Archive for "Things to Do"
Tallgrass Film Festival 2026
Posted on October 26, 2026 by Ching under Community, Things to Do.
This is our first time back at Tallgrass Film Festival in a few years and my first time embracing it fully. In the past, when we’ve gotten Tallpasses from either my work on through Jenni, we’ve always just attended the VIP parties. This year, since it was the final weekend before my hysterectomy, I decided to take Friday off work and really immerse myself in the festival by watching multiple movies and attending as many of the activations as I could.
On the first day of the film fest, we attended the festival opening reception and open house at Wichita State University Shocker Studios. Shocker Studios didn’t exist when I attended Wichita State. The 50,000 square foot facility is located at the old Wichita Mall on East Harry. I guess the facility opened in 2017 but I never knew of its existence until recently. Here’s a video tour of the facility.
We watched our first festival movie, YO Love is a Rebellious Bird, in their large conference rooms. It’s a really interesting story about a friendship between two women who are decades apart in age. Here’s preview trailer.
Since opening night was on Thursday, we opted to skip the kickoff party at Hawk’s Nest. I was off the next day but Brian still had work.
On Friday I met Jenni at Reverie and filmed her first kouign-amann experience before the Crystal Cross screening at Boulevard Theatres. Boulevard at Old Town Square was the main hub for all the movies with a few exceptions–the opening night screening at WSU Shocker Studios and screenings at the Orpheum Theater on Saturday. Here’s the Crystal Cross movie trailer:
After the movie I went to check out the VIP lounge with Jenni where they had really cool themed rooms for people to take photos. We had to keep our lounge stop brief in order to make our next movie screening: Wood Street. Here’s a preview of the documentary:
I really wanted to watch another movie and hit popcorn happy hour in the Cargill Community Tent but Brian was getting off work and I was getting hungry. I decided to go home and pick up Brian for some dinner before our final movie of the day: Loves Company.
This movie was so weird. I’m not sure I would have watched it had it not been part of the film festival so I do appreciate Tallgrass Film Festival for the opportunity to watch something unique and different. There was a theme party at the Cargill Community Tent that night which we also skipped because Brian had an early drive down to Oklahoma to see his parents the next day. Here’s a highlight reel of my day at TFF on Friday.
I had extremely high hopes for watching a bunch of movies on Saturday but ended up sleeping in and getting a later start than I wanted. Despite this though, I’d still watched more movies this festival year than any other year I’ve attended. After a quick lunch at Kim’s Noodle down the street from our house, I met Jenni and Adam at EggCetera downtown and the three of us piled into my car to go to the Orpheum for the screening of Seized. It’s a documentary film about the police raid of the Marion County Record.
After that I went to get Brian at home and we met Adam and Jenni at Piatto for dinner before returning to the Orpheum for Copeland, which was mine and Brian’s favorite film of the festival.
Here are highlights from day 3 of the film festival.
The last day of the film festival kicked off with community breakfast and dance party in the middle of Old Town Square. It was kind of hard to decide what to watch after breakfast. We opted to go see Kansas Shorts, a collection of short films made by Kansas filmmakers.
These are the short films that were included in that block:
- Flooding Kaw Nation: Submerged Cities, Desecrated Graves, and Kaw Lake
- Safer Waters: Artist Stephen Towns on Paradise Park
- Rainbow Rider
- Hit-Woman
- It’s Nice to Finally Meet You
- We’re All Sorry Souls
I wanted to watch more films but it had been a long weekend already. Brian and I decided to take a midday nap break before meeting back up with Adam and Jenni for the awards ceremony and then dinner. We originally wanted to have dinner at Public but forgot that they’re closed on Sundays so we ended up having dinner at River City Brewering Co. instead.
While we’ve skipped most of the parties this year, we did attend the festival wrap party at Velvet Tiger–mostly curiosity. I’d never heard of the Velvet Tiger before. I guess it’s because they haven’t officially opened yet. It’s going to be a pretty hip hot spot (think “upscale dive bar”) on S. Hydraulic, which isn’t really the best part of town but, with the new Goldfinch coffee shop down the street, I’m hopeful that the area will begin to flourish.
Anyway, I’m really glad that TFF weekend happened before my surgery because I don’t know if I would have felt up to sitting through all these movies after my hysterectomy. The only thing that would have been better is if it was actually even earlier because I couldn’t drink alcohol three days before surgery and Brian, who is so strict about following instructions, cut me off on Saturday. They had all that free booze at the events and all I could drink was Pepsi.
Oh, well. Hopefully Jenni will hook us up with passes again next year.
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Glampgrounds at Chicken N Pickle
Posted on October 21, 2026 by Ching under Things to Do.
