December Round Up
Posted on January 18, 2025 by Ching under Things to Do.
December is one of my favorite times of the year because of all the fun, festive holiday pop-ups. There’s also lots of activities to do. Wild Light at Sedgwick County Zoo is something that starts in October so it’s not technically a December event but it is a fun, seasonal activity that we look forward to each year. The last couple of years we have gone with Kendra Wicks and Colby Fugit. We always enjoy looking at the new displays with them.
Similar to Wild Lights at the zoo, Illuminations at Botanica is something that we also enjoy doing. Brian didn’t have enough energy to go this year so I went with Colby and Grant and Susie Ternes. (NOTE: Grant isn’t pictured below because he took our photo.)
Here are some highlights from my favorite holiday pop-ups.
At Chicken N Pickle’s Holiday Hideaway with Susie
Jingle at Public at the Brickyard
Sippin’ Santa at Dockum
Miracle on Mosley Street at River City Brewing Co.
Susie and Colby organized a holiday pop-up pub crawl with Cindy Egan, Molly Sager and Nicole Mathis while Molly and Nicole were in town for Ryan Kellenbarger’s benefit tournament for ICT SOS. It was so fun hanging out with the ladies and experiencing the wonderful holiday pop-ups with them.
Speaking of Ryan’s charity tournament for ICT SOS, he had it at Tap N Paddles. It was their first tournament at the facility which just opened in November. The tournament had an amazing turnout.
Cindy had her annual Christmas party which was super fun. We also had a pickleball party and white elephant at the Pickle Club. While the month of December had some fun events and activities, this was also the month that Brian really started struggling with eating. He quit joining Chris and me for lunches. Despite this, I did manage to get him out for an outing.
Final outing until things started to get really tough. Hoping we have finally turned the corner, though. Until next time!
Comment on This
Hurrah for Modern Medicine and Great Friends
Posted on January 5, 2025 by Ching under Health, Life.
With Cindy and Ed Egan, and Lou and Kory Parkhurst at Deano’s East.
When we first got Brian’s diagnosis, our friend Cindy told us that she has another friend who went through the exact same thing about ten years ago. We both agreed that it would be great to meet this couple and kind of hear about their experience, etc. Cindy arranged the dinner and we were actually supposed to meet at Wine Dive, closer to where the Parkhursts’ live, but Cindy had a crazy busy weekend (both she and Ed had pickleball tournaments that day) and so we had a last minute location change to Deano’s to be closer to the Egans’.
The funny part is we were just at Deano’s West the night before with some friends because I wanted to check out the fancy new location. Everything is the same food/drink menu-wise, the only difference because the new West side location is on a lake so if you’re out on the patio then you have better views. Nonetheless, the food didn’t matter to us. We were anxious to meet Kory and Lou and hear about their journey, how they got through it, and get their advice.
It was super helpful meeting Kory and Lou. Seeing Kory, looking happy and healthy 10 years later, really lifted our spirits. All the doctors were very positive that Brian would get through this okay but you don’t really know. Meeting someone who has gone through the very thing that you’re suffering from, and getting their insights was completely invaluable. I am beyond grateful to Cindy for making this dinner happen, which was the night before Brian’s first radiation treatment.
Kory’s cancer was nearly identical to Brian’s. His was further along and he also had his feeding tube installed before treatments began. Because he is a slender guy to begin with, their doctors determined that he couldn’t afford to lose any weight at all. Whereas with Brian, we were hopeful that he wouldn’t need a feeding tube at all. Wishful thinking on our part because once Brian hit 150 lbs, we were like, okay now we need to do something because he can’t lose anymore weight. In hindsight, we should have listened to Dr. Chris Dakhil and had the feeding tube installed early. You may or may not need it but it’s there if you do. It’ll help keep your nutrition up which is important because it’s hard to fight the good fight when you have zero energy. Which is what Brian’s going through now. He has zero energy to do anything. He is fatigued and tired all the time and all he wants to do is sleep.
We thought that we would not have any problems getting the feeding tube installed halfway through but we failed to take the holidays into account. By the time we decided to pull the trigger on the feeding tube, we had run into Christmas and New Year, and Dr. Imad Nassif only does these surgeries on Wednesdays so the first available date was January 8. You live and you learn. We know now but hoping we don’t have to use this knowledge ever again.
