Archive for "Travel"
Chocolate Kingdom
Posted on August 11, 2017 by Ching under Things to Do, Travel.
Since Brian and I arrived in Orlando a day earlier than usual, we decided to do some exploring. We found this place called Chocolate Kingdom conveniently located across from the Orange County Convention Center. Anyway, we’ve been coming to #ZINCON for several years and we didn’t even know this place existed. I suppose this is because (a) we’ve never really had that much time to spend exploring and (b) it’s kind of tucked behind the Walgreens, which we have never, ever ventured beyond.
Apparently, Sarah was familiar with the place because it’s right across from the Red Roof Inn where she and her convention roomies usually stay but the running joke is, because the of the business’ nondescript façade, it’s some kind of front for some sketchy operation. Yeah, we probably watch too many movies. Jokes aside, they do kind of need to work on their storefront more than a smidge.
The business looks pretty legit once you’re inside. It’s just the outside that looks sketchy. LOL. Besides taking a tour, you can also purchase various truffles. They have lots of different kinds to choose from.
A tour had just started when we got there but they were nice enough to let us join the one that was in progress. They next one wouldn’t have been for another hour or so. Honestly, I’m not sure we would have gone through with the tour had we not be able to do it right then and there.
Our tour guide told us that we hadn’t really missed anything, just a little cartoon where the prince talks about the chocolate shoes and all of that.
The tour, which talks about how you end up with a chocolate bar from a cacao bean, is definitely geared for children. They have little cartoon videos they play at each point of the tour.
Here are a few pictures of our tour guide.
The interactive parts of the tour included shooting marshmallows into the dragon, eating a candy-coated cacao bean, drinking a weird chocolate concoction similar to how it would have been served in the early days when chocolate was first discovered, and sampling some chocolates as we went.
Some of the other things we tasted were a bit iffy but I was definitely not averse to sampling the processed chocolate.
We got to taste some dark, milk, and white chocolate shoes.
This is one of the old school tools that they use to process the chocolate and turn it into something delicious for us all to enjoy.
Incidentally, chocolate – whether white, milk, or dark – has some pretty basic ingredients. You can see them listed in the photo above. High quality chocolate doesn’t require much. Unfortunately, chocolate makers these days add a bunch of other fillers. So, remember, the fewer ingredients the better.
At the end of the tour, you can purchase one of these delicious candy bars that they make right before your eyes. You can also customize them to add your favorite mix-ins. Brian and I didn’t buy any though, because we were pretty much eating chocolate (various forms of it) throughout the factory tour.
That’s pretty much the story of our Chocolate Kingdom tour. Before I sign off though, I’m leaving you with this: here are top ten reasons to feel great about eating chocolate. Enjoy!
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Hyatt Regency Orlando – Our Home Away From Home
Posted on August 7, 2017 by Ching under Travel, Zumba.
When I received this email from the Hyatt Regency Orlando a few days before our trip, I knew we were in good hands. I didn’t have status this year because I hadn’t been working in Topeka and earning any World of Hyatt points but somehow I still got assigned one of the exclusive floors when I checked in on my Hyatt app.
Brian is super spoiled and partial to the corner rooms so, naturally, he asks for one during check in. She manages to find one for us and — surprise of all surprises — it’s the exact same room that we stayed in last year.
When we walked in, the room (and the amazing pool view) felt oddly familiar. I actually looked up our hotel bill from last year to be sure.
It was indeed the very same room.
Last year we got it because I was a Platinum rewards member. We actually got a few extras last year (like the complimentary access to the Regency Club Lounge where you get free food and booze all day long) that we didn’t get this year because I no longer had my status. I think we got the same corner room completely by accident. However, now that we’ve had it twice Brian is convinced that we should specifically ask for it again next year. Of course, I’m pretty sure that the minute that we specifically ask for our favorite room, we won’t get it. That’s how it usually works, anyway. So now my mission for the next year is to stay at only Hyatt properties as much as possible so I can rack up some points and earn my status back.
I didn’t have status and the Regency Club Lounge which is $75 a day extra was completely sold out so we didn’t have access to the free breakfast, snacks, hors d’oeuvres, and drinks this year. However, they did give me this 20% OFF card which came in super handy because it gave us discounts to all of the restaurants at the hotel including the onsite Starbucks. We used the heck out of that card!