Fall is my favorite time of year. Not just because of the mild temperatures but because it means Glampgrounds are back at Chicken N Pickle.
Last year, we went later in the season. I don’t believe I did it intentionally, but I booked on my actual birthday. I think it’s just the way our schedules lined up that year. This year we had the opportunity to preview it before reservations opened to the public.
Glampgrounds opened to the public on October 8 and I originally chose my date as October 6 because it fell on mom’s birthday but she actually already had plans that day. I ended up inviting our friends instead so as not to let the reservation go to waste. Mom was actually super busy throughout the last couple of weeks that we didn’t get a chance to give her birthday presents to her until last Sunday.
I joked to Jenni that we should get birthday cake and celebrate mom’s birthday without her but she was busy with Tallgrass Film Festival preparations that she couldn’t make it. We still made the most of our Glampgrounds reservation, though.
Glampgrounds are available through November 28. S’more for your group are free with every reservation. You can make your reservation here.
FULL DISCLOSURE: Chicken N Pickle comped our reservation and great outdoors platter ($48) for this preview visit. However, we did pay for a second great outdoors platter and all of our drinks. Even without the perks, I highly recommend this experience. Have you done it? Let us know your thoughts.
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First Time Riding the Wichita Transit
Posted on July 27, 2026 by Ching under Things to Do.
I’ve ridden public transit while traveling to other cities but for some reason I’d never ridden the Wichita bus before. Perhaps it’s because I have my own car here and it’s way more convenient to drive yourself. Perhaps it’s Brian’s ultra-negative view of the bus–he thinks it’s gross. For one reason or another, I never have ridden our local transit until last month.
With the launch of the Hub in Delano, bus rides were free for a week so I took advantage of that time to check it out. I met up with a couple of friends (Susie Ternes and Chris Townley) at the Hub and we rode the 21 (WSU route) to 21st and Rock, stopped at the Bradley Fair Bella Luna for some drinks and apps (mocktail for me because I was taking a couple of antibiotics at the time), and then hopped back on the same bus on its way inbound back to the Hub.
We did look at the Lindsey Kernodle installation while we were waiting for the bus but it was very loud at the transit station at times, specially when all the busses are back. It was so much nicer when Brian and went on a Sunday and there were no busses and not a soul around. If you’re just wanting to check out the interactive murals, I highly recommend skipping the bus experience and just going to the Hub on a Sunday. For me, I wanted to experience a real bus ride so that’s what we did.
Shout out to Susie and Chris for experiencing the bus with me. It was kind of a fun adventure. Check out the highlights here.
Only Susie can make riding the bus look cool.
Mom wanted to experience riding the bus too so I went with her later that week also. We got on the 22 (East Harry route) from the East Kellogg Walmart parking lot and took the bus back to the Hub so mom could check out the art. From the Hub, we got on the Q-line and walked around downtown before hopping on another inbound bus to return to the Hub. Here are some highlights from that.
If you own a car, the bus is really not the most convenient mode of transportation but I appreciate that it’s an option. When I went with Susie and Chris, we met a college student who got the bus from the WSU campus and hopped off at the stop by Aldi’s. He hopped back on the same bus as us to return to campus after completing his grocery shopping.
As someone who hates driving, I could totally see myself regularly using public transit to go places. I even thought of parking at the Walmart and taking the 22 to the Hub next time I have to go to a baseball game. The bus fare is way cheaper than parking; and you can drink and not worry about driving. By the time you return to your car, you’ve sobered up a bit and it’s just short drive back home. Not that I’m a huge drinker, but it’s an idea.
Of course, I’ve never followed through on this plan because I’m always with Brian and he hates riding the bus with a passion. If I had to go by myself though, I’d totally take the bus. Anyway, what are your thoughts on riding the bus and public transit in general?
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Checking Out the Hub
Posted on July 23, 2026 by Ching under Events, Things to Do.
I managed to convince Brian to check out the Hub, Wichita’s new transit center in Delano, last month. I did have to bribe him with breakfast and coffee first though. Actually, it was more like a trick than a bribe. I suggested we have coffee and breakfast at Pennant because he’d never been there and they have the best ice vanilla latte in town. Brian doesn’t really drink those but I like them. Anyway, afterwards I was like, “While we are here–the new transit center is just around the corner. Wanna go check it out?”
It was a busy Sunday morning at the Pennant.
Brian got a breakfast burrito.
I had a breakfast pizza.
We shared a peanut butter pennant, my favorite breakfast treat.
And, of course, the most important thing–coffee!
Sunday is the best day to check out the Hub because the busses aren’t running. Otherwise, it is super loud in there. When we went on Sunday we got to enjoy the interactive art by Lindsey Kernodle. It’s soo cool.