Anyway, it’s amazing to me how far we’ve come. It used to be getting diagnosed with cancer was a death sentence. I suppose a lot of it depends on the kind of cancer you have and how far along it has progressed unchecked. But, as unfortunate as it is for Brian to have gotten cancer, he is at least fortunate enough to have the kind that can be treated. We are meeting more and more cancer survivors which makes me think modern medicine has advanced enough that more and more people are winning the battle. We are hopeful that Brian will get through this just as Kory has and this will all be a faint memory a decade from now.
Here’s a picture of the two Deano’s locations for comparison:
This is a picture of the front of the OG Deano’s where we had dinner with the Parkhursts and Egans on Sunday night. It’s located at Cambridge Market, which is actually around the corner from Quarters at Cambridge where Brian and I used to live over 10 years ago.
This is a picture of the front of the new West location where we had dinner with other friends the previous night.
Comment on This
My Pickleball Sabbatical aka 2024 Year-End Recap
Posted on January 1, 2025 by Ching under Life, Pickleball, Zumba.
Before we dive in to the 2024 year-end recap, let’s catch you all up first.
- 2002 — This is the year that Brian and I were married and the year that I started this blog.
- 2003 — I had originally dropped out of college in 2000 when my four-year scholarship money ran out. I decided I didn’t want to take out student loans. Anyway, I started working for my current employer in May 2002. After a year, I realized I was eligible for tuition reimbursement/assistance so this is the year that I went back to school. This is also the year that I discovered online poker. Brian also started our 24/7 live cam.
- 2004 — I officially became a naturalized US citizen, continued kicking butt at school, and after a couple of years as a customer service representative was promoted to supervise my team. This was a rough year for our marriage. Brian struggled with depression and was prescribed Zoloft which was super rough for our sex life. We pursued hobbies like poker (went from playing online to playing bar poker and playing in local tournaments), racquetball, chess, and blogging to get us through.
- 2005 — This year saw Brian through a couple of job changes. He first worked for Cox Communications and then later that year quit that job to start working for Engenio Technologies which later because LSI and then NetApp. We also got sugar gliders this year.
- 2006 — I graduated from Wichita State with my Business Administration degree (Management Information Systems major and minors in Accounting and Management). Rewarded myself with my first brand new car (a 2006 Toyota Corolla we named Bebot) and a puppy. However, since I went straight into grad school to pursue my MBA (still at WSU), I was never home and Molly bonded with Brian more so than me. I was super into poker around this time and even Brian was starting to get into it too.
- 2007 — Brian was super into World of Warcraft around this time. I played some but knew instantly I would get addicted so I tried my best to stay away from it. Plus, all my time was consumed by grad school and my poker addiction. LOL. This year was our first major travel vacation since our honeymoon. We went to Couples Tower Isle in Jamaica and had our first nude beach experience.
- 2008 — Brian started working for Viega. I completed my MBA from Wichita State University. And, we dealt cards on a cruise ship.
- 2009 — We had a lot of firsts this year. We attended Zoobilee for the first time. Brian had his first trip to Germany. He also visited the Philippines for the first time. I completed Leadership Westar. Tita Sol adopted Molly.
- 2010 — This is the year that we spent a lot of time with the Dills. It started out when we rang in the New Year at Kansas City Power & Light with Jay, Becca, and Mama Dill. A month later, we were traveling with them again. This time to San Francisco. Lots of travelling!
- 2011 — We started the year by getting stranded at McCarran International Airport (Las Vegas). That didn’t deter us from traveling, though. We traveled through the East Coast with the Dills that summer and had a lot of firsts. We also got to see James Taylor perform twice: once at Intrust Bank Arena and again at Tanglewood. I also had my first ER trip and my first biopsy.
- 2012 — We attended a few weddings, most notably Cousin Tracy and Jeff’s destination wedding at Coral Cove Resort in Jamaica. I attended the Gina & Tanya Rock the Stage Tour. I got my Zumba Basic 1 License and I took Brian to Nashville for his 38th birthday. We celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary by closing on our house and then I ended the year with a thyroidectomy.
- 2013 — There was Cards for the Cure, a visit from the Orbases, a few appearances on Splurge! Mag, his and hers handguns, first time back at the Filipino ball, Leadership Elite, Brian’s parent’s 40th wedding anniversary, Cards Against Humanity, my first Zumba Instructor Convention, first trip to Minneapolis and Davenport, completed group exercise instructor training and started teaching Zumba for the Greater Wichita YMCA.
