President Obama and his wife kept busy on different continents Sunday, and capped the day off with a birthday dinner for the president at the White House.

The first lady wound up her vacation jaunt through Spain, lunching with Spanish royalty. Meanwhile, the president started in early with birthday festivities among friends, beginning with an all-star basketball pickup game. But the two met up in the evening on the White House lawn for a birthday barbecue including seafood straight from the Gulf — a menu item that pointedly highlighted the past week's successes in taming the BP oil spill.

First, the president played basketball with an all-star team most basketball coaches can only dream about. Bill Russell, Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Alonzo Mourning, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony were among the NBA marquee names who shot hoops with the president before a closed audience of wounded veterans and participants in the White House mentoring program. Kobe Bryant reportedly attended but did not play. Here's a video report from ABC News:

The first lady completed the last leg of her vacation in Spain with daughter Sasha. Mother and daughter lunched with King Juan Carlos, Queen Sofia and Princess Letizia on the Spanish island of Mallorca in the afternoon. The meal included gazpacho, turbot, veal escalopes, rice, a vegetable ratatouille, and fruit with ice cream.

After saying their goodbyes to the royal family, Michelle and Sasha Obama boarded a plane home to catch up with the presidential birthday party.

at least he's trying to promote the gulf coast
a little...

Sounds like a good day to me!

We had a spot near Houma, LA that's called 'Robinson's Canal', and it's a salt / freshwater interface where y' can pull out all kindsa stuff on a cane pole or a throw line - and even use crab 'n crawfish nets at the same time. Fantastic place to catch multiple species - never know what's gonna be on the end of that line when y' pull it up ... that's half the fun. I wonder if it's still the same since the BP spill ...