Crossing Items Off the Bucket List
Posted on August 25, 2013 by Ching under Things to Do, Travel, Zumba.
Zumba Instructor Convention — CHECK!
As many of you know, I teach Zumba fitness classes in what little spare time I have. It’s actually really funny how that came about. I got licensed to teach Zumba (and joined the Zumba Instructor Network) for one reason only. I had heard about the Zumba Instructor Convention in Orlando, Florida from several Zumba instructors and wanted to experience it first hand. Only instructors are eligible to attend so, naturally, I got licensed. LOL.
When I went through Basic 1 training last year I honestly had no intention of teaching. I’m teaching now (because I have to cover my monthly ZIN fee somehow) and I actually enjoy it. I actually prefer teaching a class than taking a class these days. I realized that, when I take other people’s Zumba classes, there are inevitably a couple of songs that I really don’t like and can’t get into. When I’m the instructor, I’m in control of the music, so I only do the songs that I like to do (keeping the Zumba formula in mind, of course).
I officially became a ZIN member in April 2012. However, at that point, convention registration had already been open for a couple of months and all of the workshops and training sessions were full. It didn’t make sense for me to go. So I vowed that I would attend the convention in 2013. Let’s cross that off the bucket list, shall we?
There are no words to describe the amazing experience that is the Zumba Instructor Convention. There’s so much to do and so little time to do it. There are hundreds of training sessions, workshops, and master classes to choose from. I can see why instructors go year after year. Anyone who is someone in the Zumba world is at the convention so it’s a great opportunity to catch all of your Zumba idols in one place. Besides that, I also got to meet some really cool people from all around the world. There were even some instructors who traveled all the way from the Philippines to attend. That’s how huge this event is. Here are some of my favorite pictures.
Keoni Manuel (above left) is a ZIN member who owns his own dance fitness studio in Hawaii. He presented Hawaiian Dreams with Zumba Education Specialist (ZES) Madalene Aponte (below).
Jessica and Tony Witt (above right) are a both Zumba Education Specialists and Zumba International Presenters who are based in the Overland Park/Kansas City area. Tony and Jessica are two of the 13 original Zumba Education Specialists who were hand-picked by Beto Perez, the man who originated Zumba. Jessica is co-creator of the Zumba Kids + Kids Jr. (formerly Zumbatomic). They own Amore Dance in Overland Park.
Madalene Aponte (above left) is the ZES for Washington, Hawaii, and Alaska. She owns Madalene’z Dancefit Studio in Pearl City, Hawaii. She taught my Zumba Toning training at the convention. She is amazing. Seriously. I only took Zumba Toning because the Aqua Zumba training sessions were already full, but I’m actually excited about Zumba Toning now.
The nerdy looking guy on the right is Zumba Fitness CEO Alberto Perlman. While Beto is the face of Zumba, Mr. Perlman is the brains. Being nerdy myself, I had to get a photo with the CEO. LOL.
This photo of me with Zumba celebrity Gina Grant and Jessica Witt, co-creators of Zumba Kids + Kids Jr. (formerly Zumbatomic), taken right before our training.
Lindsey Taylor (another Zumba superstar), Gina, and Jessica presented my Zumba Kids + Kids Jr. training. What a treat! We had three all stars all in one place. We also had several other Zumba Education Specialists assist because we easily had four hundred participants in the class.
Lindsey looks freakin’ amazing for someone who just had a baby. That’s really what makes her a perfect fit for the Zumbini and Zumba Kids programs. On the right is a picture of me with ZES all star Tony, Jessica’s other half. They are truly a Zumba power couple.
On the left is a photo of me with Zumba International Presenter Heidy Torres. Huge thanks to Brian for spotting her for me so I could get a photo.
On the right is Zumba legend Jani Roberts. She is the brains behind Zumba Toning and presented the Zumba Warrior learning capsule at the 2013 Zumba Instructor Convention. I didn’t take the Zumba Warrior session but heard lots of great things about the workshop. Many of us are hoping that Zumba Warrior becomes a full-fledged Zumba program like Aqua Zumba, Zumba Sentao, Zumba Toning, Zumba Gold, etc.
You all know these pretty ladies already. They’re the Kansas crew. Starting left from the top: Pat, Andra, Christina, Jeri, and me. We were well-represented at convention.
Speaking of well-represented, so was the Philippines.
Here are pictures of some of the cool instructors I met at convention…
Trish (left) is a Vietnamese Zumba instructor based in Auburn, Washington. She not only looks Filipino, but she’s had the opportunity to teach Zumba in the Philippines. Michael (right) fulfilled his dream of performing a Zumba routine alongside Beto. He will be featured in Zumba’s first anti-bullying video which was filmed right there during the kick off session at convention.
