Troubador & Trobairitz meet Chuck & bobskoot

I don't need an excuse to meet people. A couple of weeks ago the plan was to go to Seattle for the 2009 Cycle World International Motorcycle Show at Qwest Field. We had previously arranged to meet up with Troubador (<-- click link) & Trobairitz (<-- click link) from Corvalis, Oregon who had posted on their Blog their arrangements of taking the Amtrak to Seattle and staying at the Doubletree, Arctic Club downtown.

They were bike & car challenged and travelled by leg power. As we drove to Seattle because of the inclement weather (read ICE) we had our vehicle there to transport their luggage to the Amtrak station before we headed out for something to eat



As you will notice, Qwest Field is in the background, but when they arrived they decided to walk their bags to the hotel to check in, then walk all the way back to the motorcycle show. Our plan was to meet up with them at around 3pm , as well as Chuck, a professional photographer (<-- click link) who resides in Seattle, who also has a fleet of 2 wheeled vehicles at his disposal.

While gathering at our hotel waiting for Rick to wake up , (I found out that he is always late and makes everyone wait for him) the staff at the Arctic Club noticed that we were food deprived and brought over some Starbuck's branded coffee as well as a handful of homemade chocolate chip cookies to tide us over. Where is Rick ? Finally he made his grand entrance a while later and headed out to find a suitable place to have brunch. Brad, being from a very small town in Oregon had never had dim-sum so the plan was to find a restaurant in the Internationl District. We were getting desparate and we found the frontage of a karaoke bar that looked deserted but Brad instisted that he saw some people eating inside, I tried to stop him but . . .



Brad was really pulling at that door handle, but it was not meant to be. The door was jammed shut. He finally gave up and we all walked down the street and found another restaurant at the corner. I think we got their last table and started ordering food right away. The staff push carts around with food displayed on little plates and you just grab what you want, or make some grunting and groaning sounds. In a while our table was full of food



Now, as I am writing this and looking at this photo, I am getting hungry again.



As I was taking a photo of the food, Brad was taking a photo of me which he posted on his Blog. The staff thought we were nuts flashing our cameras at each other. The food kept coming. Little did we know at the time but we had scored big time. It seems that the Jade Garden was nominated "Best of Seattle" . It's no wonder that this was a very busy place.

Here's Trobairitz in action



Even with my super fast shutter speed, I could not capture the supersonic speed of her fast actions. It must have been the last piece on the plate as you can tell by the blur of her arm


Eventually we were all full and requested the "tab"



We had a lot of food for not a lot of money. It would have been much, much more in Vancouver.

As we were walking back to our car, which we parked under the I-5 freeway, I stopped for a photo op.



We decided to head over to the Pike Place Market to wake up Chuck, who is often found napping in his stall. On the way over someone in the back seat shouted over my shoulder, "There's a photo for Jack Riepe !" I turned to my left and spotted it too



It seems that Jack has friends all over the country who are aware of his desires. I feel attached to my new friends and I know that our paths will cross again soon.


(be sure to click the HD button)