katie, ben and lucy

For the fifth consecutive year, Katie and I celebrated Valentine’s Day avoiding noisy crowds and overpriced meals by not going out to a fancy place.  Instead, our tradition is to enjoy a delicious meal at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant.  The food is wonderful, the prices are affordable, and there is never a line.  I know, it isn’t romantic in the traditional way.  However, it’s our thing.  And, because this was Lucy’s first Valentine’s Day, and because her dad thinks she is too young to date, we invited her to join us.

The meal was fantastic.  We shared several entrees.  Some of which were old favorites; some were new adventures.  We had some fancy spring rolls, some bun (noodles), sweet pork ribs and a tasty crab thing that was tempura fried.  Lucy enjoyed a bowl of multi-grain cereal and a cup of applesauce.

The service was good and the place was busy, but not crowded.   The best part had to be the singer.  She was fantastic.  Of course, I’m a little biased, as the singer is my daughter.  Toward the end of the meal, she delighted the crowd with howls and giggles.  So as not to leave anyone out, she projected her squeals so everyone in the restaurant could hear her.  Granted, this is more of a family restaurant and not really a date place, so it wasn’t such a big deal.  There were lots of other kids there.  Still, between courses, Katie and I took turns taking Lucy over to the aquarium so she could discuss music, literature and drooling with the box fish, two lion fish and a small red fish that jumped around like it had to pee.