Oh, I forgot to mention that we brought Snowman with us. It’s this dancing snowman that’s been going on trips with various work people for years. Snowman has his own album and everything.
I think Snowman enjoyed the magnificent views from our room just as much as we did.
One of the best parts of our favorite room is the magnificent sunsets. Brian and I actually got to enjoy it one night. We turned our chairs around to face the wall and just sat there drinking wine as the sun slowly disappeared into the horizon. Unfortunately, that was the only night I got to watch the sunset because I was super busy the rest of convention.
I’m not sure if Brian sat there and watched more sunsets during the rest of our stay. He certainly had enough time to do so. Since he was just hanging out and not actually attending convention, his schedule was much more leisurely than mine and consisted mainly of drinking beers and lounging poolside.
Anyway, we just love staying at Hyatt Regency Orlando. They always take such good care of you — with or without status. I hope our luck holds out and we get the same room again next year!
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We’ve Been to Dog Heaven and It’s in Anchorage
Posted on June 20, 2017 by Ching under Travel.
I forgot to mention the best part about SpringHill Suites Anchorage University Lake. There’s an amazing dog park next door and we were told it’s the best in the area. After walking the trail several times, we have to agree.
Here’s a map of the lake that shows the trails and the areas where the dogs can be off-leash. The dog park more suitable for well-behaved dogs though, because it’s completely open with no fences. It’s beautiful but I’m not quite sure how our dogs would fare. We’d probably need to train them really well first.
One of our favorite things while in Anchorage was to walk around the lake every morning after breakfast. There were always lots of friendly dogs around which made us really miss Molly and Saki.
There was no shortage of happy dogs and friendly pet owners.
I had to take pictures of the dog park because it’s the most beautiful park I’d ever seen. Most of the dog parks around here are just fenced grassy areas. This was nature at its finest.
Our surroundings were so breathtaking we had to take a bunch of selfies!
The park is so huge that, even though it’s frequented by lots of visitors (humans and dogs), it never felt overcrowded.
It wasn’t unusual to see dogs roaming about freely with their owners either lagging behind or walking ahead.
This is the part of the lake opposite our hotel. You can kind of see the building through the trees.
The dog park is amazing with breathtaking scenery but wasn’t without risks. There were signs like this in certain parts, which was a bit scary but we never did run into any moose — aggressive or otherwise.
It was pretty cold the entire time that we were in Alaska but it didn’t keep us from enjoying our daily walks around the lake. We loved meeting all the friendly dogs and people. Not only did we get our daily allotment of physical activity, we also got our daily doggy fix.
The sun finally came out on our last day in Alaska so we at least had one jacket-free day and we enjoyed the dog park even more.
We cannot recommend this hotel enough. It would have been way cooler if we had Molly and Saki with us but you’ll love staying at the hotel whether or not you have your fur-babies with you.
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SpringHill Suites Anchorage University Lake
Posted on June 18, 2017 by Ching under Travel.
Brian and I found the best hotel in Anchorage. The hotel is fabulous for so many reasons but the best part is that we didn’t pay a dime for our four-night stay.
We chose to stay at SpringHill Suites Anchorage University Lake for our Memorial weekend Alaska getaway for a couple of reasons. First, I had earned a bunch of Marriott rewards points from working in Kansas City that were finally available to use and I had just the right amount of points for this hotel. Second, the hotel is conveniently located ten minutes from the Orbases place in Anchorage.
Once we got there, however, it quickly became clear that there are so many more reasons to choose this hotel when in Anchorage.
The hotel sits on University Lake so most rooms have fabulous views of the lake behind the hotel and the mountains beyond.
Here’s the view outside our hotel window.
Our room was both spacious and cozy. Here are some pictures.
A built-in desk separated our couch/hang-out area from the bed/sleeping area.
The built-in desk has a sliding partition that you can open or close which is convenient for when one of you wants to work and the other wants to sleep.
The decor of the room is modern and minimalist with functional furnishings.
The bed was quite comfortable and, thanks to blackout shades and heavy curtains, we had no trouble sleeping despite the 18+ hours of daylight.
Here’s another view of our room from the opposite vantage point.
The European-style bathroom configuration seemed odd at first, but it was consistent with the minimalist, modern vibe.
What I mean by European-style is the toilet is in a separate room instead of being in the same same room as the shower. You can see our shower area on the right and our toilet area to the left of it.
