Archive for "Travel"
Old Stove Brewing Company
Posted on July 16, 2025 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
Here are some pics from our dinner at Old Stove.
We chose this place because of its nice, waterfront location and proximity to our hotel. It was an easy 15-minute walk. It also had pretty good reviews.
When I was in Mexico in November, I met a guy named Jim Tsen. He happens to live in Seattle. When I told him about our cruise, he agreed to meet us. Since Brian sat out of the Mexico trip, they never got to meet until now. Jim is sitting next to Brian in these pics.
We had big group and we weren’t sure what everyone was doing for dinner so logistics was a bit tricky. As luck would have it, the rest of our group managed to get a table next to ours but they were outside on that patio.
I ordered the “create your own beer” flight.
But Brian already knew what he wanted and just went for it.
Here are some food pics. I honestly cannot remember who ordered what but these are the pics of food from Old Stove.
That’s all for now. Stay tuned for more trip recaps!
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The Edgewater Hotel
Posted on July 14, 2025 by Ching under Family, Food and Drink, Travel.
Brian and I had an opportunity to stay at this cute boutique hotel on the water the night before embarkation, the Edgewater. Our room was lovely and we really enjoyed our stay.
I really wanted to take the bear with me but didn’t for a couple of reasons: we didn’t really want to spend the money and we didn’t leave room for much else in our suitcases. That bear was really cute, though!
Everyone in our group pretty much stayed on the same floor of the hotel. Brian’s parents had a room with a balcony facing the pier same as ours. This is the view of our balcony from their room.
This is the view of their balcony from our room. They had a bigger room and better balcony as you can see.
Our hotel is located next to Pier 66 which is the Norwegian Cruise Lines cruise port. There was actually an Oceania ship there on Thursday morning, our embarkation day. I had to take a pic, naturally.
The hotel is home to Six Seven, a very nice restaurant with amazing views of the water.
Brian and I had breakfast with his parents there on embarkation day.
Lorin and Sandy, who are part of our travel group, had breakfast there the same morning at a separate table.
Here are some pictures of our food…
This was hands down the best crab cakes benedict I’d ever eaten. I had one at Another Broken Egg about a week before we left which I thought was pretty good and it didn’t hold a candle to this one.
I could not believe the huge chunks of crab meat that they gave me.
I think everyone else enjoyed their meals also but mine was the best for sure. It was sooo good!
My hot chocolate was also very good.
Their table decor consisted of single flower in a vase which was a nice touch but Brian and I liked that they served homemade preserves in cute little jars.
Even the honey came that way.
All in all we had a lovely stay. We really enjoyed the hotel and would stay there again next time we’re in the area. What about you all? What hotels do you recommend in Seattle?
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Cruising Alaska
Posted on July 11, 2025 by Ching under Family, Travel.
Brian and I went to visit the Orbases in Anchorage back in 2017 so this wasn’t our first trip to Alaska. This was, however, our first Alaska cruise. Neither Brian nor I are not huge cruisers. We have been on a few in the past but they were all to warm, tropical destinations. An Alaska cruise really wasn’t on our radar, that is, until we got older. This type of cruise seems to be a rite of passage as you get older. It’s very popular with the over 50 demographic. LOL.
Being the “joiner” that I am, when I found out about Jay and Becca’s Alaska cruise last year, I wanted to be part of it (despite not being a huge fan of cruises). Brian was over 50 now after all and, with me being nearly there, we fit the profile. Plus, we wanted to do something special for celebrating his getting through all his cancer treatments and getting a clear final PET scan and also June is his birthday month and I still felt like we didn’t do anything big enough on his 50th last year so I’m still kind of making up for it in my mind. I also wanted him to get to do some traveling since he missed out on the Mexico trip last year.
After I got back from Tres, I put our down payment on the cruise. Brian wasn’t thrilled at first. He had just started his cancer treatments and wasn’t really feeling the best. He wasn’t sure he would be well enough and feel up to traveling. The end of June would have been well over six months since the start of his cancer treatment journey and at least three months post. I figured it was a safe bet and I had complete faith.
