Wild Lights at the Zoo
Posted on December 1, 2023 by Ching under Things to Do.
Here are some highlights from when we went to Sedgwick County Zoo to check out this year’s Wild Lights exhibit.
It’s a brand new way to experience the zoo that started a few years ago. You basically get to walk around after dark. It’s not completely dark though because they have these massive, amazing, colorful lantern and light installations. There is a different theme each year and this year it is Alice in Wonderland.
Kendra doesn’t like Alice in Wonderland but she was a good sport and went to check out the exhibit with us anyways. I had four free tickets so Brian, Kendra, Colby, and I went. Honestly, it is totally worth the $15 (member) or $17 (non-member) entrance fee.
Please go support our local zoo and check out this exhibit before they pack it all up for the season! Buy your tickets here.
SIDE NOTE: Here are some pics from when Brian and I first went to check it out a couple of years ago.
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Cutting Our Nationals Trip Short
Posted on November 30, 2023 by Ching under Pickleball, Travel.
The last few posts have been about our trip to Dallas for USA Pickleball National Championships. We ran into all sorts of bumps besides just my never-ending period and painful period cramps. When we arrived at our hotel, the hotel had a water line break and so there was no water for several hours the first 24 hours that we were there. I didn’t get much sleep because of my abdominal cramps and when my cramps did finally ease up, Brian and I had a freak out situation with our house.
I think it was Friday night when Brian got an alert from the Ring doorbell. This kid was taking selfies on our front porch. He seemed to be on the phone saying something like, “Are you guys really not home right now?” but it was barely audible. He took off before Brian could speak and get his attention through the doorbell.
Being the paranoid people that we are, we though maybe some teenage kids were going to try to break into our house while we were gone. Brian called his cousin Zach who drove over and he got to our house as the kids had pulled away. He said he watch the car go to another house and the kid walked up to the door but then turned right back around. I told Brian maybe they were just lost or had the wrong house but, being six hours away, we were concerned that, if something bad were to happen, we would be too far away to do anything about it. But the car had drove away and so we kind of forgot about it for a while but then, a few minutes later, the car was back. We knew because Brian got an alert on the driveway camera.
We were watching them on the camera for a while but we didn’t see anyone get out of the car so then our imaginations run wild and we’re thinking they’re staking out our house to make sure no one is home before they break in. Anyway, I told Brian to turn the lights on and off (he can do it from his phone) so that they think that people are home. He did so but there was no reaction. Brian is super worried and neither of us could go to bed at this point. I’m thinking we need to do something to get some piece of mind (and so I can get some sleep and be ready to play the next day) so I ended up calling the police. I didn’t think they were actually going to do anything but we were watching our camera and they actually sent, not one or two, but three squad cars to our house. We watched on the cameras as two police officers walked around our house and confirm that nothing was amiss. Anyway, we asked them to check the parked car (which they actually checked the wrong car at first because our neighbor has a bunch of cars parked in front of his house) and they confirmed no one was in there. We all concluded that perhaps our first assumption (that the kids were at the wrong house or had the wrong address) was correct. Brian and I felt better and went to bed.
A few hours later, I’m waking up in the middle of the night because Brian is talking to his dad on the phone. Apparently, all of the cameras at our house our offline. Paranoia once again rears its ugly head and we’re thinking they’ve cut all the camera feeds and are breaking in. LOL. Brian decides to call his cousin Zach who makes another trip to our house (God bless him) and confirms that everything is okay. As it turns out, there was just a Cox network outage and that’s why all of our cameras weren’t working. We were like, “OK. No one is breaking into our house.” We really just need to chill out.
Anyway, fast forward to Sunday. There were originally 80 teams entered in my mixed doubles division but 3 teams dropped so we were at 77 on the day of the event. Our bracket started at 8 AM and, had I done well, we would have been playing clear until well past midnight. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately, depending on how you look at it), my partner and I ended up going 1-2 on the day and ended up getting knocked out early. I piddled around at the tournament for a bit, and even played a couple of practice games against Katie and Ramon who were waiting for their next match/court assignment, and finally, when I had my fill, called Brian to see what he was doing for lunch. He said he was just getting ready to heat up his Cane Rosso leftovers. I countered with, what about coming to pick me up and we both grab lunch together. This was like 1, almost 2, PM.
