Okay ~ so I don't actually have any pictures of Jerry and I on our date and I didn't take my camera (although I REALLY wanted to but I figured people would be looking at me like I was CRAZY if I started taking pictures of my food with a big old DSLR camera).  However, I did use my phone to catch some shots.  I apologize for the quality of the pics - I can't wait to get my new phone in 10 or so days!!!  It will have a much better camera - and all of a sudden that matters to me!  hehehe

So...we had talked about going to Kennywood but decided the weather wasn't reliable enough so we passed on that idea earlier in the day - of course, I'm convinced that is why we had such beautiful weather until after 10pm that night.  :)

Wondering what we ended up doing?  Well...I'm going to tell you and show you the BlackBerry pics I took!  :)

We ended up going to The Carlton Restaurant for dinner.  I picked the restaurant for 3 reasons.  First, it was in our Entertainment Book - so we would get $19.99 off our dinner!  (I think they are called Enjoy Books now...but I still call them Entertainment Books).  Second, the website was pretty intriguing.  I was interested in the fact that they don't have a set menu and that they are a DiRoNA restaurant....which I had no idea what a DiRoNA restaurant was until I looked it up.  Finally, the website had a link where you can go and purchase gift certificates online for your meal through Giant Eagle and get fuel perks!  You can just print the gift certificates out at home and take them with you.  Worked perfectly and we racked up $.20 off a gallon of gas while we enjoyed a great meal!

Speaking of a great meal, it was by far one of the best that Jerry and I have had in a long time.  It could be because we didn't have to worry about feeding anyone while trying to eat.  It could be because the food was actually the right temperature instead of room temperature.  Maybe it was the fact that we didn't have to stop eating to get someone a drink or a fork or the ketchup...that could be it, too.  I know one thing for sure, though, the food was amazing that that was exactly what we were hoping.

Our dinner started off with a bottle of wine:

We were going to get a glass each and then decided to just go ahead and get a bottle.  Once our waitress knew that, she offered to bring us a larger wine list.  They have a larger "by the bottle" selection than "by the glass".  So we said we would love to look at it and she returned with an iPad!  Loaded up with the wine list, it was organized by country and color.  We went for the American Other Reds and chose the Orin Swift: Abstract.  Totally AMAZING!!!

Next was our appetizer:  Artichoke Flatbread


Flatbread topped with some kind of creamy goodness, bacon (but not just regular bacon - this was the best bacon I've ever had!), artichoke hearts, arugula and pine nuts.  Yummy.

Then we both had salads - they actually shredded the hard boiled egg - it was nice because it made handling the yolk a lot easier.

Then our main courses:  Prime Rib for me and Swordfish and Scallop BLT for Jerry.




They were both absolutely DELICIOUS!  Of course, I tried a bite or two of Jerry's dinner and he had a couple bites of mine, too.  The horseradish sauce that came with my prime rib was amazing - I told Jerry I could have just slurped it up with a straw!

We even had dessert:  Chocolate Decadence, Espresso for Jerry and Cappuccino for me.


After dinner we headed to The Rivers Casino and lost a little money...not too much because Jerry accidentally left his MAC card in the ATM machine when he took money out before our excursion.  I left my MAC card in the car (because then I wouldn't be tempted to use it).   It was all good, though.  We met our friend at the Drum Bar and had a few drinks and did some MAJOR people watching - it's been a long time since I've seen so many interesting and different people in one place!  We didn't win the new Cadillac that they were giving away at 11 so we headed home.  We stopped at Donut Connection and got donuts for the kids for breakfast and coffees for us.

The kids were sound asleep when we got home and Mom and Dad (aka the babysitters) were almost asleep themselves!

All in all - it was a great night!  I can't see us going to the Casino again any time soon...it wasn't really our thing...but we will be going back to The Carlton as soon as we can!

Hope you all did something fun this weekend, too!