As Brian’s treatments were winding down and he began to get his energy back, he started to get more excited about our trip. But the most excited he got was probably the day before our flight to Seattle when he met with his oncologist to review the results of his final PET scan from the previous week – ALL CLEAR! Only CT scans from here on out. His doctors will continue to monitor him for the next five years but all signs point to a very successful treatment. We were thrilled. And, with that cloud no longer looming over our heads, I think Brian was finally able to let go and relax a bit and really allow himself to be excited for our Alaska cruise adventure.
Before I dive in to the trip recap, I have to mention that both of our parents went on the trip also. I suppose this was a bucket list item for all of us. It was a first cruise for my mom and dad and Brian’s parents recently celebrated their 52nd wedding anniversary on June 2 so this was basically an anniversary celebration trip for them. Brian and I were celebrating the conclusion of his cancer treatment journey and also his 51st birthday (a bit belated because it was on June 13) so there was plenty to celebrate all the way around.
Our adventure started in Seattle where Jay and Becca booked our group at the Edgewater Hotel for a pre-cruise stay the day before embarkation. It is a lovely hotel on the pier and we really enjoyed staying there.
Dinner on Wednesday night, the eve of our cruise embarkation day, was at Old Stove Brewing Company. Jim Tsen, a friend I made at Tres Palapas in Mexico back in November met us for dinner. Since Brian didn’t get to go on that trip, this was their first time meeting one another.
The next morning we woke up to a giant Oceania cruise ship next to our balcony.
After a nice, leisurely breakfast with Brian’s parents at Six Seven (on site restaurant at the Edgewater), it was time to board the shuttle and head to our ship. The Edgewater is next to the Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) port but it was much further from the Carnival cruise port. If I had to do this again, I would sail with NCL and stay at Edgewater so then I could just walk to the ship the next day for embarkation. By the way, I am going to write separate posts about the restaurant so stay tuned for those.
Embarkation was quick and smooth. We were aboard the ship within minutes. However, staterooms were still being flipped from the previous cruisers so, despite getting on the ship super early, we weren’t able to get into our rooms until 1:30 PM.
Here’s our full cruise itinerary:
- June 26, Thursday – Seattle (Embarkation Day)
- June 27, Friday – Fun Day at Sea
- June 28, Saturday – Endicott Arm Fjord (this was supposed to be Tracy Arm Fjord but we had to reroute for safety reasons)
- June 29, Sunday – Skagway
- June 30, Monday – Juneau
- July 1, Tuesday – Ketchikan
- July 2, Wednesday – Victoria, BC
- July 3, Thursday – Seattle (Debarkation Day)
I am actually contemplating writing a post about each of these stops because there is just way too much to recap in one blog entry.
In the meantime, I will leave you with this montage of pictures and videos taken while we were on the cruise ship. Until next time. Have a fantastic weekend, everyone!
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Nice Dinners in Los Barriles
Posted on December 25, 2024 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
Pictures from two of our dinners in Los Barriles. We wouldn’t have been able to go to these fabulous restaurants as easily without our new friend Jim who happened to have a rental car. They fon’t have Uber or Lift in Los Barriles. They have something called DiDi but I wasn’t really keen on downloading a new app. Anyway, we made his five-seater SUV work by putting me in the trunk.
The first set of pictures is from La Terraza, this fantastic Italian restaurant downtown. The place isn’t very big and we got lucky that we arrived at just the right time. We got a perfect table next to the road. It was great in a way because it felt like we were dining outside but also weird in that we heard everything going on out on the street down below. There was lots of honking that night. Not sure what it was about but almost every single vehicle that passed by the restaurant honked.
Here are some pics of our food and drinks.
Julie said this is the best chicken parm she’d ever had and I thought the was over-exaggerating until I had a bite. I had to agree. The breaded chicken was cooked to perfection and had a nice crunch to it.
My dinner (pictured above) was great and I absolutely loved their flan.
Obligatory group selfie outside the restaurant…
The next night, our group went to La Playa. It’s a super cute restaurant along the beach where we enjoyed some pretty drinks and more delicious food.
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I ordered the flan here as well for comparison. I liked the flan they serve at La Terraza better.
This place has the better view and location though, and they give you your bill in these cute boxes. I almost wanted to take mine with me.
