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Another Day, Another Coffee Shop

Posted on May 28, 2026 by Ching under Travel.

Parker’s wedding weekend was an interesting one. We went up to Kansas City on Friday night and stayed for a couple of nights, checking out on Sunday. That same weekend, Brian had to fly out to Las Vegas for his ELEVATE conference. I have so much time off from work that we had initially considered having me go with him to Vegas. We thought it would we be convenient to fly to Vegas from the KC airport since we would already be there. That is, until we realized that Saki was with us that weekend. Whoops! Regardless of how much time off I had, I was definitely not going to be able to go because someone had to stay home and take care of Saki.

So then the next thing we considered was for Brian to fly out of KC to Vegas and then fly home from Vegas to Wichita at the end of the conference. But that would mean I would be driving home to Wichita from KC by myself — in Brian’s new vehicle no less — and he just wasn’t comfortable with that. So we ended up having to leave KC first thing in the morning on Sunday to make it back to Wichita for Brian’s noon flight to Vegas.

Brian didn’t want to feel rushed, so we left super early. So early that Messenger and Mildred’s weren’t open yet. And even the Roasterie coffee in our hotel lobby hadn’t been set up because Brian would have totally settled for that. He said it was good. I mean, you can’t go wrong with Roasterie. Anyway, we found this place nearby called Morning Rounds Bakery.

We might have been their first customers for the day.

The place isn’t big but super cute inside.

We made it back to Wichita with plenty of time to spare. We even squeezed a quick nap in our recliner before heading to the airport. It was much needed since we both go up super early that morning for the drive back to Wichita.

No joke, as we were leaving to head to the airport, Brian got a text from Cory that their flight had been delayed. I was supposed to stop by my parents’ house for some sinigang after dropping Brian off, we decided to just flip-flop it. We ended up eating some lunch at mom and dad’s before heading to the airport.

So Brian left that Sunday and didn’t return until Friday. He seemed to have a great time (and learned a ton) at the conference. I’ll let him tell you all about it. Hopefully he finds time to blog about it. The day he returned is also the day that I was taking mom and dad to their airport for their trip to Saint Lucia. It worked out because their departure/boarding time pretty much coincided with his return flight’s arrival. I surprised him by waiting at the bottom of the escalator by baggage claim and he didn’t even notice. LOL.

I guess this pretty much recaps our recent Kansas City weekend. Leave a comment if you want to hear about Brian’s Vegas conference. Maybe if enough of you ask we can get him to post about it. #peerpressure

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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.