Archive for "Travel"
Pub W – Oklahoma City
Posted on November 28, 2022 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
I got to try a new restaurant while in Oklahoma City for the Smash pickleball tournament a couple of weeks ago. I rode down there with Molly and Cory Sager, who were nice enough to swing by and pick me up on their way to the tournament. After checking in to our hotel, we went to nearby Pub W before hitting the open play at the Greens (tournament venue).
Pub W is a cute, distinctive restaurant. I should have gotten a picture of the outside because their facade is completely covered in green Christmas lights. Inside, it looks pretty much the same as most restaurant/bar type places but they did have good reviews — better than Industry, which was our other option.
This is the yummy pork belly starter at Pub W! I wasn’t all that hungry so I just got the pork belly and a side of rice.
Molly and Cory both had burgers.
I don’t know what was going on with me but these are probably the worst food pictures I have ever taken. This next one is super blurry.
At least the food turned out better than the pictures. I enjoyed what I had and it was the perfect amount of food before hitting open play. Until next time, GNG.
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More Vegas Food
Posted on October 21, 2022 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
Pictures of our burgers from PrimeBurger at the Venetian.
I think we would have been just as satisfied with In and Out but this one was inside the hotel so we didn’t have to go far for it.
The next morning we ended up at Virgil’s after looking for a “Hash Hash” place for nearly an hour. We found Hash House a Go Go at Linq but we didn’t think it was the right place so we kept looking. When we couldn’t find the place we just gave up and stopped at the first place we could find that seemed appetizing.
I wanted to add sausage to my bacon, egg, and cheese burrito but we had a bit of miscommunication and I ended up with an andouille sausage link.
Food wasn’t bad. Most everything we had that weekend was pretty good actually, if not a tad expensive. But that is Vegas for you. Until next time, GNG.
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PPA Championships
Posted on October 21, 2022 by Ching under Pickleball, Travel.
When you get invited to play in a tournament in Las Vegas and you don’t know where you’re staying, what do you do? You pack as light as you possibly can. This is me, “one-bagging” it…
I actually didn’t even plan to buy this bag. However, a few months ago, I found a deal on the Electrum website for the Pro II (a paddle that I had been patiently waiting for) and the bag. Both the paddle and bag would cost more if purchased separately but much cheaper if bought as part of the “bundle” (and also even 10% less using Matt Nola’s NOLA10 discount code) so I bought a bag I didn’t actually need to “save” money on the paddle.
The bag is enormous so I couldn’t really use it as my regular bag. Anyway, the trip to Vegas the perfect reason to break it in. I needed a backpack that could fit everything I needed for the weekend and my new Electrum pickleball bag was the answer. So my “personal” bag is the size of a carry-on. It’s still just one bag so I got away with paying the cheaper airfare also.
We went straight to the tournament site upon arriving in Vegas. We wanted to check out how our friend Matt was doing. They had 39 courts set up at the Darling Tennis Center. There were also fun vendor areas set up in between.
Part of the whole PPA Tour experience, besides playing in the tournament, is being able to watch the pros play on Championship Court.
Chicken N Pickle had the perfect spot for their vendor tent and it was pretty much home base for all the Chicken N Pickle sponsored athletes competing at the tournament that weekend.
Here are a few pictures from the weekend…
Julie Johnson (the Kansas City one, not JW and Jorja’s mom), Jen Reifschneider, and me. Below, me and Ryan Kellenbarger with a former WSU basketball player. Ryan knew him but I had no idea.
Picture of the Johnson twins – Hunter and Yates. Don’t ask me which is which.
Speaking of twins, Stacy Wessley and I got to do some twinning ourselves. Don’t mind the photo-bombers.
I met a couple of lovely Filipino ladies at the Better Than Tens tent.
We got to watch Anna Bright and Parris Todd punch their ticket to Championship Sunday — on Anna Bright’s birthday.
As far as my own playing goes, it wasn’t an exceptional weekend but I don’t think I played terribly either. On Thursday, Jen and I played in 4.0 19+ women’s doubles. We went 2-2. We fell in the semis — one win away from playing for Gold/Silver. The tournament format was double elimination with “no come around” which means once you lose in the main draw the best you can do is win Bronze.
Part of the motivation to do well in the back draw is the chance to come back and win Gold the hard way. I found the loss in semis demoralizing and was completely unmotivated. Anyway, had we won our match in the back draw, Jen and I would have played for Bronze.
Friday was men’s doubles day so the girls got a break. We did come out to the tournament to watch the pro matches and cheer on the guys. Unfortunately, results weren’t the best that day. I think most of the teams were 0-2.
Saturday was mixed doubles and Zach and I entered the 3.5 35+ division. Once again, we went 2-2. We were one win away from playing for Gold/Silver and one win away from playing for Bronze. Our semi-final match was a real heart-breaker. After losing the first game 12-14, we won the second game 13-11, and then we were up 10-6 in the third game but could not close. We ended up losing that game 10-12 and were sent to the back draw instead of moving on to the Gold/Silver match. What a day! I guess at least I was consistent.
Anyway, the big tournaments are always tough. Sometimes you come home with hardware, sometimes you don’t. For me, as long as I’m learning something and making new friends, I consider the trip worthwhile and successful. This trip was no different. Until next time, GNG.