When he came to get me, he had an idea to swing by the hotel first just to see if they could let us check out that day. If they said no, then we’d go to lunch and check out on Monday morning as originally planned. As luck would have it, the concierge was feeling generous. He told us that if we could be out in the next 30 minutes we could check out and they wouldn’t charge us for the last day. Jackpot! Brian and I got out of there so fast.
I was happy because checking out a day early ended up saving us almost $250. We ended up just hitting a drive-thru on the way home. We were back in Wichita shortly after 8 PM on Sunday, which we were anxious to do because of all the craziness that happened the night before with us thinking our house was getting broken into while we were away.
I’m happy to report that everything was fine. Our house, and all the contents within, were exactly as we had left them when we left for Dallas earlier in the week. What a wild few days!
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Cane Rosso at Carrollton Square
Posted on November 29, 2023 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
Brian and I ate at this cute restaurant in Carrollton Square while we were in the Dallas area for USA Pickleball National Championships a few weeks ago.
We went kind of in between lunch and dinner, which is probably the best time to go because they weren’t super busy.
Here’s a picture of the menu.
We started with the meatball appetizer, which is something we like to get when dining at most Italian restaurants (if it’s available anyway).
Brian had the chicken parm sandwich with tater tots.
I wanted the brisket lasagna bolognese but it was only available at dinner and it wasn’t quite dinner time yet. Our server said the closest thing to it on the menu would be the baked penne bolo, which is what I ended up getting.
I was super stuffed from the meatball starter so I could hardly eat any of my entree. Also, it was super rich and filling. I ended up taking most of it to go, which was sad because we still had leftovers from Elena’s in our hotel room fridge also. We ended up not eating any of our leftovers at all because we cut our trip short (more on this later) which breaks my heart because I hate wasting food. I specially hate wasting good food. Our eyes are often bigger than our stomachs, though. One day we will learn our lesson and not order more than we can actually eat.
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Barrel and Bones
Posted on November 27, 2023 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
Brian liked this place so much, he ate here twice in the same day.
He went there for lunch on Friday. I couldn’t remember what he got but he really liked it. When he picked me up from the tournament venue later that day, I asked him to take me there for dinner since he liked it so much. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.
We went straight from the tournament so we were there kind of early-ish. They weren’t quite as busy yet.
Here’s a picture of Brian trying to figure out what to get because he had already eaten there once that day. LOL.
I got the pork belly banh mi, which was good but not as good as the ones I get from the Belmont locally. My truffle fries were fabulous.
Brian got some kind of breaded chicken sandwich.
Our meal was really good for the price. I think Friday night is half-off sandwiches night so, even with our drinks, our tab was pretty cheap. I would recommend checking this place out when in the Dallas area, whether or not it’s a Friday. I think they have good specials everyday of the week. Fridays are great if you want a sandwich, though. Until next time, GNG.
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Elena’s Tacos Y Mas
Posted on November 25, 2023 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
Elena’s Taqueria is one of the places we ate at while we were in the Dallas area for USA Pickleball Nationals. It’s a small, mom and pop, hole in the wall type of restaurant. I was actually surprised that Brian felt so adventurous. He normally sticks to chains and more familiar places.
Here are some pictures of our food…
Brian had the chicken (above) and I had the carnitas (below). All of it was very good but I wasn’t feeling well. That was a weekend when I was having massively painful menstrual cramps from my seemingly never-ending period. Anyway, I ate what I could and we took the rest back to the hotel.
The food was delicious but it was the horchata that took my breath away.
I think it might have been the best horchata I’d ever had and now I want horchata all the time. In fact, we actually stopped by Taco Shop on the way home to get me some more. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as good. Brian told me that it’s probably because Taco Shop’s horchata is mass-produced as opposed to the homemade version I tried at Elena’s. Now I’m on a quest to find some delicious horchata here in Wichita. Any suggestions?
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