for us at the Oceanaire Seafood Room, where Top Chef's Brian Malarkey is the executive chef. We had a lovely dinner with wine and chatted about life and love and what is yet to come for both of us. Poor girl is leaving her awesome life in San Diego and will be going back home to Portland at the end of July. I remember the adjustment to the working world after college to be a bit of a lonely adjustment, but hopefully she'll find something that she likes to do and can work hard for a few years until she can truly adjust to life in the real world and the independence that comes with it. She is pretty aware that things are going to change, so I tried by best to encourage her that it all gets better from here...She'll hit her stride soon enough.

Anyhow, it was a great evening. I tried the pickled herring on the relish tray...nasty...definitely an acquired taste. We split a strawberry field greens salad, then I got the scallop entree with polenta. So good. After dinner we walked around gaslamp and got some frozen yogurt at pinkberry. Ummm...the place is heavenly. I got the plain yogurt, no toppings, and it was simply divine.