Picture of Julie and Brady at dinner.
The stray dogs are everywhere and they are absolutely adorable. I would have adopted this one if only I had a way to bring him home.
I’m thinking I want to go back in an RV that way we can smuggle all the stray dogs across the border and give them homes. The dogs were so sweet and I felt really bad thinking of them just roaming around without owners to take care of them.
Anyway that’s all for now. Hope you are having a wonderful Christmas. Until next time!
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Los Barriles 2024
Posted on December 19, 2024 by Ching under Food and Drink, Pickleball, Travel.
I’ve tagged this post with the year because I’m pretty sure this will be just the first of many trips to Los Barriles. Los Barriles is a town in Baja California Sur known for its kite surfing and other activities. It is very popular with North American expats, specifically Canadians. Many “snowbirds” from the US also vacation or winter there. It’s a great destination to escape the cold.
I first heard about this area because of Tres Palapas Pickleball Resort. Tyson McGuffin, and many other pickleball pros, have hosted clinics and camps there. I’d been wanting to check out Tres Palapas for a few years but, with Brian not being as into pickleball as I am, I wanted to go with a group that would actually play with me and make the most of the experience.
Then I found two couples who seemed as excited about going as I was (Susie and Grant Ternes and Chandi and Greg Bongers). We started talking more seriously about going around this time last year. We had talked about it some off and on in 2023 but I didn’t really think they were serious until about this time last year. After a couple of planning meetings and multiple email threads, we put down the deposit for our rental house in January. The host basically split the cost into two payments, half down and then the other half due about 2-3 weeks before arrival. We got a heck of a deal on our house because we booked so far in advance. During the summer, maybe May or June time frame, we found out that Chandi and Greg would not be able to go so I was trying to look for another house for us — perhaps a smaller house for just two couples instead of our current 3 bedroom and 3 bath one. The rates had gone up quite a bit for the dates we were looking at. Some of the alternative houses I found would cost more and weren’t as nice as our original one. Even our original one was renting for $2200 around those dates and we had booked at $1800. After discussing our options with Susie and Grant, we decided we wanted to keep the house and just look for another couple to take Chandi and Greg’s room. And, even if we couldn’t find another couple, we liked the house enough we didn’t really mind splitting the cost of their portion.
As luck would have it, Julie Egy and Brady Randall agreed to go on the trip with us taking Chandi and Greg’s place so I was able to give Chandi her $300 back from January. Anyway, this house was a fantastic deal at just $600 per couple for the full length of our stay. The house is called Casa De Los Pescadores Grande and I highly recommend booking it if you ever want to visit Tres Palapas because it’s only a 4 minute walk to the pickleball courts and, if you walk the same distance in the opposite direction, you get to the beach.
Check out this highlight video I made of the house.
You might notice Brian isn’t in the video. He ended up not going on the trip. We kind of had a knee-jerk reaction when he was diagnosed with cancer and canceled his flight, thinking the he would already be in cancer treatment on the dates of our trip. Because it was challenging for us to find another couple to take Chandi and Greg’s spot, Brian and I decided that I should still go that way the rest of the group wouldn’t have to find another couple to take our place specially so close to the trip. Also, I was the one who orchestrated this whole adventure and so for me to back out would not be the best thing. As it turns out, due to delays with getting insurance approvals, Brian’s cancer treatment didn’t actually begin until mid-November so he totally could have gone on the trip with us. We didn’t know any of this would happen when we were trying to make decisions, though. Besides that, Brian was not the most enthused about the trip to begin with so I’m thinking at least part of him was somewhat relieved that he didn’t have to go.
And now for the trip recap… The pic above is of our group at the Denver gate, which is where our layover was for our flight to San Jose del Cabo. The trip started out fine. The flight from Wichita was on time and, while we were waiting, they offered to gate-check carry-on bags to final destination for free. I typically do not go for this because I don’t have a lot of faith in the airlines but I was like, “What could go wrong?” I welcomed not having to deal with my carry-on during the layover (transferring it from one overhead bin to another and having to lug while transferring terminals/gates). We all decided to gate-check.
