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Back from Radcon
My favorite thing is to go where I have never gone.
-- Diane Arbus
Sunday, February 18, 2001
One year ago: Amaryllis
Two years ago: Shakespeare in Love
Three years ago: Dance Challenges
One year ago, Jack was on his way to Radcon, but I didn't go with him. Two years ago, I described our first Valentine's Day celebration, a few days after the day.
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Jack and Jessica didn't get back to our room until five thirty in the morning, so when I woke up, I showered and went to get breakfast around ten o'clock. Jessica joined me, but I wanted Jack to get as much sleep as possible.
We both went for the buffet in the coffee garden restaurant. The waitress asked if we had the lower-priced brunch tickets the convention had been selling; when we told her we didn't, she said it wasn't too late to go get them. That saved about six bucks for each of us, so I appreciated her telling us that, and Jessica going to registration to get said tickets. The brunch wasn't bad at all, though it pays to choose carefully from these huge spreads. There are always foodstuffs there that I'm not especially fond of, but might serve myself if I'm on automatic pilot. Also, sometimes the "fancier" foods (shrimp, fancy looking cakes) aren't really that great under buffet conditions.
Jack emerged shortly before noon (we'd already arranged late checkout) and got some food for himself. One good feature of the hotel: the coffee shop restaurant does provide good visibility, so if you want folks to be able to find you, sitting at a table there makes a good meeting point.
We had some time for looking through the dealers room and the art show -- or did we do the art show the first day? Then we got the cars repacked, and left on the long drive home. We'd arranged with the other part of the crew to rendezvous for dinner in the University District, at the Shalimar. It's a northern Indian/Pakistani restaurant and one of Jack's favorites.
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I guess the only part of Washington State I haven't been in now, is the north east quarter. We drove from the Tri-cities, to Yakima, through land that gradually got more fertile and occupied. The area near Yakima is big for tree fruits and wine grapes. Then over a big valley of nothing (a military reservation) to Ellensburg, then over the Cascades to Seattle. We'd met up with the other car by chance, at a refueling stop before Yakima, and discussed how we'd both passed Jacqueline's car on the way.
When we got to the University District, we were shocked and appalled to see that the chosen restaurant was closed! We quickly devised a backup plan. A better place for our group (because cheaper) was right across the street. But first we had to stand around idly on the corner, waiting for our buddies to show up. We took turns dashing into the newstand, the others staying outside so that our friends could find us when they arrived. I took this opportunity to buy a Martha Stewart Weddings magazine. At last I have a legitimate reason to look at such material!
When we were all together, we went across the street to Jack's other favored U-district food place, Tran Brothers Pho. There were seven of us, which is a bigger group than the small restuarant usually accomodates, but they squeezed a few tables together and we sat down. Most of the group were new to pho, the Vietnamese beef noodle soup, but they liked it. The hot peppers on the side allow those so inclined to do the macho capsacin competition. Everyone also liked the French drip iced coffee with condensed milk.
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There was still an hour and a half drive ahead of us, but we made it, dropping Jessica off at her dorm and getting the car unloaded. My car was ok where we'd left in, in the parking lot in front of Jack's place.
It was a nice weekend, but I don't know if I'll be going to Radcon next year. The work of promoting Vikingcon (though I didn't do that much) got in the way of participating in Radcon, and the gaming orientation of Radcon isn't something I'd be interested in, in the normal course of events.
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