- 2014 — This was the year that I attended, not one, but two Zumba instructor conferences was definitely a highlight of the year. I was glad I had the opportunity to attend the 2014 Zumba Instructor Conference in LA because it was the very last one. Later that year I attended the 2014 Zumba Instructor Convention in Orlando. Other highlights include my short stint as a Stella & Dot personal stylist, getting our landscape redone, returning to bowling, trips to San Diego (for work) and the Dominican Republic (for Brian’s 40th birthday), and having Molly rejoin our family. We were blessed with the opportunity to attend our favorite fundraising events: Labor Run, Zoobilee, Lights on the Lake, and Brew Ha-Ha. I completed Leadership Wichita (Class of 2014, baby!) and met some of the truly amazing people. I was also an Adventurous Babe for a year until I resumed my normal boring self.
- 2015 — We hosted a Super Pi Day party. Brian and I completed Citizen Policy Academy. I got to visit New York for the first time. And we added a couple of new family members: Rex and Saki.
- 2016 — Brian and I went on the first ever Zumba cruise where I met J. Perry (he sings many of my favorite Zumba songs) in person for the first time. I also got to meet Max Pizzolante at #ZINCON. I had the opportunity to tour Zumba Home Office. And I finally made 40 Under 40.
- 2017 — I hosted my first Zumbathon and raised money for Kansas Big Brothers and Big Sisters. Brian and I were inducted into the Society of 1865 at WSU. We attended a crap ton of parties and fundraising events. Brian helped design a Keeper of the Plains statue (that still exists today). We visited a couple of places that we’d never been — Alaska and Great Exuma.
- 2018 — There was a lot of Zumba this year. Not only did I attend the Zumba Instructor Convention in Orlando but Brian and I also went on another Zumba cruise. I also picked up a side job teach Zumba classes at VASA Fitness. Brian and I did “Coffee Chats” on our FLIP + CHING page.
- 2019 — Probably the most significant thing to happen this year is that I went all-in with my pickleball obsession — started the Facebook group and even signed up for a lifetime membership to USA Pickleball. We also got to travel internationally twice — Costa Rica in April for Jay’s 40th birthday and Mexico in November for me and Becca’s birthdays.
- 2020 — COVID-19 happened. This was a super strange year. All the gyms were closed and we couldn’t leave our homes for nearly two months. I had a really rough time. Jenni also got married this year. And we managed to survive all year without getting sick until December when we both got COVID.
- 2021 — I started traveling to pickleball tournaments and earned my first ever PPA tournament medal. I played in a bunch of tournaments including APP Delray Beach, Middle States Regional, Great Plains Regional, and some tournaments in Oklahoma City, Lenexa, and Great Bend. I also organized my first pickleball tournament.
- 2022 — Continued to play in pickleball tournaments all over the nation. I traveled to Florida a couple of times — played in my very first US Open in April and then played in the Diamond Amateur Championship in December. I also went to the opposite coast and played in USAP Newport Beach. This was the first year I won money at a pickleball tournament (WPT Kansas City Classic). Brian’s grandmother turned 100 and we attended Erica and Phillip Case’s wedding in Mexico. This was quite a year and my most expensive tournament year.
- 2023 — I continued to play in pickleball tournaments but decided to focus more on local and regional ones. Aside from US Open, USA Pickleball Nationals, one PPA tournament, and one APP tournament, most of my tournaments were local and within driving distance. It was an eventful year and I got to meet a ton of people from all over the world. Brian and I also had our first colonoscopies that year. He doesn’t have to go again for 10 years but I’m due back in 2028.
Now that we are all caught up, let’s talk about 2024. At the end of 2023, after doing the math, and after enduring several blind dates at tournaments, and after having some health issues that I needed to sort out, I decided to take a tournament sabbatical. That didn’t mean I wasn’t playing. I still played recreationally but just took a break from playing in tournaments this year.
I was having some major abdominal cramping in 2023 so toward the end of the year we decided to put me on birth control pills to help regulate my menstrual cycle. That seemed to help but that wasn’t the end of my problems.
