FLIP + CHING

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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Brian’s Health Journey

Posted on December 4, 2024 by Ching under Health.

Where to begin? I guess let’s start from the very beginning. Earlier this year Brian was having some dental issues. These issues were partly because of poor dental hygiene and taking things for granted. After at least three root canals, the endodontist decided Brian needed to see an oral surgeon to get a cyst removed from the front of his mouth. He originally had oral surgery scheduled shortly after our Colorado trip but the week that he was to have surgery he was suffering sore throat due to some kind of tonsil infection.

Brian’s oral surgeon, Dr. Christopher Harris, determined that the oral surgery should be postponed until Brian had his throat and tonsil issues looked at. The concern was that if they were to proceed with surgery the infection from the tonsil could infect the surgery area. So then Brian went to see Dr. Aaron Thiessen, an ear, nose, and throat specialist, about his issues. Brian ended up taking antibiotics which didn’t really do much so he and Dr. Thiessen agreed that the best course of action would be to simply remove his tonsils. Brian’s tonsillectomy was then scheduled for Thursday, October 3. However, the doctor noticed that Brian’s lymph node was swollen so, as a precautionary measure, he also scheduled a lymph node biopsy on September 30. This was the Monday before the tonsil surgery.

Brian’s lymph node biopsy revealed cancer. The ENT doc theorized that the cancer in Brian’s lymph node probably came from his infected tonsil but needed to confirm this. Instead of doing a tonsillectomy that following Thursday, Dr. Thiessen changed the procedure to a laryngoscopy and tonsil biopsy.

The biggest reason for not moving forward with the tonsillectomy being that, if the cancer needed to be treated, the doctor did not want treatment to be delayed by the post-tonsillectomy recovery. At the point, the greater priority would be to treat the cancer as quickly as possible.

Here are some pics of Brian I took during surgery day — actually it was laryngoscopy and tonsil biopsy day.

The following week it was confirmed that Brian did in fact have cancer in his tonsil which has spread to his lymph node. The next step was to complete a PET scan to find if the cancer had spread to other parts of his body. In the meantime, there was the matter of the cyst in his mouth that still needed to be removed. There was a delay in PET scans and he couldn’t get an appointment until October 24 and he couldn’t start any cancer treatments until the PET scan was done so we figured that he would have enough time to go through the oral surgery and recover from it before cancer treatments would begin. Otherwise, then he would have to wait until sometime the following year to do oral surgery because it wouldn’t be idea to do it in the middle of cancer treatments. It basically had to be done now or it would have to wait until the following year.

We chose the NOW option and, thankfully, one of our friends just happens to be the godmother of Brian’s oral surgeon. She pulled some strings and they were able to get him in right away. Speaking of which, what we thought was a cyst was actually not a cyst. It turned out to be a massive dental infection that had gotten so bad that it started to form a cyst-like substance in Brian’s mouth.

Because of Brian’s cancer diagnosis, we thought he would be in the middle cancer treatments (radiation and chemo) during the Mexico trip so we ended up canceling his flight (more on this later). However, due to delays with insurance approvals, Brian’s cancer treatments actually didn’t begin until a couple of week ago — after I got back from Mexico — so he totally could have gone on the trip.

Brian’s treatment consists of 35 days of daily (Monday through Friday) radiation treatments spread over 8 weeks and weekly chemotherapy over 6 weeks. Radiation would only have been 7 weeks but due to skipping treatments on the holidays — Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas, and New Year’s Day — it comes out to 8 weeks total. His last radiation treatment is on January 9 and his last chemo treatment is on January 2.

I went with Brian to his first radiation appointment and got this video:

So far, to date, Brian has completed two chemo treatments (just four left to go) and is two and a half weeks into radiation. He is doing well so far but the radiation is definitely starting to take a toll. We have been posting updates on our Flip + Ching Facebook page so feel free to follow us there if you want to keep up with his progess.

In the meantime, we are super grateful for everyone’s support and prayers. Brian is lucky to have such wonderful people who care about him wishing him well and praying for his recovery. Thank you all!

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Fall Pickleball Round Up

Posted on November 19, 2024 by Ching under Pickleball.

