Barack Obama's wife and daughters were out of town on his birthday. What's a lonely president to do?
Have dinner with Oprah, it turns out.
Michelle and Sasha Obama are vacationing in Spain, and elder daughter Malia is away at summer camp. They both called the president to wish him a happy birthday.
Then Obama set off in search of company. After attending a meeting of the AFL-CIO at the Washington Convention Center, he hailed an Air Force One to Chicago. He was greeted on the tarmac by Gov. Pat Quinn, Mayor Richard Daley, and Reps. Jan Schakowsky and Mike Quigley greeted the birthday boy on the tarmac.
Obama then stopped by his family's other house -- the one that's not located at 1600 Penn, that is. Some of his neighbors were outside, and one little girl held a "Happy Birthday" sign that was almost as big as her.
When was the last time your neighbors did that on your birthday?
The president then hopped a motorcade to graham elliot, a restaurant in Chicago's River North neighborhood. He dined with Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King, plus some of his closest Chicago friends: Eric Whittaker, Marty Nesbitt and Valerie Jarrett. He emerged about three hours later, waving to a crowd that had gathered.
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