Tomorrow is the Final Day of Riverfest
Posted on June 5, 2015 by Ching under Events, Things to Do.
I hope you’ve taken time this week to enjoy the Wichita River Festival. It only happens once a year after all. If you missed it, I guess there’s always next year.
Brian and I got to walk in the Sundown Parade on opening night.
Faith and her kids were there too. It was a ton of fun. Next year I’m thinking of inviting my little sister Nickira to walk in the parade with us. You can see more pictures here.
Last Saturday we did Zumba at Ackerman’s Backyard at Riverfest.
It was such a blast!
I’m so grateful to Pat for organizing the event.
Here’s a picture of me and Missy below.
After doing Zumba, Brian and I waited in line to for the Wichita Wagonmasters River Boat Tour. I’d been to Riverfest before but I’d never had the patience to wait in line for one of the boat tours. This time we decided to wait it out because my friend Bill who is a Wagonmaster was the “voice” or tour guide.
It was super fun and totally worth the wait. The river boat tour is definitely my favorite event at Riverfest.
Tomorrow is your last chance to check out the 2015 Wichita River Festival and participate in some of the fun events. I encourage you to swing by and check out the festivities because it’s not happening again until next year. See you there!
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#HowOldRobot
Posted on May 31, 2015 by Ching under Things to Do, Web.
Ever wondered how old you look? Wonder no more. Microsoft came up with a web site to help with just that. I played with it a few weeks ago. Here are the lovely results.
The first photo I tried had me older than mom.
I just couldn’t have that so I had to try another. Much better. LOL.
I tried one where I’m by myself so my age isn’t influenced by others in the photo.
It got better still.
Here’s one where it said I looked younger than Jenni.
These two photos are the best results I got.
What I learned from this is that I look older next to mom and younger next to Brian. I’m just going to stand next to Brian from now on and stay are far away from mom as possible in photos. LOL.
Anyway, it’s kind of interesting. You should check out the site and try your own photos.
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Red Ginger
Posted on May 31, 2015 by Ching under Travel.
I missed posting photos of our lunch at Red Ginger. It was our final meal in Charlotte before heading home. Alex and Sunni were on different flights than me and David but our flights all left around the same time so the four of us were able to have one final lunch together and we were able to travel to the airport together.
I’m just glad that I ended up on the same flight as David even though I booked my flight much later and just picked the cheapest roundtrip fare I could find. LOL. It’s so much nicer to travel with someone. Layovers are so boring when you’re alone.
But I digress, here are the food pictures…
The food was good but all of these benihana type places tend to be very similar. I liked Red Ginger but it’s not really that cool since we have places just like these in Wichita. Several in fact. Would have liked to have tried another restaurant that’s different that what we have in Wichita but we just got tired of walking around and looking for a place to eat. Red Ginger seemed like a safe bet.
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NASCAR Hall of Fame
Posted on May 25, 2015 by Ching under Things to Do, Travel.
No trip to North Carolina is complete without checking out the NASCAR Hall of Fame. As luck would have it, the NASCAR Hall of Fame just happened to be right next to the my hotel and the convention center. It was super convenient. And, the conference organizers rented out the whole facility for the evening for our “special event” during CS Week.
The highlight of the event for me was definitely getting this photo with NASCAR legend Junior Johnson, who was there promoting Midnight Moon and signing autographs.
They were doing free tastings of Midnight Moon, handmade moonshine based on Junior Johnson’s family recipe. Despite all of the delicious varieties, I skipped the moonshine tasting in favor of getting a picture with Junior. I’m sure it’s delicious but Brian told me that it’s really strong and warned me to stay the away from it.
Here are a few more pictures from the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
I’m really glad I had the opportunity to attend this conference because I don’t know if I would have ever seen the NASCAR Hall of Fame otherwise (it wasn’t on the bucket list) and also it was a super duper fantastic conference. (I’m sure I’ve mentioned it several times already but one of my favorite TED speakers, Shawn Achor, was our keynote speaker on the second day.)
CS Week rented the whole facility for our “special event” so we were free to explore every inch of the museum. It was awesome! I think the look on my face in this photo pretty much sums it up.
This is a racing simulator like none other. You get into real cars and race other people. Alex and I didn’t want to stand in the long line so we skipped it.
I heard it was really fun, though.
There was also a pit crew simulation. They had two stations set up so that you could compete with another group to see who could do it faster.
Back on the main level, there was a bluegrass band.
There was also lots and lots of food. There were food stations and bars at every level of the museum so you didn’t have to hungry.
I was in sensory overload so I missed taking pictures of the rest of the food but I had to take a picture of this one. As if bread pudding weren’t decadent enough. They made theirs with Krispy Kreme donuts!
Alex and I got some souvenir photos.
I’m not a huge NASCAR fan but the NASCAR Hall of Fame is a really cool museum. There were so many interactive things on every level. I couldn’t take a picture of everything.
Brian was jealous about this part of the trip. I think he would have really enjoyed the NASCAR Hall of Fame. We may have to go back to he can experience it.
See you again soon, Charlotte!
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2015 NPC Midway USA Championships
Posted on May 23, 2015 by Ching under Events.
I can’t speak for Brian but I’ve been stuck in a rut lately and decided I needed some inspiration. As luck would have it, some of our friends were competing in a fitness competition so I ended up buying us a couple of front row tickets for that. Brian didn’t mind going because he knew he’d be looking at half-naked women all evening.
Here are some pictures from the show for you guys to enjoy…
Some of the classes were stacked while others only had one, two, or a handful of entrants. Lots of competitors in this class.
Top five below.
With their medals.
Next class.
Top five with medals.
Another class.
Top five with medals.
Then the winners of each class take the stage to be judged together. They’re competing for the overall title.
Every inch of their body is scrutinized by the discerning judges.
They’re even made to switch places. It’s quite intense. Who do you think won this one?
Then we go through the whole thing all over again for the open classes. I don’t really know much about fitness competitions but I gathered, from watching all of the contestants, the open classes are tougher. At least in novice, previous winners can’t compete. In the open classes you’re competing with pros.
Top five with medals.
Next class.
One of the winners from novice made the top five.
Another class.
Top five.
Again the winners are judged together for the honor of overall winner.
Check him out.
I don’t know about you, but I prefer watching the women.
Our friend Jeanne is rightmost in the above photo and leftmost below.
Here’s a video of Jeanne.
These women had the most amazing booties. Actually, I take that back. They had amazing everything.
Here’s our friend Amanda. There were lots of competitors in her class.
Here’s a video of the introductions.
She got third in the novice class.
Here she is again in open.
Video from the open class.
There was some stiff competition but she managed to take home fifth.
Morgan was the open bikini overall champion.
Here are some videos of posing routines.
Winners get to do a pose down.
I’m so glad we were able to watch our friend Jeanne compete.
I don’t know about Brian I’m totally inspired. I’m up 20 pounds from my pre-thyroidectomy weight and I’m so ready to start shedding my excess baggage.
Congrats to all of the winners and all of the competitors last weekend. You guys are an inspiration to us all!
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