A couple of months ago, I had the privilege of participating in a super fun Chicken N Pickle ambassador event in Overland Park, Kansas. We had 20 CNP ambassadors from Wichita compete against 20 CNP ambassadors from the Kansas City area in a team challenge. It was wonderful meeting fellow ambassadors and competing alongside my Wichita comrades. I think everyone had a great time.

The Wichita team ended up winning so that made it even better!

About a month later, we celebrated Janelle’s birthday at the Pickle Club. Pickleball birthdays are the best!

And then I took a short respite from my pickleball sabbatical to sneak in the Shangri-la tournament. Funny story about this. I made the exception for Shangri-la because I agreed to play in it with Colby right after the tournament last year — before I decided to go on sabbatical. Anyway, Colby and I were originally registered for 4.5 women’s doubles but there weren’t any teams so we decided to withdraw. The same day that we withdrew, I texted Kumar Krishnan to personally let him know that we had withdrawn so he didn’t just see it on the computer. Brian and I normally stay at Kumar’s lake house for this tournament so Kumar asked if we would still be coming down if I wasn’t playing. I told him, probably not — which is kind of a bummer because I really do like the location and the tournament itself.

Kumar was like, “Karen Taylor is waitlisted for women’s 4.0 if you still want to come down and play.” I told Kumar I would text Karen and if she’s willing to play with me then I would contact him to figure out how to “unwithdraw” myself from the tournament. LOL.

Fast forward to the tournament, I had a blast playing with Karen and we earned bronze in women’s 4.0 for our efforts. I just love the Shangri-la tournament. Actually, all of Kumar’s tournaments are fabulous and that has been the main thing that I’ve missed this year during my sabbatical.

Here are a few pics from that weekend…

After Shangri-la, we were hot and heavy into planning the Wichita Moneyball event with these fine folks.

But before Moneyball, I hosted a Super DUPR Mixed Doubles mini tournament at the Pickle Club. The competition was intense!

And our monthly CNP ambassador play was absolute fire in October.

Then we had the second annual Dink Minor Leagues team tournament at Crestview Country Club presented by InPickle Nation and Just Paddles.

And then finally, Moneyball. Honestly, all of these events deserve their own individual write up but I am so far behind in this blog. You’ll just have to settle for this crash recap. Follow this link to see all the pictures and videos from the Moneyball event and to learn about upcoming events. Till the next update!

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Stearman Field

Posted on November 18, 2024 by Ching under Food and Drink.

Stearman Field is one of our new favorite brunch spots. Brian still likes Homegrown the best but we both definitely like Stearman for the unique setting. On a good day, you can get a little fly in action from people flying in to have breakfast or lunch and then flying back out.

Here are some pics from when we were there back in August.

They also have made to order pancakes.

Anyway, this place has become our “go to” spot to take out of town visitors so when Tom Grace came to visit a couple of weeks ago (at the beginning of November) we decided we would go to brunch there. Well, the weather was yucky that weekend and so there were no planes. What a bummer.

At least we got to enjoy some good food.

And also take a selfie.

Until next time!

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FioRito Restaurante

Posted on November 4, 2024 by Ching under Food and Drink.

I don’t think I’ve posted about FioRito yet but it’s quickly becoming one of our faves. It’s on the corner of Douglas and Hillside, which really isn’t the best location and, thus, a lot of restaurants have come and gone in that spot. FioRito is sticking around though, and I think it’s because their food is actually good. If you have good food and great service, people are going to come and they will return and continue to support your establishment.

They have a lovely patio which would be perfect if it weren’t for the traffic noise. Unfortunately, Douglas and Hillside is a pretty busy corner.

These are some pictures of the food we enjoyed when Brian and I had dinner there a couple of months ago.

One of the best things about FioRito is they have happy hour twice. There’s an early happy hour from 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM Tuesday through Thursday and a late night happy hour everyday from 8:00 PM to close. You can’t beat cheap food and drinks!

We liked it so much that we recently returned with some friends a few weeks ago. However, I forgot that there’s no early happy hour on Fridays so we missed out on the deals. The food prices are pretty reasonable but the drinks are quite expensive so I may not be drinking there going forward if it’s not happy hour.