Dining Out

The Navy officers have  a club called the Ward Room. Once a year they have an event for the members called Dining Out. Dining out is a very nice formal event with dinner and tradition toasts and prizes (at least ours at NNPTC) The event was August 24, here is how the evening went:

We had our first date night out together with babysitter for Quincy. Annie, one of my YW, doesn't have a lot of babysitting experience so her mom came and helped until Q was asleep. We left by 6 and went downtown to a restaurant called McCrady's, a gourmet place that serves food I can only enjoy on occasion because it is beyond my palette (definitely a cousin Jeremy kind of place.) Side note George Washington years ago ate in the same room we did, it was just a different restaurant, I think it was more of a pub then. Kinda neat- you wouldn't find that in Utah. The evening began with an hour of drinks and hors d'oeuvres as people gathered, you know fruit, cheeses, crackers, mini quiches...sodas for those of us who don't drink. 7:00 was when dinner was supposed to start but everyone was having too much fun visiting in room number one. When dinner actually started we had salads with no dressing but after digging around a little we found a buttery cream hidden under the leafy greens. For appetizer I had quail and Scott ate scallops. I don't think I want to eat scallops again. Main course, I had New York steak which was served extremely rare but our table was served very last so I couldn't send it back. It didn't taste as rare as it looked but still too red for me liking.Scott had a grouper fish, again, I am glad he ordered it, I could have a bite and not have to try to eat the rest. As we waited for dessert coffee was served to those interested,  I mention this not because we had any desire for coffee but because of the whole presentation; A dinner like this is definitely an event and not just a dinner. Dessert was the most filling and fun part. Mmmm. Everyone had a plate of creme brulee and a dark chocolate cake with a drizzle of salted caramel on the plate. Wow. one was super sweet and the other  bitter but together dessert was very good.

Necessary formality of toasts followed dinner. We toasted to the president of the United States, toasted to those currently in war zones, those who gave their lives for our country, POW's, etc. I had never been to something like this before so it was all very interesting and an overall enjoyable experience.

Scott requested people to sit with, those in his division that he works closely with but there is always an upper chain (high ranking person with substantial role at the command) at every table too.As luck would have it the DOD sat next to Scott, just the person Scott wants as much interaction as he can get so he can get the highest position available to him at NNPTC.

After dinner we went back in to the first room where prizes were given out and guess what, we won something! We got a gift certificate for another fancy dinner out. There was a DJ and music was played we visited for a bit longer, some dances but it wasn't my kind of music and we had a babysitter. To our delight Quincy did great with the babysitter. The report was didn't cry at all, she loved playing with Annie and the two of them wore each other out.

Here we are at McCrady's, I couldn't find a dress I liked so I ended up wearing this old dress. I didn't feel out of place but I could have definitely dressed up a lot more. I had fun drinking my sparkeling grape juice and trying to be fancy. Thanks for taking me out Scott