Archive for "Travel"
We Tried a New Coffee Shop
Posted on May 27, 2026 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
Brian and I walked over to Mildred’s while in the Crossroads district of Kansas City earlier this month for the Hummel-Ward wedding.
It’s a cute little place within walking distance of our hotel.
Their breakfast pastries looked delicious but we both opted for a breakfast burrito.
They were pretty darn good.
I love this wall.
We had to selfie in front of it, naturally.
Here’s a pic of my latte.
We loved the convenience of being able to walk to Mildred’s and back to our hotel. It was a lovely morning for a walk.
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Hotel Indigo – Crossroads
Posted on May 17, 2026 by Ching under Travel.
We absolutely loved our recent stay at Hotel Indigo at Crossroads in Kansas City earlier this month when we came up for Parker and Madison’s wedding.
We chose the hotel based on its proximity to the reception venue. It was an easy walk to and back from the Abbott. Anyway, super impressed with this hotel. Brian, Saki, and I really enjoyed the comfy bed and fluffy pillows.
When we checked in, we found a very thoughtful green gift bag filled with some snacks and even a cookie for our dog. It was the sweetest, most thoughtful gesture.
Besides the close location to the reception venue, the hotel is also close to lots of restaurants and all of the fun things that the Crossroads District of Kansas City has to offer. Also appreciated there was a nearby park that we could take Saki to do her business. We loved the convenience of being able to walk everywhere.
I think the only downside we found to the hotel was the lack of free parking. Valet parking is available for a daily fee. Luckily, we were able to find a spot across the street and street parking is free on weekends. It saved us quite a bit.
Oh, I forgot to mention the hotel gave us a little gift for our dog. We didn’t get a chance to open it until we got home. It was full of fun goodies. Anyway, more on the wedding and our weekend getaway on the next post but for now gonna leave you with a recommendation to check out Hotel Indigo when you’re in Kansas City. It really is a neat hotel.
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Michael Cheung’s First US Open
Posted on May 11, 2026 by Ching under Pickleball, Travel.
On Friday, April 17, we spent most of the day at the Franklin US Open tournament until it was time to pick our friend Michael Cheung up from the airport. Brian took the opportunity to get some stretching done at the Healix booth.
After picking up Michael from the airport and a quick check in (he stayed at the same hotel that we were staying at), the three of us went for early supper at LowBrow. We first discovered this pizza place in 2022, and returned in 2023 with mom and dad. This is our third visit here. We tried another pizza place earlier in the week but LowBrow is definitely our favorite.
They added this giant chair out front for photo ops which wasn’t there three years ago. Naturally, I had to get a pic of Michael in it.
Here are some pictures of our food.
Michael decided to order the wings, on top of getting pizza. They were fantastic but we had entirely too much food.
Michael got the Cortez the Killer, while Brian and I split the Meatfest. The wings made us full, though. At the end of the evening, we still had a whole pizza to take home between the two different pizzas.
BTW, I forgot to mention that, because Michael is a Globalist with Hyatt Rewards, they practically rolled out the red carpet for him. When we first checked in earlier in the week, this lady in front of us was asking for an upgrade and they flat out told her no. When Michael checked in, he got upgraded to a suite (despite having booked the same room as Brian and I using points) without even asking. Follow this link for a tour of his fancy room if you want to see it. They also gave him a couple bottles of water, coupons to the restaurant, and all sorts of free goodies. However, the best perk of all and the one that matters most is the free parking. Brian and I had to pay $29 per day for self-parking and Globalists like Michael get it for free. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t let us transfer the car over to Michael for the last couple of days so we had to pay $29 for every single day of our stay (including our departure day, which was kind of a rip off but Brian and I just accepted our fate without complaint).
The next day, we went to the tournament early so Michael could check out vendor village before we played.
We also got to take in some games at the Zing Zang Championship Court. PRO TIP: It’s free to get in to Zing Zang in the mornings, if you want to save some money. Just get there early and stay there.
We didn’t medal but I got a pic of Michael with the podium backdrop, which had to be rebranded this year because of the change in title sponsor.
Michael and I played in our matching Lunar shirts. Thank you to Matt Nola for mine. He gave it to me when I bought my Lunar Laban paddle.
