Archive for "Travel"
Cerberus Brewing Company
Posted on July 2, 2021 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
Cerberus was hands down our favorite brewery and food spot in Colorado Springs. We ate there on our first night and Brian wanted to go back everyday.
It’s not very spacious inside but they had nice outdoor seating. I think it would have been better had the weather not been as damp and rainy but we made the best of it.
Kimberly, Eric, Brian and I had to sit outside because there was no room inside.
Brian had to take a work phone call so he didn’t have time to look at the menu. I took charge and ordered food for us. I told him he would like it.
We got the cheddar ale soup.
And the truffle parmesan fries.
And the pork belly spring rolls. The funny thing is Brian didn’t realize there were portobello mushrooms in his cheddar ale soup. He thought he was eating pork belly probably because he heard me say pork belly when ordering the spring rolls. He ate them without question and, I think, he kind of even enjoyed the taste even though he “says” hates mushrooms.
Eric got the bison burger and fries, while Kimberly got the reuben rolls.
I didn’t get pictures of our drinks but Brian and Kimberly both got the maibock (it was the closest thing they had to an amber) and Eric got the porter. I don’t like beer so I had a seltzer.
I’m a sweet tooth so I always have to have dessert. They had a delicious bread pudding served with ice cream. It was the perfect finale for our delicious dinner.
Two days later we were back at Cerberus again because Michael and Ryan hadn’t been there yet and we wanted them to try it.
Everyone was drinking beer but I opted for craft cider.
We asked for a table inside this time because it was once again cold and wet outside. Brian actually went back to our hotel to grab me some sweatpants.
Here are some pictures of food from our second visit.
Ryan got the bison burger. Michael got a regular burger with truffle fries upgrade.
Brian really liked the cheddar ale soup so he got it again.
Eric got the French onion soup.
Brian really wanted to try the Colorado poutine so we got it. It looks like soupy fries. LOL. It was great but had a spicy kick from the chorizo.
Eric and Kimberly shared the brisket grilled cheese, which I think is the best thing they serve at Cerberus. I was hoping to get it on our third visit but we cut our trip short and didn’t end up going again before we left.
Brian also got the pretzels.
And I got reuben rolls. I thought I would like them better than the pork belly spring rolls because those were kind of spicy but the reuben rolls were spicy too.
Anyway, that place is so good. If we find ourselves back in Colorado Springs again, we are definitely going back. We totally tried to eat there everyday of our trip.
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Middle States Regional Championships
Posted on June 7, 2021 by Ching under Hobbies, Travel.
About thirty players from our #ICTpickleball family traveled to St. Louis last week to compete in the 2021 USA Pickleball Middle States Regional Championships. My friend Karen Fox rode with Brian and me. We left Wichita first thing in the morning and arrived in St. Louis around three in the afternoon. When we arrived, Dave New had already scoped out the location and grabbed the perfect spot for our crew.
They converted the Dwight Davis Tennis Center into 40 pickleball courts and we set up our #ICTpickleball base camp in the grassy area right by court 27. We really had the best spot there because it had great access to all of the courts and was pretty much the only grassy area available. We also grabbed one of the picnic tables tucked under the bleachers and moved it to Dave’s tent canopy, and claimed it as seating for those in our group who flew to St. Louis (instead of driving up) and couldn’t bring their lawn chairs.
Here’s a picture of the early crew. Besides claiming a spot for Dave’s canopy, we also decided to play a few practice games.
After playing some games with my #ICTpickleball fam, Brian and I went to meet “my friend I hadn’t met yet” Kat Tomlin at Des Peres Park. The park only has three pickleball courts but they are lighted and beautiful. The park itself is expansive and amazing and is a real neighborhood gem. The park is so nice that if I were looking for a house to buy in St. Louis, I would totally pick that area.
I made all sorts of new friends on this trip. This is Bob Myers, a pickleball player from Texas who also knows my friend Rodel Chiu who is another friend who falls under the “friend I haven’t met yet” category.
Here’s a picture of me and my friend Tiffany Lesperance on singles day.
These are Ramon Lozano and Kyle Starkel (aka Nick Soapdish). Ramon is from Hays but we claim him as part of our extended #ICTpickleball family.
My friend Kat and I decided to wear our navy Lucy Kovalova FILA pickleball outfits and be matchy matchy on singles day. It’s still fun to twin even though we weren’t actually playing together.
They had a roving professional photographer at the tournament who snapped this picture of me while I was playing one of my matches. I thought it was cool that you could see Kat in her matching outfit in the background.
This is the Women’s Singles 3.5 50+ podium picture with Karen taking Gold and Tiffany taking Bronze. Singles was a good day for our group, despite the afternoon portion of the tournament being pushed to the next day due to sudden torrential downpour. We took home ten medals altogether — 4 Gold medals, 3 Silver medals, and 3 Bronze medals. You can see the full results tally here.
