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SF Travbuddy Meetup at Jade Bar

San Francisco Travel Blog › entry 1 of 1 › view all entries

A few wonderful travbuddies got together to meet and greet, smile and laugh, talk and take pictures. I had a great time.

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SF Travbuddy Meetup at Jade Bar

January 12, 2008

SF Travbuddy Meetup at Jade Bar

The day of our meetup had arrived. We all had been talking about the excitement and not sure what to expect since this was our first meetup ever. After that night I know it won't be my last. I can't wait for the next one.

Sister and I had been running late all day. Along with our brother we had a late lunch with the parents in Union City because they would be going to Las Vegas on Sunday and we wanted to bid them good-bye before their little trip. By the time we finished, it was getting very close for us to start getting ready to meet everyone at the Jade Bar. We were coming from across the bridge so there was no way of knowing exactly how the flow of traffic would be.

Unless we would start to listen to traffic on the radio.. Nah, I don't think so, BORING.

Traffic was of course terrible, for no apparent reason. Just because I guess. We finally made it to San Francisco. We picked up Tessa and dialed in the Jade Bar address into our GPS. We re-calculated a few times because we didn't notice we had passed a turn or two that we were supposed to take. Geez, making us even more late. We finally found Gough street yay.. and we found parking just around the corner.

We walked to Jade bar and took a picture of the Jade Bar sign of course. And we made our way downstairs.

Me and David - Thanks David for telling me about Travbuddy.. down to the where the idea first originated.. You're so cool

Oh my goodness there were soooooo many people. I couldn't believe how many travbuddies were present. I saw some familiar faces already so I figured both groups, left and right, were travbuddies. We were happily greeted by the group. Ekua and Mark and others came right away to shake our hands and thank us for coming. Mark asked us our names, and then what was our Travbuddy name =).. RacquelT127. And I heard a few.. "Oh you're RacquelT127.. I've seen you around TB" oh that was so nice to hear that people saw me around the site. Friends of Friends and Friends of more friends. We're all connected by Travbuddy which is totally great. Which prompts me to want to start thanking the makers of the site Eric and David. And I sure did because David (Co-founder) walked down the Jade Bar steps a few minutes after we had arrived. You could only imagine the excitement and gleam in everyone's eyes to see him. David and Eric are two travbuddies that all travbuddies want to meet sooner or later so that they can thank them repeatedly for coming up with the idea and setting it up for us all.

So this is when the meetup begins for me.

Me, David and Michelle hanging out by the Bar

There were so many people present I felt the room getting smaller and hotter. But we just seem to be occupying the entire lower level, and with that in mind.. Hot meant good to me because there were so many people here I get talk to. I set my jacket down and then Tessa and I hit the bar. Just one drink for me, since I would have to leave the meetup early to attend a friend's b-day dinner. yeah I know, I show up semi-late and then I have to leave early. Believe me I was so sad to leave, and all we could talk about at the dinner was travbuddy =).

I was able to speak with the incredible travbuddies about their past trips, future planned trips, and discuss places they would like to go soon but not sure when they would schedule it in. I'm glad I was also able to talk about where I would be travelling to in the near future and have others be excited for me too. Nice feeling.. with me being already super excited, it was nice that others were excited for me too. I got to speak with David, I just had to get the inside scoop on Travbuddy, and he told me about the history, and where the Travbuddy idea came from.

Mark and his famous kisses =)

Which I won't get into now because I know some already know the story, and those who don't know yet that you would love to talk to either David or Eric and hear for yourself. Pretty great of them to start Travbuddy and have everyone connected throughout the world with one fantastic common interest.. TRAVELLING. Thanks David for chatting with me about that.

It was so fun to talk to people I had already been smiling and commenting to. For the various pictures, blogs and reviews they've published. Pretty cool to match faces with the words, and talents for photography. It was also equally wonderful to meet and chat with others who I hadn't come across meeting through Travbuddy yet, but I am very glad I got to meet them.

Special thank you goes out to Ekua for setting up this very successful meetup in San Francisco, hoping for more to come. Maybe we'll have an East Bay meetup soon, since there were a few Travbuddies coming from across the bridge, next time we'll get to save them toll or BART fare.