Hearty Hospitality in the PNW

[steveb@falcon.kla.com (Steven Buchholz)]

I am feeling bad for not putting this out before ...

It turns out that my wife had some business scheduled in Seattle, WA and
she wanted me to tag along.  Since I rarely take vacations I figured it 
would be nice to have a couple days away, so I did.  Linus Toy and Steve 
Powers had responded to my original notice and we were able to set up a 
get together while I was there.  Linus had put the word out on quattro-net-
PNW (whatever you guys call it!) and we met at a place called Hart's right 
next to the King Dome.  I am embarrassed because I can remember the names 
of all the attendees but one ... for which I offer my humblest apologies!  
My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed the drive to Hart's through downtown 
Seattle traffic while driving a Ford Contour (OH BOY!). It was great to 
see Linus again, to see Steve and his wife Winifred (I'd met them the 
night before) ... to meet the unflappable Eliot Lim who had rolled out 
the V8Q (which is purported to come out only in the colder seasons :), 
Anthony Chan, and Bernie with his PNW Quattro Club T-shirt, and the fellow
for which my face is now so red ... The fellowship was enjoyable during 
the time we satisfied our gastronomical needs (?), as well as afterward!  
We adjourned to the back parking lot, where we managed to assemble the 
aforementioned V8Q, Linus' 200Q20v, a 100V6 belonging to Anthony, two 4kQs 
and Steve's S6 Wagon.  We talked mostly about cars and driving events and 
whether or not the engine in the S6 has more or less potential for upgrades, 
upper stress bars, ... you name it!  Of course it was dark by the time we 
left ... good thing Pam brought along some reading material ... I guess she 
knows me fairly well by now!

I regret that I was not there the following week (which is now actually 
in the past) when there was a scheduled get together at Mt. St. Helens.  
I've heard that the rumbling that was observed that day was simply Ned's 
"beast."  :-)

Thanks again to all of you for your hospitality, and don't hesitate to let
us know when any of you are in the area ... maybe we can see if the Tied 
House sells Red Hook ESB ;-)  Thanks to Steve for the opportunity to ride
in that refined bahn-burner with *3* rows of seats and the chance to exper-
ience riding in Seattle's liquid sunshine ... which did bring some gorgeous 
rainbows!   :-)

Rated in amount of enjoyment per time the three days were about the best 
I've had in some time.  We spent Saturday driving around through Tacoma 
to Bremerton, taking the ferry back to Seattle.  I got to see the Tacoma 
Narrows Bridge (I've always wanted to see it ... I'm an engineer OK?! :)
and we followed the signs to Bremerton Raceway ... if I only had my own 
car.  

I'll sign up on quatro-net-PNW as soon as I get some info on how to 
$ub$cr!be [hint, hint].  

Steve Buchholz
s_buchho@kla.com
San Jose, CA (USA)