Anyway, because of the rain, they canceled all of the matches for the rest of the day so Erica and I didn’t get our singles medals until the next day. Since the rain put a damper on things (literally, no one could play pickleball because it was pouring outside and the courts were wet), a bunch of us decided to get some BBQ instead.
Friday was Women’s Doubles day and our group did pretty decent. Karen and Jenny (Cole) took Bronze in 3.5 35+ division.
Jen Reifschneider and Jennifer Tiano (together they are known as “The Jens”) took Silver in 3.5 19+ division.
Laurie Newton and her partner Karen Fielding took Bronze in 3.5 50+ division.
While Erica and I took Bronze in the 3.0 35+ division. I thought it worked out great that all the ladies played in different divisions so we weren’t all competing for the same medals. We all had an opportunity to reach the podium in our respective groups without having to fight one of our friends for it.
I really liked their magnet board where you could tell which referee is assigned to which court and which refs are available or on break at a given moment.
Saturday was Mixed Doubles day. The roving photographer got some pictures of me and my partner Chris Wilson.
We marked our spot with a Wichita flag to make our group easy to find for #ICTpickleball players arriving later that week. I love this pic because the ladies were all sporting their Chicken N Pickle gear.
We were more spread out early in the day but then we had to move everything (and everyone) under the canopy when it started raining.
Just some of our group trying to stay dry.
Picture of me with Erica and Karen.
Friday was a cold and wet women’s doubles day.
Brian, pretty much the entire time we were there. LOL.
Saturday was mixed doubles day. Here’s a pic of Tiffany and Donnie. They earned Gold in mixed 3.5 50+ division. You can see the full results tally here.
This was such a fun trip. We get to do it all again when we go to the Great Plains Regional Championships in Colorado in a few weeks. Stay tuned for pics from that. Until then, GNG.
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St. Louis BBQ
Posted on June 2, 2021 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
While in St. Louis this past weekend, we had the opportunity to try a couple of BBQ joints. The first place we tried was Pappy’s Smokehouse.
Pappy’s supposedly has the best ribs in America, according to the Food Network. We decided to all go there on Thursday after the tournament got rained out. All the matches that didn’t complete were pushed to the next day. As for us, we decided to use the time to grab some St. Louis BBQ.
Pappy’s had a specific seating process whereby you can’t get seated until after you’ve placed your order and you can’t order until all of your party is present. As some of the people in our group were getting hangry, we decided to send four people in at a time since their tables were mostly four-tops.
We sent Ramon, Dave, Karen, and Erica ahead of us while we waited for Tiffany and Donnie and the others. The others turned out to be just Ben because Kyle changed his mind and decided not to meet us at Pappy’s.
I think Ben stepped away for a work phone call when this picture was taken.
Here are some pictures of our food. Everything was delicious.
Since they are known for their ribs, I decided to order a half rack and try it. The ribs were excellent and very flavorful, even without additional BBQ sauce.
Salt + Smoke in Delmar is the other BBQ restaurant we tried. Theirs is also really good BBQ. The Salt + Smoke atmosphere is more upscale and they have individually wrapped BBQ sauces as a safety precaution.
Only four of us – Karen, Chris, Brian and me – went this time.
Here are some pictures of our food.
I decided to order ribs again because I wanted to compare them. The dry rub at Salt + Smoke is excellent and the ribs were absolutely perfect; however, I found that I liked Pappy’s ribs better because Salt + Smoke’s ribs had a spicy kick which I think most people like but I didn’t much care for.
The fries at Salt + Smoke were definitely way better than Pappy’s and the freshly baked popover bread was a really nice touch. I also enjoyed my mac and cheese a lot. Overall, as far as food goes, I think Salt + Smoke is better, but I liked Pappy’s ribs much more.
I’m sure the others would have liked to continue the St. Louis BBQ tour and try a few more places but I was quite happy with having tried two of them. We didn’t have much time for outings or other touristy things since I was focused on the pickleball tournament so I guess we will just have to go back and do those things next time. Until then, GNG.
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Final Dinner in Delray Beach
Posted on April 5, 2021 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
We walked by DADA’s beautiful patio everyday walking to and from the tennis center and our hotel. I really wanted to eat there at some point during the trip but they were always so busy.
Unfortunately, these patio pics are as close as we got to eating there.
We were going to El Camino again on our last night because we wanted good, affordable food and cheap happy hour drinks but they were crazy busy. I think the wait was 45 minutes to an hour. As many great restaurants as there are in the area, we figured that we could probably find an equally good place with a lot less of a wait but we actually walked for a long while before we settled on a place because nothing seemed to appeal to Brian.