Natalia (left) and Iris (right) are both Florida locals who came to convention together.
Carolyn (left) is a Filipino teacher in Maryland. Hali (right) owns Come On Get Happy cardio dance and fitness studio in Cocoa Beach, Florida.
I met so many cool people. I can’t post all of their photos here.
Out of all of the photos, this is my favorite by far. Brian got a photo with Gina even before I did. Of course, he wasn’t cooped up in training all day the entire time. I think next year I may give him a list of Zumba celebrities and send him on a little photo scavenger hunt. LOL.
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The Peabody Orlando Pool at Night
Posted on August 24, 2013 by Ching under Travel.
Here are some pictures of the Peabody pool at night.
Our room is the one that’s lit up on the upper left corner.
I really wish that we were on a higher floor. Other than that, our room was perfect.
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The Peabody Orlando
Posted on August 24, 2013 by Ching under Travel.
While attending the 2013 Zumba Instructor Convention, Brian and I stayed at the Peabody Orlando. Many of the activities happen in the Peabody convention center area like the kick off and keynote, live concert, and the ZIN (Zumba Instructor Network) soiree or costume/theme party so this is really the way to go. That way if you ever dress up in heels you don’t have to walk several miles, which is what the people who stayed at the Hilton had to do every time because there isn’t a faster way around than to go through the massive Orange County Convention Center (OCCC).
At least there are covered walkways between the Peabody, OCCC, and the Hilton so you don’t have to cross any streets and you’re not walking in the rain. It’s still a long walk, though. Brian and I definitely got our exercise just in walking alone.
Anyway, I think everyone had the same idea (of staying at the Peabody) because this is what greeted us when we arrived at the hotel. The check in lines were long pretty much all day on Wednesday, which is when most people arrived. Brian and I agreed that, if we do this again, we will plan to arrive a day or two before convention registration begins to avoid the craziness at the check in desk.
We got an amazing corner room on the fifth floor with great views of the marsh on one side and the Peabody pool on the other. Since our room was on the corner, two of our walls consisted of floor to ceiling windows. It was awesome. We kept the curtains open pretty much the entire time.
It was even fun to watch the rain fall outside. (It rained a lot while we were there.)
The downside of our amazing pool view is that they have a great view of us also. If there is one thing I would change, I would request a room on a higher floor. Same exact corner room, just higher up, because Brian and I like to walk around naked a lot. LOL. (Making a mental note for our next trip.)
While I was most excited about our floor to ceiling windows and fantastic view, Brian was most excited about the electric mirror with the built-in TV. He was like, “I’d probably get around faster in the morning if we had one of these at home.” Right now he spends 30 minutes every morning in our breakfast area in the kitchen to watch Wake Up with Al while eating his cereal.
The mirror TV had to be Brian’s favorite room amenity, hands down.
I thought the duck soaps were a nice touch also. The housekeeper assigned to our section is a Filipina. I never did meet her but Brian had a chance to visit with her on a couple of occasions while he was waiting for me in between sessions. Anyway, she brought us three of these duck soaps during the course of our five-night stay. I took two of them home because I thought they were cute. I left the other one there because I accidentally dropped it and broke its bill. I didn’t want a defective duck. LOL.
The Peabody has an amazing fitness center with separate areas for cardio, core work, and weights. The fitness center also has a 1,000 square-foot studio for group fitness exercise and a 500 square-foot studio dedicated to spinning.
They have top of the line Cybex and Octane cardio machines that even have iPod hook ups. Seriously. This hotel fitness center puts most gyms to shame.
Brian and I were so impressed that we just had to use it. LOL. I normally get up to take my medication at 4 AM Central time so in Orlando I had to get up at 5 AM to take it. The gym opens at 5:30 AM each morning so we had this crazy idea to work out every morning at 5:30 AM. Well, it only worked the first morning because after the first full day of convention I was so exhausted that I could barely get up to take my pill the next day. It was pretty much that way the rest of our stay. I’m glad we got to experience the fitness center at least once, though.
Anyway, we may have been the first ones there that morning but we weren’t alone. Several people had the same idea. Shortly after we started working out there was a group of ten or so people who went into the group exercise studio for an early morning Zumba class. I was tempted to join them, but I didn’t want to intrude on their private Zumba session. There were also a couple of other folks in the cardio room and a few people in the weight room. There were a lot more people than I expected to be awake before 6 AM for sure but nothing that the 8,000 square-foot fitness center couldn’t accommodate.