At the beginning of the year I decided to switch to monovision. For a couple of years my eyesight had started to deteriorate. I guess that’s what happens when you turn 40. Basically, my brain can’t process the correction from my lenses like it used to. When I have my contact lenses on (which is what I use to correct my nearsightedness), I struggle with reading small print up close including my phone. It got to the point where I actually had to enlarge my phone’s font size. However, when I don’t have my contacts in, I can see up close perfectly fine. My optometrist had suggested monovision the year before when I first started having problems but I thought it was weird so I hesitated to try it but it had gotten so bad earlier this year that I was finally willing to give it a shot. So now, I just wear a contact in one eye (my right eye) and I use that eye to see things far away and my left eye is what I use to see things up close. It’s amazing that it actually works. Although, it did take a bit of an adjustment at first because my brain couldn’t figure out if my computer monitor is up close or far away at first. I’m used to it now for regular day to day activities like driving and such but I do still struggle with pickleball because sometimes the ball is far away and then it’s coming right at you and I just don’t think I’m processing it fast enough. I feel like I would play better with both contact lenses in, at least for playing pickleball. When I start playing in tournaments again, that will be something I’ll have to consider.
On top of all of that, I felt my tennis elbow returning and it actually caused me to have serving yips. I am still kind of yippy although my arm pain is pretty much gone. I had to switch to a drop serve because the yips made my volley serve completely unreliable. While I was nursing my tennis elbow and arm issues, I had to cut back on playing and decided to do more Zumba. Well, then I did too much Zumba and my right knee started bothering me. It got to the point where I had to cut back on that activity as well. Getting old really sucks.
Brian had his own share of issues as well. He actually had three root canals which didn’t really resolve the massive infection issue (which looked like a cyst) in his mouth so then he had to schedule oral surgery but then the week of the oral surgery they couldn’t do it because he had some kind of tonsil infection. The oral surgeon wanted him to take care of his tonsil infection first before doing the oral surgery so that the surgery spot wouldn’t get infected. So then Brian goes to an ear, nose, and throat doctor who decides the best course of action is a tonsillectomy. Leading up to his tonsillectomy, his lymph note was swollen so the ENT doc decided they should biopsy his lymph node. He gets this done on the Monday before the Thursday surgery. Biopsy results in finding cancer in the lymph node. ENT doc thinks cancer in lymph node came from his tonsil so then the tonsillectomy turned into a laryngoscopy and tonsil biopsy. I posted about Brian’s cancer journey here, which isn’t actually over. Brian has his final chemo treatment tomorrow and radiation treatments continue through next week.
Anyway, despite this being my “tournament free” year there were a lot of pickleball events that happened — mostly things I either organized or ran like the mixed doubles tournament at Picklebally’s, InPickle Nation’s (IPN) Wichita Winterfest, the Epic Pickleball Tournament at Wichita Country Club benefiting the Wichita Children’s Home, St. Patty’s Day team tournament at the Pickle Club, IPN 3v3 team tournament, Picklemania MMXXIV benefiting the Rotary Club of Andover, Picklepalooza benefiting Senior Services of Wichita, the Dink Minor League team tournament at Crestview Country Club, and a whole bunch of mini tournaments at the Pickle Club along with the weekly IPN round robin mini tournaments.
I introduced some friends to pickleball and invited them to one of the Newbie Nights at Chicken N Pickle, tried to participate in as many CNP ambassador plays as I could throughout the year, and took advantage of other CNP events. My most favorite one being the CNP Wichita vs Kansas City Ambassador Showdown at the Overland Park location. My friend Christ Pink from St. Louis came to Wichita for work and it was a lot of fun entertaining her on both trips. In addition to rec play or facilitating pickleball, I played in a couple of leagues — a team league with Susie Ternes, Matt Von Feldt, and Austin Winter at the beginning of the year and women’s doubles with Julie Egy at the end of the year.
I think the highlight of the year for me was finally getting to visit Tres Palapas. Brian was supposed to go with us but due to his cancer diagnosis he ended up having to sit out. Though he totally could have gone because his treatments didn’t start until after I returned from Mexico due to delays with getting insurance approvals. Brian also had some trips that I skipped including trips to Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Nebraska. The Nebraska trip he did with his dad to bury his grandmother who passed away earlier this year, a couple of months before her 102nd birthday.
Brian is not so keen on international travel so for his 50th birthday we went to Omaha and for our 22nd wedding anniversary we went to Colorado Springs. That’s actually really funny because we totally forgot that we had already been there.
Lastly, not pickleball or travel related, I had my first jury duty experience. It was quite interesting. Anyway, that pretty much sums up 2024. Can’t wait to see what 2025 has in store. Happy New Year, everyone!
Comment on This
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.
href=”https://www.flickr.com/photos/ching/54134381323/in/datetaken/” title=”Untitled”>
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!
Comment on This
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!
Comment on This
