Archive for "Things to Do"
Experiencing the KC Streetcar
Posted on November 25, 2016 by Ching under Things to Do, Travel.
Brian finally got to experience riding the Kansas City Streetcar this week. The streetcar runs up and down River Market and Union Station seven days a week.
I’d been using it to load up on Pokemon balls and to hunt for Pokemon after work some nights. It’s cool because you can hit several stops as the streetcar moves along, sort of like when we hired that party bus specifically for Pokemon hunting.
I’d ridden the streetcar several times before and the operator never says anything. You don’t even realize they’re there. Except for Brian’s first ride. The operator was like, “How’s everyone doing?” And she goaded us all to cheer. She was like a tour bus driver, all enthusiastic and stuff. It was quite unusual.
“They’re not all like that,” I told Brian.
When we got to Union Station, where the ride ends and you have to wait a few minutes for the streetcar to change direction, the operator emerged from the booth to move to the other end of the streetcar. That’s when we realized we met “Streetcar Sandy,” the jolliest streetcar operator of them all.
I had to get a selfie with her because she’s a bit of a celebrity. She was featured in an article about the KC Streetcar in the Kansas City Star back in May. Feel free to click on the link to read the article.
There’s also this short informational video:
I really love the KC Streetcar. It doesn’t go a long distance right now. It only spans about two miles. But I’m excited for when the streetcar actually gets extended all the way to Country Club Plaza and UMKC. That will be awesome.
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Team Building and Community Service
Posted on November 20, 2016 by Ching under Events, Projects, Things to Do.
Here are some pictures from the team building volunteer service activity that I organized a couple of weeks ago. I’m so grateful for my amazing coworkers who gave up part of their holiday weekend to help out.
The project? We helped set up the North Pole Winter Carnival at Child Start‘s Polar Express Literacy Event.
The trickiest part was building the train display with no instructions.
Mike was super proud of the fake wood wall that he and Mel built.
He’s showing it off in this photo with Faith’s husband (left).
They didn’t need our help with the main event area. Our group’s focus was setting up and decorating the game room, which I actually thought was the fun part.
I really wish we could have attended the event and seen the kids enjoy the carnival games. Brian and I had another party to attend that evening, otherwise I would have totally dragged him with me. Had I planned the weekend better, I could have taken Nickira to the event. I think she would have enjoyed it.
I hope Child Start holds the event again next year. Nickira is getting to close to that age where she might think it’s a little bit childish but I really think she would enjoy it. I hope I can take her next year because it will be the final one before she’s officially a teenager. I saw some pictures of the event on the Child Start Facebook page and it looked like a blast. I’m really bummed that I missed it.
At least we got to help set up. I just love volunteering for stuff like this. It warms my heart. The best part is the $1000 donation from the Westar Energy Foundation to match our team building volunteer service hours.
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Fall Fest at City Arts
Posted on November 2, 2016 by Ching under Events, Things to Do.
Took Nickira to City Arts on Saturday morning. They were hosting an arts and crafts event that was free to the public. I saw information about it just a few days prior and figured that it would be right up Nickira’s alley.
Normally, I would have been teaching my Zumba class but Erica filled in for me.
Our craft options were little stick dolls, sugar skills, and Halloween buckets.
And we did them in that order. These pictures are of the examples.
This is the first stick doll I made.
After we made our stick dolls, we went on to paint sugar skull cookies.
I had to remind Kira that these skull cookies are just for painting and they aren’t to be eaten. The lady told me the cookies are just made with salt and flour so they’re probably not any good. Plus, you really wouldn’t want to eat a cookie that everyone else has touched. These were made specifically for painting.
Mine didn’t turn out too bad. Nickira and I agreed she should give it to her mom.
Afterwards, we went to the other room to make and decorate small Halloween candy pails. It was great that they had three different craft projects.
After that project, we both decided to make another pair of stick dolls before we had to leave to grab lunch. This is my second attempt.
I really liked how they had all of the craft supplies on hand so after short instructional briefing you pretty much had run of everything and could make whatever you wanted. I think I had just as much fun as Nickira, if not more. LOL.