Here’s a reel I made of Brian and I checking out the Hub after breakfast that morning. I highly recommend checking it out if you haven’t been yet.
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2026 Wichita Wicked Brew Tour
Posted on June 15, 2026 by Ching under Food and Drink, Things to Do.
The Wichita Wicked Brew Tour is one of our favorite summertime traditions. We’ve done it every year since inception in 2016; although, we found out about too late to get a shirt that year. The key is to finish your tour early so that they still have your size of shirt available but I have seen some go-getters finish the tour the same day that it starts — which is really wild to me, unless you’re drinking coffee and starting early in the morning.
This year we started our tour at Mokas and finished in exactly 10 days.
We met for lunch at Mokas, got coffee with our Mokas duos, and received our first stamps. SIDE NOTE: If you’ve never been to Mokas, the Mokas duos are an excellent value because you get a half sandwich, salad (or soup), and chips (or fruit) for one price. The portions are generous and their food is fantastic, as is their coffee. If you don’t consider the convenience of Scooter’s, Mokas is hands down Brian’s #1 favorite coffee place.
Next Stop – Saturday, May 30: River City Brewing Company. We went to RCB for dinner after the tournament at TapNPaddles. We got a couple of drinks and stamps along with them.
Don’t ask me what this green drink is because I don’t remember but it was very good. That part, I do remember.
After dinner we went to Cocoa Dolce down the street for a couple more stamps. Brian got a small coffee and I got a tipsy gelato.
The following morning we hit Il Primo Espresso Caffe on the way to High Park in Derby to check out the new pickleball courts.
My back had been killing me so we just went for some pictures and I only played a couple of games. It was also way too windy that day. Here’s our Wicked Brew Tour passports up to this point:
Brian had to stop by his office on the way home to check on some painting that was completed. Since we were already out West, we decided to have lunch at Wichita Brewing Company and get some more stamps for our passports.
The East-side WBC is actually where we typically begin our tour because it’s close to us but we deviated from our usual routine by starting at Mokas this year.
Passport update: 5 stamps completed.
On Monday, Brian took our passports to work and bought his coworker Miranda a coffee so he could get two stamps at Nameless. In previous years, this is how we got out of sync. Whenever I went and got coffee on my own, his passport would fall behind. So this year, we decided we would keep the passports together so we stayed in sync the entire time.
I would have gotten a couple more stamps for us when I got coffee with my coworker Chris on Tuesday morning but that was the day that Brian had to take me to the ER. Chris actually texted me if I wanted to get coffee and, I remember telling him he should just grab coffee for himself on the way to work because I wasn’t feeling well.
I had been suffering from back pain and cramps all weekend and I felt the worst that day. I thought it was just my typical cramps so I just sucked it up and went to work anyway. But then, I started feeling disoriented and my vision got blurry and I started freaking out so I called Brian to pick me up from work and take me to the ER. I will save that story for another time because I’ve gotten sidetracked enough.
The next day, I was back to work because I was feeling much better. I went with Chris to get coffee at Larcher’s Market. Brian told me to tell my manager Alicia “Thank you,” so I did one better. I brought her an iced coffee so I got two stamps in the process. Our passports are continuing to stay synced up.
On Thursday morning, Chris and I went to Reverie Coffee Roasters. He had already gotten his Reverie stamp so he didn’t need one from there but I made him a deal that if we went to Reverie that morning, I would buy his coffee in exchange for a stamp. That was stamp #8 for both Brian and me.
The weekend of June 6, our friend Laurie Adams came to town for a visit so the three of us had dinner at Piatto (my favorite pizza spot) after playing in the IPN mini tournament at TapNPaddles. We decided to walk over to Hopping Gnome to get stamps after dinner. Since I was still taking my antibiotics (which were prescribed by the ER doc), I couldn’t drink. Decided to buy Laurie a drink in exchange for a stamp.
Brian and I finished this year’s tour on Sunday by having breakfast at the Pennant, my current favorite coffee shop because they serve the best iced vanilla latte in the city.
This was kismet because it put us just around the corner from the newly unveiled transit center called The Hub. This deserves its own post so more on that later but, since we were already in the area, Brian and I did drive over there to check it out after breakfast. That pretty much concluded our tour for this year. I think this is the earliest we have ever finished. Most of the time, it takes us at least three weekends because our passports get out of sync and then I’m having to catch Brian’s passport up. We were way more strategic this year. I picked up our shirts on Monday last week. We haven’t worn them yet because Brian refuses to wear new clothes until they’ve been washed but we look forward to wearing them all summer long along with others from past years. How about you? How is your Wicked Brew tour going?
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