Our first obstacle happened in Denver. There was a snow and, as much snow as they get in Denver, I was amazed they were not prepared for this situation. There were flight delays all over the place. Our flight from Wichita arrived on time but we were stuck on the tarmac for several minutes because the plane at our arrival gate was delayed in leaving. Our pilot obviously could not park our plane at the gate until that other plane has left. We weren’t really concerned about the delay at first because Brian baked in a super long layover in Denver in case of delays just like this one and, I was thinking, if we needed to book it to our departure gate, at least I didn’t have my carry-on to weigh me down. I wasn’t really looking forward to running but I could tolerate it since I didn’t have to deal with my roller bag. However, part of me was hoping and praying it wouldn’t come to that.
Thirty minutes later, the plane at our gate still hadn’t left and we were seriously cutting into our buffer. The pilot announced we received a new gate assignment. There was another plane that left their gate and so our plane was going to park at that gate instead. However, there were a bunch of other planes all in a line so we were in a bit of a traffic jam. The pilot had to wait for some of the other planes to clear out so he could turn the plane around and head to the new gate. At this point, boarding for our next flight was about to begin and we were still stuck in the plane from Wichita on the tarmac. I was actually starting to worry.
We got off the plane as quickly as we could and headed to the other terminal. Everyone ran most of the way and my short legs couldn’t keep up even with jogging most of the way. I did take some walking breaks because I am entirely too out of shape to be running. Brady was nice and kind of hung back a bit to keep tabs on me. Anyway, we finally make to the gate only to find out that our plane to Cabo is also delayed. It would have been nice to know this ahead of time so we didn’t kill ourselves trying to get to the gate.
At another gate, they announced a passengers name on the PA. It was final boarding call and this passenger was nowhere to be found. I thought to myself, “If the guy came from our flight and had to run, he probably suffered a heart attack running to the gate and that’s why he hasn’t made it.”
We were looking at about an hour delay on our departure so I contacted the host to notify the driver picking us up at the airport in Cabo to take us to the house so that they wouldn’t be stuck at the airport waiting for us. On top of the departure delay, we were also delayed getting out of the airpor because guess what — my carry-one that I gate-checked to final destination did not make it on the plane and was instead put on a plane to Houston. Seriously. WTF? Everyone else’s checked bags made it but mine. I guess the shit show in Denver was a lot crazier than I could have ever imagined.
After I filled out the lost luggage form (as best I could because addresses in Los Barriles are just as bad as they are in the Philippines), we were finally outside. We followed our host’s instructions and found our driver where she told us he would be waiting for us. It’s about an hour drive from the airport to Los Barriles and a few minutes drive from town to the house. Since we didn’t have a car, we talked our driver into stopping at Chapitos for a quick grocery run before dropping us off at the house. He was kind enough to oblige. He also stopped at Tres Palapas so we could take a peek before taking us to the house. It worked out great because, after all the delays, we didn’t get into town until about 6:45 PM (we originally expected to be at the house by 3:30-ish at the latest) and, when we stopped at Tres, we found out that their kitchen normally closes at 7 PM. We told them that we were dropping our stuff off at the house and we would be right back for dinner. They were kind enough to keep the kitchen open and feed us on our first night.
Our Fist Night at Tres Palapas
The food was quite good and I would have been perfectly satisfied eating at Tres everyday of our trip. LOL.
The next morning, I went up on the rooftop patio to catch a glimpse of the sunrise. It’s so beautiful and peaceful up there. Also, we were blessed with fabulous weather during our entire stay.
We started our morning with a nice, leisurely breakfast. Not too leisurely though because at about 5 ’til 8 AM I saw a text on my phone from Brandon, one of the guys who runs Tres Palapas. He said he put our group down for the 9 AM open play but wanted to know if we wanted to play in the 8 AM also. After consulting the group, I texted him back yes to both. We wrapped up breakfast and went to Tres and were there shortly after 8. It’s so nice being so close to the courts.
Here’s a picture of us (Brady Randall, Julie Egy, me, and Susie and Grant Ternes) at our first open play at Tres Palapas. Luckily, I had put this outfit in my backpack so I didn’t have to wear the same clothes I had on the day before.
This is Chili, one of the many dogs I met on the trip.