We ended up eating at Amar Mediterranean Bistro because the aroma of the food wafting from the restaurant onto the street smelled amazing. Also, they could get us in right then. Sometimes you question how good a place is if there’s not a wait but we saw dozens and dozens of carry out bags waiting to be picked up so we took that as a good sign. Plus, I decided to trust my nose. There is no way that food that smells is good can be terrible.
I’m so glad we did. This was probably the best Mediterranean food I’d ever tasted. I wasn’t really sure what was different about their hummus but it was better than any other hummus I’d ever had. Also, the house-made bread was so fresh and warm. We really could have filled up just on hummus and bread alone.
They also brought out this thing that was like crunchy strips of bread served with this thick yogurt thing.
Brian and I decided to share the mixed grill for dinner. It’s basically a plate of chicken, beef, and kafta (lamb) kebabs. I’m glad that we decided to share the entree because we were both really stuffed from the hummus. Even sharing, we still had plenty leftover. I would have felt bad for wasting so much food.
Here’s a picture of Brian enjoying the fried kibbeh, which is another reason why we were so full by the time we got around to our entree.
We found out that Amar had only been open a month. I think that’s why it wasn’t as crowded. Not enough people knew of its existence yet. The food was fantastic, though. I’m pretty sure the lines are out the door and around the block these days.
I am so happy that we found this place. I highly recommend it for if you’re ever in the area. We would totally dine there again if we find ourselves back in Delray Beach. That’s all for now. Until next time. GNG.
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Our Dinner at Deck 84
Posted on April 4, 2021 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
We passed by Deck 84, a cute restaurant next to the water, on our walk to the beach. The visitor’s center had 10% OFF cards for the restaurant so that kind of clinched the deal. I wanted to check it out anyway because it reminded me so much of Skipper’s Dock, so the discount was just icing on the cake.
PRO SAVINGS TIP: When visiting a new place, always swing by the visitor’s center because they usually have all sorts of coupons and deals.
Here’s a picture of Deck 84 from the Atlantic Avenue bridge.
One of the neat things about this restaurant is that you can dock your boat and grab a quick bite. I suppose there are probably many places like this in Florida but it seemed notable to me as we don’t really have places like these in Wichita.
If you’ve been fishing, they’ll even cook your catch for you!
We came on foot, rather than by boat, but we had to take a dock selfie.
We decided to sit outside to enjoy the beautiful weather as well as the view of the fancy yachts and various other boats cruising on by.
The two sides of the bridge occasionally part to allow the bigger boats passage. And then as soon as the bridge is back together, you’d see a steady stream of people walk across. We saw it happen a few times while we were dining. It’s really neat.
With COVID, a lot of restaurants really aren’t doing physical menus any longer. Most places have QR codes on the table that you can scan with your phone to view their menu online. Deck 84 was no different. However, they didn’t have a paper menu with daily specials.
Here’s a picture of that drink listed at the bottom called “The Siren.” I’m not a huge fan of paying $13 for a drink but I figured what the heck. We’re on vacation.
I ordered the shrimp mac n’ cheese for dinner.
Brian ordered a basket of fries and the empanada listed on the paper menu.
The empanada was not what we expected. I think Brian was expecting something like a Mexican empanada. This one had a strange filling. It was almost like a shepherd’s pie wrapped in an empanada. Brian said it wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t good either. LOL.
Our server explained that they normally have the Mexican kind but they made special empanadas for St. Patrick’s Day and they didn’t realize that was the kind they had on the menu. Brian and I wondered if these were leftover from St. Patrick’s Day and they were trying to get rid of them. It was an unpleasant thought but a clever way to get rid of excess food inventory.
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After we had this conversation, Brian decided he liked the empanada even less. I mean, we were there on a Friday — two whole days after St. Patty’s Day. It seemed kind of gross. It really sucked because, up until this point, we were really enjoying our Deck 84 experience. I liked my mac n’ cheese and my drink was pretty good (expensive, but that’s how much drinks are at nice restaurants are — unless you happen to be there for happy hour) and the service wasn’t bad. Maybe they weren’t leftover empanadas and we’re just imagining all of it.  |
 Outside of the empanada thing, I really liked the place. I liked that they are super dog-friendly and even have a special menu just for your fur-babies. They have an entire section on this on their website with an extensive list of dos and don’ts for pet owners (I’m assuming, because dogs don’t know how to read or own phones). Based on the list of chef-prepared dog entrees, I’m guessing these pooches are quite spoiled. |
Overall, I’m glad we stopped here for early dinner. Brian might feel differently but I actually liked what I got and I thought it was a neat experience. Whenever I’m out of town, I’m always looking to dine at places that aren’t available at home. Deck 84 checks that box for sure. Until next time. GNG.
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