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The Flame Broiler
Posted on September 30, 2022 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
We ate at the Flame Broiler around the corner from our Airbnb. It’s fast Korean BBQ and it was pretty good.
Our Airbnb was pet-friendly so Saki went with us on this trip. I was glad too because I had been feeling pretty about about leaving her behind the last few times, specially on longer trips like when we were in Naples for the US Open, Newport Beach for USAP Newport Beach Championships, and most recently Tulum/Mexico for Erica and Phillip’s wedding.
I think our go-forward plan is to travel to places within driving distance and stay at pet-friendly Airbnbs with dog runs so that we can always take Saki with us.
The trip to Tulsa earlier this month was perfect. More please. Until next time, GNG.
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Tulsa Pickleball Classic
Posted on September 30, 2022 by Ching under Pickleball, Travel.
The weekend of the Tulsa Pickleball Classic was a weekend of first for me. Not only was it the very first Tulsa Pickleball Classic tournament but it was also my first time in Tulsa and my first time playing with my chosen partners for the weekend.
I opted to play 50/50 instead of playing singles on Friday. Both events were on the same day so you had to choose one or the other. I had seen Robert Mansfield at some of the tournaments I’ve played in and he usually only plays singles so I was very surprised when he accepted my invitation to play together in the 50/50 event. He wasn’t playing in any other events at the tournament so, frankly, I felt pretty special. He carved out time just to play in the 50/50 with me.
I really wish we could have won it but Karen Fox and Cory Sager were on fire that day. They had my number and kept getting everything back. Anyway, I had a great time playing with Robert who was patient and fun, and I couldn’t have asked for a better 50/50 partner for the tournament.
Here’s a picture of our group from 50/50 day. From left: Molly Sager (Cory’s wife), Cory Sager, Karen Fox, and Cindy and Ed Egan. Cindy and Ed were also in the same division as Karen, Cory, Robert, and me. Cindy is under 50 and Ed is over 50 so it worked out for them. We really wanted to see an “all Wichita Pickleball” podium but it was not to be. Cindy and Ed ended up taking 4th behind Caroline Luelf and Stuart Ryan, a couple of Tulsa locals.
On Saturday I teamed up with my new friend Tanner Rice. I love his name because it made for a fun team name and t-shirt design.
I met Tanner on Facebook much like I meet a lot of people, via a random message but our team-up was completely accidental.
That message was during the weekend of the 2021 ICT Fall-out tournament. I saw him at the tournament, we waved at each other, and that was that. Fast forward to May of this year when CRBN-gate happened.
I meant to send a message to Tanner Blaske regarding the CRBN paddle replacement options and sent the message to Tanner Rice instead. That started a Facebook messenger exchange that resulted in the most random team up ever.
I’m always down to play with new people because I don’t have any set pickleball partners (for either mixed or women’s doubles) and I remembered seeing Tanner play 4.5 mixed at the Oak Tree tournament in February. I thought he was pretty good so I was like, “Why the hell not?”
Holy bait and switch, though! When I agreed to partner with him, we talked about playing at the 4.0 level because that was the highest level I had played to date. However, I did change my perspective a little bit because the ICT Classic tournament was around that time and Matt Nola had talked me into playing 5.0 level with him. We went 0-2 at that tournament but I didn’t feel completely out of place and I didn’t hate it so, having broken the ice and surviving 5.0 without totally humiliating myself, I figured 4.5 can’t be that any worse.
We had a little bit of bad luck and had to face our friends Ramon Lozano and Katie Merrill in the first round and then we lost a close one against Josh McAllister and Kaylyn Baker so we also went 0-2 in Tulsa but, once again, I didn’t hate it. Tanner was super patient and encouraging and, although I wanted us to have done better, I thought we meshed pretty well and didn’t fight over balls and didn’t really have significant miscommunication. Tanner put it really well when he summarized that, for our first time playing together (we had never played together before that – not even any practice games), we had a really good foundation to build upon. I have to agree with his assessment. I felt super comfortable playing with him and had a ton of fun, results not withstanding.
The next day I teamed up with Huyen Nguyen (my “pretend” daughter) in 4.0 women’s doubles. I had played this level before but I’m definitely not as strong at women’s doubles as I am at mixed. In fact, I’m still eligible to play in 3.0 level for women’s. While this wasn’t my first time playing with Huyen because we had played together in rec games before and we played in the Mother’s Day pickleball tournament at Chicken N Pickle earlier this year, I do consider this a first because it was our first real tournament team up. We didn’t get the results we hoped for but as it’s always a good time when you get to play with talented, top-notch players. I am very grateful to Huyen for her agreeing to team up with me.
In 3.5 women’s doubles, our friends swept the entire division. Cindy and Jenny (Corley) took first place, Kendra (Wicks) and Molly took second, and Janelle (Lindeman) and Amanda (Ades) took third. So we did get the “all Wichita Pickleball” podium that I was hoping to see in women’s doubles 3.5 level. I’m so proud of all these ladies!
Speaking of Cindy and Jenny, they are teaming back up this weekend for the Shangri-la Pickleball Open. I’m playing with Molly this time.
Anyway, that is all for now. More next time. Until then, GNG.
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