After playing some pickleball, we went back to the house briefly before our group went down to the beach. This is literally how close we were to the water. This is right outside our gate looking in the opposite direction of Tres Palapas.
There are many vacation homes there, most of them probably AirBnBs. These ones were right on the beach.
The main downside of the beach by the house is that it’s quite rocky. If you want to get to a nice sandy beach, you would have to walk quite a ways or hop in a car or ATV to get there.
There are some areas along the beach that aren’t too bad but you do have to get some some boulders to get there.
After that, Julie made us some margaritas and we just hung out at the house.
I had received a call from the airline that they were delivering my bag so at that point, I couldn’t really go anywhere because I wanted to be at the house to accept it. Thankfully, Brady threw his Airtag in my carry-on before we left Wichita so we could get a good sense of when the bag would be delivered.
The language barrier and the lack of good addresses made it super challenging to explain to the airline rep and the driver how to find our house. I finally had to send them a location pin from my phone but, even then, it still was super tricky. When the driver gave me a call and was like, “We’re at the gate.” I was like, “I’m looking at the gate, there’s no one here. Are you at the right house?” Brady pulled up his Airtag and we could see that they were within a one mile radius of us but, when Grant and I went up on the rooftop patio, we could not see them anywhere because they were at the gate of the house behind us. They were blocked from our view by the house. Finally, they were like, “What color is your house?” and then when the car finally came around the corner I was like, “Is that you?” It’s got to be. I ran down the stairs and met them outside. Susie captured the moment with this pic.
Not having a car, supper was at Tres again that night. Here are some more pictures of Tres Palapas food.
Susie got the shrimp festival thing with fettuccine noodles. It’s not even on the menu. You just have to know to order it. We had seen someone have it the night before so she wanted to try it.
We ended our day at Tres and were back there again for open play in the morning. Well, Brady went to play and Julie and I came to watch and have breakfast. I planned to return to the house by 9:30 AM to meet Carlos, the Quad Girl guy. He was delivering our ATV to the house that morning. Tres is not super fast but, because we were so close to the house, I wasn’t really worried about it. We had asked for our bills so we could tab out but it was taking forever. Then we heard the sound of an ATV go by.
Julie was like, “That might be our ATV.” No way, I thought. “Carlos hasn’t texted me yet and surely he would text before he arrives.” No sooner than I had said that, my phone rings. It’s Carlos. It was our ATV! I was like, “We are tabbing out now and will be at the house in two seconds.” He said he could to come to Tres instead. Even better.
By the way, breakfast at Tres is pretty darn good!
Anyway, I hate driving so I did not want to drive the ATV. Thankfully, Grant and Susie were willing to take on this responsibility. Carlos gave Grant a crash course who then gave Susie a crash course on the nuances of our specific ATV. We were taking the ATV back to the house when Susie suddenly goes rogue. “You missed your turn,” Grant tells her. She’s like, “I know. I’m not ready to go to the house yet.” We then take it for a little spin before heading to the house to drop off our stuff and get ready for our “Saturday Market” adventure.
The ATV allowed us to do some exploring that we wouldn’t have otherwise been able to do because they were too far to walk. We followed the directions that we found on various YouTube videos and we get to the plaza where the market normally is only to find no market going on. We were like, “Did we miss it? It’s not even noon yet.” Come to find out we were a week too early. The Saturday markets had not started yet for the season and the first one was scheduled for next Saturday.
While we were walking around looking for the market, we encountered another group also looking for the market and just as surprised at not finding it as we were. They told us about the waterfalls. They told us to drive the ATV into the arroyo and take it as far as we can go. The ground will start to get wet and the path will start to narrow. Once we get to the end, where we can’t take the ATV anymore, we proceed on foot and then keep going until we get to the waterfall.
Here’s a video I made of that adventure.
We actually got to see a couple of waterfalls. Well, mostly Susie because none of us were as fearless as she was making the second hike. While hiking to the first waterfall, we met these two guys Michael and Kim. They told us about another waterfall. At first we thought they were just going to show us the way there but they actually went to the waterfall with us. Kim and Susie did the hike. There’s a portion of it where the rocks are really steep so you have to hang on to a rope for leverage. None of us wanted to risk it except for Susie. It was like one of those, “hold my beer” moments. She and Kim went to the swimming hole. She wasn’t in her swimsuit or she would have probably dove right in with him.