People always complain there’s nothing to do in Wichita but there’s always fun community events like this one and there’s lots of fun free things to do. There’s usually a number of events and activities going on, you just have to know where to look. Facebook is great because it gives you quick and easy access to nearby events coming up. I also check Wichitaweso.me at least once a month.
If you don’t want to have to check multiple place, like our FLIP + CHING page on Facebook because I usually post about my favorite upcoming fun events that people should check out. Some cost, some are free, but all of them fun things to do.
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Pokémon Party Bus
Posted on November 1, 2016 by Ching under Events, Things to Do.
Pictures from our epic night of Pokémon hunting in Wichita.
We had an East and West side pickup to make it super easy for everyone. The East side pickup was our house and the West side pickup was at the Travel Junkie office on Maple and Maize.
We didn’t quite leave our driveway at eight o’clock as planned but we were right on schedule for arriving at the West side pickup location by 8:30 PM according to the map on my phone. It said we were 7 minutes away at about 8:23 PM.
Thanks to Spot’s Party Bus for being part of our Pokémon hunting adventure.
This is Brian doing a Facebook LIVE video on the bus.
We had a few last-minute cancellations so we figured we probably had 25 or so guests. It worked out pretty well actually because the bus was pretty full at 25 people. I can’t imagine how tight we would have been if we filled the bus to its max capacity of 35. We would’ve been packed like sardines.
I love how a couple of our friends rose to the occasion and dressed up as Pokémons. Biggie came as a Snorlax and Hideki dressed as a Growlithe.
The funniest part was when we were walking around College Hill Park and these kids on the other side of the tennis courts were like, “Look! It’s Tigger!” And Hideki was like, “I’m a Growlithe, dammit!” LMAO.
Here’s our good buddy Jay. He didn’t come dressed in costume because he is scary/funny enough as is. JK.
Brian’s cousin Zach and his wife Autumn joined us.
My coworker/friend Derek also joined us.
Christina couldn’t make it but Jake was able to join us. He came dressed as Ryu.
I just had to share this photo that Brian captioned because it’s hilarious.
Brian and I dressed as Pokémon trainers, as they look in the game.
The Pokémon party bus was such a blast. I loved being able to drink and hunt Pokémon at the same time, which we’ve never been able to do before. I also love that I didn’t have to man two phones because usually I’m having to manage both of our phones while Brian drives us around. I’m sure Brian enjoyed not having to drive so he could play as well.
The best part was that the Pokémon GO creators hosted a special in-game Halloween event whereby we caught lots of special Pokémons and got double candy for transferring mons to the professor. The timing of our Pokémon party bus event couldn’t have been better.
I had an amazing time and hope that everyone did too. Until next year!
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Trivia Night at the Flying Saucer
Posted on October 7, 2016 by Ching under Food and Drink, Things to Do.
I forgot to share with you guys that I got to experience trivia at the Flying Saucer for the first time. I was there a couple of weeks ago with some people from work. Rahima reserved a table for us.
Even though I suck at trivia, I find it quite enjoyable. We started out really well, earning second place after the first round and then dropping to fourth after the second round. We had some crappy rounds where we got zero points. I actually didn’t think we would finish well but, apparently, no one else knew the answers to the questions we missed because ended up taking second place for the evening.
Our prize for second place was a $30 gift certificate. We talked about using it for our next trivia night but we’re going to wait until Kelsey is finished with her diet before we go again. We were all bummed that she couldn’t join us that night.
Oh, in reference to the team name… Andrew was the one who came up with that. It has nothing to with our company. I joked that the phrase was perfect for PwC and their face-melting fees but they said they actually got the saying from one of their previous clients. They wouldn’t tell me which company it was, though.
Here are some pictures of our food. We just shared a bunch of appetizers. I didn’t take pictures of everything.
I really like the Flying Saucer. For one, it’s located conveniently close to work. I like that they offer trivia night, which is something fun to do after hours. And, I also like that they have good, reasonably priced food. I have only been there twice (once for lunch and once for trivia night) but both visits were great. I can’t wait to bring Brian. They have this prosciutto pizza that is super yummy. And, prosciutto and pizza are two things that Brian loves.
I will definitely be back, and with reinforcements!
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