very soreWent out to dinner with my mother, and my cousin, Deena, and her husband, David. I haven't seen Deena since we were both in our late teens. She's English by birth, but resides with David in Israel and has lived there for at least 30+ years. She and David are here on a vacation, and are going all over the place, including a visit with my sister, Diana, down in the Philadelphia area.
Anyway, I picked up mom at her house, and then picked up Deena and David at the friends' place they were staying at. We went to eat dinner at The Shallows, the restaurant attached to the Southway Inn (the hotel where I stayed during the flood of October, 2009), having made a reservation for the evening.
The food was absolutely lovely. I started with a summer salad (endive, walnuts, other salad stuff in a honey mustard sauce), and some bruschetta, and for the main course had the roast beef au jus with seasonal vegetables and roast potatoes. The four of us had dessert, and I split a slice of the Shallows' cheesecake with the others, while also having a bit of a fruit tart that was very good.
The evening was also interesting in terms of the conversation. While Deena and I reminisced over some of the memories we each had from our teens, the conversations also had stuff about the current business with the Sri Lankan refugees in British Columbia, the state of politics and religion in Israel and how some of the current issues affect us personally, Deena and David's enjoyment of the city of Ottawa and the stuff they'd seen to this point, their work (Deena is a teacher) and children, and a whole bunch of other topics.
We lingered in the restaurant for over 2 and 1/2 hours, and afterwards, I dropped Deena and David off at their friends place, since they were leaving for Toronto and then Niagara Falls at 8:00 this morning. Took mom home, and then went home myself, where I settled on the couch for a while with a book and an ice pack on my ankle.
It was really good to see Deena once more, and to meet David. They are both interesting, highly intelligent individuals, and it was good to spend an enjoyable evening in their company.