The two guys were super nice and recommended a taco place in downtown Los Barriles. It was the same place another guy we met on the trip, Jim Tsen from Seattle, also highly recommended. We figured we would take advantage of eating there while we had the ATV because we wouldn’t be able to get there any other time. Pictures of our lunch follow.
The restaurant is called El Viejo and they’re only open at lunch. I think what makes the place special is their fresh salsa bar. They have this refrigerated case with all sorts of toppings you can put on your tacos. As soon as you open then door, the fragrant aroma greets your senses. I’m not sure what everyone else liked best but my favorite was definitely the creamy tomato and cilantro salsa thing because it didn’t have any onions.
Anyway, Michael and Kim must really like the place because we ran into them again. They walked in about two minutes before closing. We ended up inviting them to Tres Palapas for happy hour (the margaritas are normally $10 but they do a BOGO during happy hour so they’re essentially $5 each). So the prices at Tres aren’t really cheap. It’s basically the same prices you would find here in the US but you can’t beat the location and the weather, specially this time of year.
I did not expect the two guys to come but they actually did. Here are a couple of pictures of our group at happy hour that night.
The next morning we took advantage of the last few hours of our ATV and drove it to the beach before heading to play pickleball at Tres Palapas.
I made a short video of our adventure.
Later at Tres, I befriended another dog. We called this one “Mini Macy” because of the resemblance to Grant and Susie’s dog.
Julie was our resident mixologist/bartender and made us some more margaritas to enjoy at the house.
We met this guy from Seattle named Jim Tsen. Interestingly enough, he had stayed in the exact same house we were staying in a couple of years before. Since he had been here before, he knew the area quite well. Like all the best places to eat and so forth. And, on top of that, he had a rental car!
We hung out for a bit before we all went downtown to this restaurant called La Terraza. Jim’s rental only seats five so guess who got to sit in the trunk. LOL. We were grateful he was willing to pick us up at our house though because his hotel is actually downtown.
I’ll post about our dining experience in a separate blog entry because this restaurant is worthy of its own post. Though it wasn’t very big, it was actually quite good. Stay tuned for that post!
Here are a couple of group pics we took at La Terraza.
Speaking of pickleball friends that you make randomly while traveling, I met this lady Monica Andersson from Sweden in Naples a couple of years ago. We played singles against each other and I guess I knocked her out of the tournament because that’s what she told me. She is probably correct because I almost medaled in singles. Katie Taylor ended up beating me in the bronze match. Anyway, what are the odds that we would run into each other in Mexico, of all places? Of course we are both pickleball fanatics so maybe it’s not so far-fetched.
On our final full day at Los Barriles, we played some pickleball (that’s when I ran into Monica) and hung out at the house (where we enjoyed some more of Julie’s deliciously refreshing margaritas) before Jim took us to this fancy restaurant called La Playa (sharing some pics here but will write a separate post about this also).
Entering La Playa from the beach…
There is another entrance on the other side. However, a lot of people roll around in their ATVs so it’s not uncommon to enter the restaurant from this side.
Here’s a photo of our group at dinner. After dinner, Jim took us to Sweet Pea’s Tiki Bar & Grill where he has befriended current owners Joe and Fiona. Joe and Fiona sold the bar to another couple who will be taking over effective January 1.
Fiona and Joe (above) and Group Photo (below)
This is our new friend Jim who has been super generous with his time (and rental car) the whole trip. He even offered to take us to the turtle release on our last day in Los Barriles. Of course we took him up on it!
Here’s a video I made of pics and clips from the turtle release.
After that we had to check out of the house but our flight out of Cabo wasn’t until later so Susie got one more round of open play in. I decided to just have a nice leisurely breakfast at Tres while we all waited for our ride to the airport. We took one more group pic, this time with the Wichita flag, before we left.
The trip home was smooth and uneventful. Thank, heavens! That’s pretty much it for the this trip (except for those two restaurant posts I promised). Thanks for sticking it out through this super long update. Until next time!
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