Monday, December 21, 2009

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

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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 . . .

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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

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

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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

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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"

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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.

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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

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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)

9 comments:

  1. Dear Bobskoot:

    Five people ate for $33? I know homeless shelters that charge more than that! I envy people who have the option of walking around with their luggage. Getting off a train in Washington, DC, I say two words:
    "Redcap," and "Taxi." They have become a reflex reaction.

    I am very gratified that a growing number of folks now keep their eyes peeled for Jack Riepe "Photo Ops." The trick, however, is to go inside one of these places, and take some pictures while sponsoring a lap dance.

    And I hate to admit it, but I would have gone into the strip joint safter lunch, trusting someone else to take pictures at the bike show. I do have my priorities.

    Nice post today.

    Fondest regards,
    Jack • reep • Toad
    Twisted Roads

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  2. Nice coverage, Bob. I'm glad you opted not to follow in the Toad's footsteps as the rest of us would have missed some great food!

    Merry Christmas to you and Yvonne -:)

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  3. Good Times, and BTW I said Rick wasn't a morning person, I never mentioned anything about tardiness.
    People are funny, did you see the guy at the table in the beginning of your video fingering you (while scratching his brow)? Ha.
    We do appreciate the TaxiSkoot, thanks for the ride.
    I have a couple Jack Riepe photos to post up, so stay tuned.

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  4. I'll have to look for that restaurant the next time I'm in Seattle. I'm a sucker for good dim sum. I had some in San Francisco but the bill was almost that much for one person (not that much food)! I should choose places more carefully i.e. look for crowds.

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  5. Hi Bob,

    Nice video again, your camera works well in low light situations....had to look on a map before writing this, Seattles in America and Vancouver is in Canada, when you don't live in that part of the World, you dont know lol.

    So Yes, 33 Yankee Dollars (20 GBP) is indeed good for 5 people having a Chinese meal in Seattle, which is in America and not Canada, glad I looked on a map Bob, your posts make so much more sense now lol...

    Cheers,


    Dave..in Turkey, near Greece, bottom right corner of Europe, slightly to the top of the Middle East.lol

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  6. Had he put his back out trying to get the door open it would have cost $5,000 US minimum, probably more now the insurance companies screwed us all in the effort at reform. Better to do that in Canada. I do miss dim sum (it was not expensive even in San Francisco) and I expect to get treated to expensive socialist dim sum in Vancouver when I visit, which will have to be before Canadians close the border to US economic refugees looking for work.

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  7. Jack "r":

    Our meal was very reasonable (cheap). You would be hard pressed to find a place in Vancouver for that. You have "Jack Riepe Photo OP" spotters all over the country. You just don't know how highly you are regarded in the Blogger community

    Chuck:

    Thanks Chuck, Merry Christmas to yourself and Penny too. Sorry we missed you last Sunday. We had to go to Bellevue for a Birthday Lunch, but I always make a point of stopping by. This makes the 3rd time that you have not been there

    Brad/Troubador:

    I was just on a roll with a little tongue in cheek. I realize that Rick was not late. I think we had a great time together and have to go for dim sum again soon.

    Richard:

    When we looked in and saw the crowds inside we knew we had a keeper. The last time we were in SF we chose the restaurant based on the people inside. The more asians the better the food. The next time you go to Seattle, could you parachute out at Vancouver instead ? We have lots of places here. Richmond, BC is the HONG KONG of Canada with a few Asian Malls

    Dave:

    I have tried before to use Google maps but can't figure out how to save a route and post on the Blog. Perhaps you could do a post on how to do it. I could also take a photo of a map but I don't wish to mark it all up

    I keep forgetting to use the video mode of my small Canon SD780is, which is 1280x720p. Files are .MOV (H.264) and PREL does not recognize them. I have to convert to .AVI first then import as NTSC DV. The move mode works better in low light than just taking still pictures. We were dining with virtually candle-light, very dark in there as you saw.

    Mr Conchscooter:

    WHAT ! no dim sum in KW ? What is this world coming to ? Lots of places up here, after all, we are the Hong Kong of Canada.
    Can't wait to take you out for dinner. We have many AYCE places here including Japanese. (AYCE= All You Can Eat)

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  8. Thank you for the great post Bobskoot.

    Geez, photo/video of me eating and putting on lipstick. How did I get so lucky? Now I know why you talked me into eating that last piece of broccoli, it was all a photo op ploy. I see how you are.

    All kidding aside we had a great time meeting you and Mrs. Skoot and look forward to visiting with you again.

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  9. Hi Bob,

    I'm writing from a slowly dieing computer again...Well my new old computer has lasted 4 days lol..

    MAPS: make your map in Google, get free or pirate (www.thepiratebay.com) screen capture software, some screen captures dont save in Jpeg so go to www.resizr.com,re-format to Jpeg download to your PC and then stick it on your blog.

    Cheers,

    Dave...

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