Click here for highlights from our last day at the Franklin US Open. Hands down my favorite part of our last day was getting to be part of the iconic US Open flag ceremony. We had to wait in line a long time before the flag ceremony but it was worth it. Would totally do it again next year.
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Oakes Farms – Seed to Table
Posted on May 11, 2026 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
I never thought going to a supermarket would be one of our trip highlights, yet here we are. Our friend Laurie suggested we check out the Oakes Farms Seed to Table market at the suggestion of a couple of other friends of ours so we decided to go there for dinner one evening.
This was, hands down, the wildest supermarket experience I’d ever had. I don’t even know where to begin y’all. I guess let’s just start with the parking lot. We went on a Wednesday night and there was absolutely no parking. This place was packed like Armageddon was coming and everyone was stocking up for an apocalypse, except they brought their fancy Lamborghinis, Ferraris, and Bentleys — to the grocery store. Laurie told us that this was apparently THE grocery store for single ladies to hang out and meet rich dudes. So the meat section is quite literally a “meat market” – LOL.
The inside reminds me of Gucci Dillons (for the unfamiliar, Gucci Dillons is what we call the Dillons Marketplace at Central and Rock – it is the fanciest Dillons in Wichita – probably fancier than Whole Foods, even) but on steroids. I don’t even know how to describe it. They had multiple restaurants INSIDE the grocery store and they had a live band playing music — on a Wednesday night. Unique is an understatement. It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. I’ve never had a supermarket experience quite like this one.
We explored the store for a bit to take it all in. Obviously, we had to, before settling for having dinner at one of the restaurants on the upper level.
It was so busy that night, we barely got a table.
Here are some pics of our food.
The food was sooo good. I would totally return on our next trip to Naples. Also, I forgot to mention that the store also had multiple bars scattered throughout like this one. This place is something else entirely.
If you’ve been to Oakes Farms Seed to Table Market before, let us know about your experience in the comments.
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Our Go Cats on the Water Boat Tour
Posted on May 7, 2026 by Ching under Travel.
I mentioned JT and Go Cats on the Water in the previous blog so I thought I would talk about that adventure now. We were walking around our hotel on Sunday morning when we came across JT who was prepping these two-person catamarans for a tour. He asked if we were part of his group that morning and we told him no but were very curious about it. He gave us some info, along with their brochure. It seemed like a fun thing to do so Brian and I booked an excursion for Tuesday.
I actually found this same tour on Trip Advisor and Viator but the tour was going for around $180 per person. When I went to the website that JT told us (which was also listed on the brochure), they had a different booking platform that listed the same tour we wanted for only $155. I think I also found a $10 off coupon so our excursion only came out to $145 per person before taxes and fees. Even with the $50 gratuity, we were still well under the Trip Advisor/Viator price. I was really proud of myself for that. Anyway, that’s the first tip I’m going to share about this – try booking directly through the tour operator’s website (rather than using a third party like Trip Advisor or Viator) because you’ll probably get a better deal since you’re avoiding middleman fees.
Our excursion that morning was so much fun. Not only was JT he friendly and accommodating, but he also took the time to stop at several spots to tell us about the area, animals, etc. He was very informative. While we didn’t get to see any manatees, we did find some dolphins which we followed around for a bit. It was amazing! One of the best parts about our excursion was that it was only Brian and I booked that day so we got one-on-one attention from our tour guide. I feel like if there’s a line of catamarans, it’s hard for the guide to spend time with every single person. This leads me to my second tip – booking on a weekday is probably better because it’s going to be less busy than a weekend. You could get lucky like we did and turn a group tour into a personal tour without the extra up-charge.
Here are some of my favorite pics from the excursion:
Brian did a great job of following JT through all the twists and turns as we were going through the mangroves.
We stopped at a private island and explored for a bit.
It was here where we encountered another couple who arrived at the island via jet ski but their jet ski was stuck so they were having troubles trying to leave. Brian was a good Samaritan and help push the jet ski into the water so they could take off.
This is us cruising past our hotel at the tail end of our adventure.
Hands down, this was probably our favorite part of our trip to Naples this year. We really enjoyed having some down time to explore and be tourists instead of spending all of our time at the tournament (which we did quite a bit of as well). I’m looking forward to returning to Naples again next year and checking off some more items from our list.
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