Alone on his 49th birthday, President Barack Obama fled the empty White House mansion and headed for a more intimate celebration with longtime friends in his Chicago hometown. Obama has been living a bachelor's life for the past several days with first lady Michelle Obama and daughter Sasha visiting Spain and daughter Malia spending the month away at an undisclosed camp. Before leaving Washington Wednesday afternoon with the family dog, Bo, Obama got a couple of presents he didn't have to unwrap and which the White House described as being the highlight of his day: telephone calls from the women in his life. Mrs. Obama and Sasha phoned in their happy birthday wishes, followed by a lunchtime call from Malia. Obama continued his birthday celebration over a leisurely dinner with friends, spending more than three hours at the Graham Elliot restaurant in Chicago's River North neighborhood. His dinner companions included Oprah Winfrey and her friend Gayle King, plus longtime Obama friends Eric Whitaker, Marty Nesbitt and Valerie Jarrett, also a senior White House adviser and fellow Chicagoan. The president spoke earlier Wednesday at an AFL-CIO meeting in Washington and joked about not getting a birthday cake from his “good friends” in the labor movement. A cake apparently had been planned, but the Secret Service had nixed the idea. Obama said he'd have a talk with the agents then joked, “They're probably eating it right now.”
