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Summer 2026 Recap

Posted on August 22, 2026 by Ching under Family, Life.

Here’s a quick summer 2026 recap before I dive into our vacation highlights… I already told you all about the new Wichita Transit Hub in Delano–let’s see… What else happened this summer?

Brian’s parents came up for the weekend and we celebrated Brian’s 52nd birthday at the Belmont, Brian’s all-time favorite resto.

The following day we continued the celebration at Chicken N Pickle.

Our nephew Logan even came and stopped by for a bit. He is so grown up! He actually bought his first house this year. We are so proud of this kid.

We completed the Wicked Brew Tour and earned our 2026 shirts.

I played in my first Queen City Open pickleball tournament. This was also our first time in Springfield, MO.

We celebrated Hannah’s birthday at Sabor.

I walked in the Wichita Pride parade for the first time.

Here’s a short highlight video I made:

We competed in our first Tallgrass Film Association trivia event. Our friend Susie won some awesome prizes.

We checked out Aught2 Pickleball. It was Brian’s first time in Bartlesville.

I learned how to play Lite Tennis.

We created Saki paintings.

I learned to play American mah jongg.

We attended the National Baseball Congress championship game at Equity Bank Park with the Drinnens.

We checked out some restaurants we hadn’t tried before–I may write about those separately. In the meantime, I really want to get the blog caught up so can I tell you all about our latest adventure.

We kicked off the new year by making a quick up and back trip to Olathe to pick up a new car for Brian. He’s been dreaming of getting a 2025 Subaru Outback Wilderness Edition for months now and we agreed that he would get at the beginning of the year, once we got past the holidays. We literally did just that.

Welcome to the family, Rue. BTW, Rue is short for Rueben (and it is also a play on Subaru – Suba-RUE, get it?) so Brian’s car is actually male. Anyway, I don’t want to steal his thunder so I’ll leave the blogging about it up to him. I have to say though, I’m kind of envious. New cars these days have so many fancy features. Driving a 15-year-old vehicle, I feel like I’m really missing out. As nice as it is to have a new car though, I still don’t want to have a car payment – which Brian does right now because we couldn’t pay the full amount of the car at once. He did get 0% financing for 36 months, though. So there is that.

As for me, I’m hoping to get at least 5 more years or another 50K miles out of my little Alex – whichever comes first. Wish me luck!

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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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Brian’s 50th Birthday

Posted on July 20, 2024 by Ching under Events, Family.

In keeping with Brian’s aversion for leaving the country, he decided earlier this year that he would celebrate his 50th birthday in Omaha, Nebraska because he has always wanted to visit their zoo. I had heard of the Henry Doorly Zoo as being one of the top 5 zoos in the nation so I wasn’t completely opposed to the idea. I just wanted to do something more exotic or go to an all-inclusive resort like what we did for his 40th birthday. During the months leading up to his birthday, I gave several reasonable suggestions but he would not be dissuaded. At one point he was like, “You’re trying to hijack my birthday!” I told him I was simply giving him some ideas and providing options. He insisted, “You can do whatever you want for your birthday but, for my birthday, I get to do what I want.”

And thus, our plans to spend the weekend in Omaha was solidified. Omaha is a wonderful city and we had a great time. Arguably, not as good a time as I would have had if I were drinking unlimited free cocktails all day but Brian was on meds around that time and couldn’t drink anyway so we probably wouldn’t have gotten any bang for our buck as I can’t drink that much by myself anyway.

Here’s a highlight video I made of our time at the zoo.

While we were there, we found out that the Henry Doorly Zoo touts itself as the #1 zoo in the world. A title they achieved a couple of years ago and have held on to since so they have been #1 for two years running. It’s an impressive feat considering all the impressive zoos in the US alone.

The next day we went to check out Lauritzen Gardens. It’s nice but our local Botanica is just as nice and far more walkable. Anyway, I much preferred Botanica.