The toilet and shower are right next to one another but they are separate, self-contained, little rooms with their own doors. Here’s what the toilet area looks like.
The hotel also has a decent fitness center.
Here are pictures of the contemporary lobby.
I liked that there are power outlets everywhere.
The power outlets are scattered throughout the lobby area.
This is the courtyard behind the hotel with the giant fire pit.
The gate leads to the trail that goes around University Lake.
Here’s Brian enjoying some sunshine out in the courtyard.
Besides the beautiful scenery, fitness center, and pool, other key hotel amenities included free wifi, free breakfast, and free suckers at the concierge desk. These weren’t just any ol’ suckers, though. These were Chupa Chups, the kind I grew up with. This was Brian’s first time trying Chupa Chups and he absolutely loved them. He even brought some back home to Wichita.
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Moose’s Tooth Pub & Pizzeria
Posted on June 18, 2017 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
Our eating times were all sorts of jacked up when we were in Alaska. We were eating lunch and dinner at random times. I guess when there is no night time it’s not that unusual to eat dinner at 9 or 10 o’clock in the evening because it doesn’t feel like it’s that late outside.
Moose’s Tooth is where we ended up eating a late lunch after our Thunder Bird Falls adventure. Thunder Bird Falls is a nice trail really close to Anchorage in Chugiak, Alaska. It’s a pretty easy hike and easy to get to as well. It’s only about 25-minutes from Anchorage. Once you’re there, you can go up to view the waterfall from afar or you can take the creekside trail and get close to the waterfall.
We didn’t do that much hiking and we stopped plenty of times to take photos so it wasn’t like we were exhausted or anything, but we were starving nonetheless. So we decided to go to Moose’s Tooth for a late lunch.
Here’s what the restaurant looks like inside.
It’s kind of neat and it’s very popular with tourists and locals alike. We had to wait 30-40 minutes to be seated.
Here’s a picture of Sheryll with the kiddos that I took while we were waiting. The pretty girl next to Cameron is his girlfriend. She went on the hikes with us.
Moose’s Tooth is known for their handcrafted pizzas but they also have great salads. This is the spicy buffalo chicken salad.
There were lots of salad choices and they all sounded delicious.
I really wanted to try the raspberry vinaigrette salad because the descriptions sounds very similar to the summer salad that I love at the Yard House which they have removed from the menu. I was really disappointed when they did that.
Anyhow, the fat girl in me won. I was dying to try Moose’s Tooth pizza so I skipped the salad. One side of the menu is dedicated entirely to pizzas. Most pizzerias that I’ve been to will have two or three chicken pizza options. Moose’s Tooth had a dozen. They also had over a dozen regular meat options. There’s also more than a handful vegetarian pizza options. Something new that I hadn’t seen anywhere is a seafood pizza, which I now kind of wish I’d tried.
They have a very impressive menu.
We ordered three different pizzas. I believe this is the brewhouse favorite, which consists of Italian and chorizo sausage, sun-dried tomatoes, red onions, mozzarella, provolone, parmesan, and Denali sauce. This was Clayton’s pick.
This is the carnivore, which is the flavor that Brian and I really wanted. The carnivore consists of bacon, Canadian bacon, pepperoni, ground beef, Italian sausage, mozzarella, provolone, and marinara sauce.
This is the avalanche pizza, which is what the kids really wanted. The avalanche has pepperoni, blackened chicken, bacon, red onions, parsley, cheddar, mozzarella, provolone, and barbecue sauce.
We got the carnivore and avalanche in the largest size we could get and the brewhouse favorite in their medium size, which is also pretty big. I really wanted to the avalanche and the brewhouse but I got pretty full after one slice of the giant carnivore pizza.
I may or may not have tried to force a second slice down my throat. I couldn’t help it. It was so good! LOL.
The problem with going to a restaurant when you’re starving is, just like when you’re at the grocery store hungry, you end up ordering way more food than you can eat. This is what happened to us. The carnivore and avalanche pizzas were enormous. We probably should have been more strategic when ordering rather than just listening to our bellies. Anyway, we packed up almost half of all our food and sent it home with the Orbases. This works perfectly because growing kids eat a lot so they had plenty of leftover pizza to munch on over the next couple of days.
So what’s the verdict? I really loved Moose’s Tooth pizza. The wait was totally worth it. Their pizza is super good — some of the best I’d had. I highly recommend dining at the restaurant when you’re in Anchorage.
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