Also check out the Peabody web site for the weekly group fitness schedule. They have core strengthening classes, yoga, pilates, spin, cardio, conditioning, and boot camp classes throughout the week. Like I said, the hotel gym at the Peabody is even better than some of the gyms we have here in Wichita. That alone is worth the stay.
This is a picture of the spa gift shop. We went there one day to see if they could do something about Brian’s foot blisters. They didn’t have a so solution for him other than to go to Walgreens or CVS for some foot/blister pads. The Peabody Orlando has its limitations after all.
While Brian got to spend a lot of time at the pool, I didn’t get to hang out at the pool until my last day. As soon as my final workshop (Mastering the Warm Up and Cool Down with Tony Witt) was over, we went straight for the pool. Apparently, everyone had the same idea because even Gina Grant was there.
Here’s a picture of Brian and Christina at the pool.
Once all the Zumba convention took over the pool, it wasn’t long before a random Aqua Zumba session broke out. Yep. That’s Gina at the front leading the crowd.
Her kids even joined in.
Here’s another one of Brian and Christina. I’m really glad that Christina joined us because Brian’s a bit of a party pooper. He wouldn’t go to the water slide with me. Christina and I did it together and had a blast.
Anyway, there’s so much to do just in the hotel itself that you could have a great time without leaving the premise, which is pretty much what Brian ended up doing because it wouldn’t stop raining. It rained every single day that we were there. Lucky for me, I was indoors most of the time.
Mental note for next time though: stay a few days longer so we can actually do some sight-seeing. We were there for five days, but it went in the blink of an eye. We woke up one day and it was time to leave. We requested that Rahi (the same driver who greeted us at the airport) pick us up from the hotel and drive us back to the airport because he did a really good job.
He was so prompt. As soon as our plane landed in Orlando (MCO), we even got a text message on Brian’s phone that he was waiting for us. Sure enough, he was there at baggage claim dressed in a spiffy suit, holding a tablet with “BRIAN BRUBAKER” displayed on the screen.
He knew what we looked like but he had the same sign on his tablet when he came to pick us up on our departure. For our next trip, we will definitely request Rahi again for our driver. Also definitely staying at the Peabody. It’s the best way to go when you’re attending the Zumba Instructor Convention. Until next year!
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Airport Eats
Posted on August 23, 2013 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
I hate long layovers at the airport. I prefer to time it just right so I am ready to board the next plane as soon as I get off the previous one. Brian, on the other hand, is always paranoid that he will miss his connection so he likes long layovers. He makes our travel arrangements most of the time so I’m at his mercy.
What to do when life hands you lemons? Well, you make lemonade of course. So we used the long layovers to sample some of the airport food. First stop: Berghoff Cafe at Chicago O’Hare.
Out of all the restaurants in our terminal, Berghoff got the best reviews. We were there too early for lunch though, so I couldn’t get a reuben which is what everyone on FourSquare recommended.
We didn’t eat breakfast before we left Wichita so it worked out perfect actually. Brian had a breakfast wrap and coffee. I had an omelet with toast and jelly.
As with most airports restaurants, Berghoff uses cheap plastic utensils and my fork broke halfway through my breakfast meal. If anyone at Berghoff is reading, switch to Knorks please. Anyway, the breakfast wrap is pretty much an omelet wrapped in a tortilla. It’s cheaper and way easier to eat. No need to use the cheap forks. So if you go and get breakfast there, my advice is to get a breakfast wrap. You can even eat it as you’re running to your gate. LOL.
On the way home Brian gave me a four hour layover in Houston. Why? I have no idea. Houston is never as busy as Chicago or Atlanta. I was bored out of my mind. I decided to eat at the Chili’s despite the horrible reviews on FourSquare. Most of the negative reviews revolved around the slow service, which wasn’t really an issue for me as I had four hours to kill.
I had the appetizer sampler with the big bites, Southwest eggrolls, and spinach dip. The food was decent and the service wasn’t too bad. Everyone was correct about the slowness, though. Anyway, they let me charge my phone and hang out at the bar even after I finished my meal so I can’t complain. What I will complain about though, is my four-hour layover. Never again.
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Mike’s Wine Dive
Posted on August 13, 2013 by Ching under Food and Drink, Relationship.
On Saturday, the 4,020th day of marriage (also known as our 11th wedding anniversary), we decided to have a low key dinner at Mike’s Wine Dive. I think the last documented time we were there was Brian’s birthday a couple of years ago, so it has been a while. For our anniversary dinner, we wanted to pick a great restaurant that we don’t normally go to. Mike’s made Wine Spectator a few years already and we hadn’t been in ages, so Mike’s definitely fit the bill.
We started with Andrea’s hummus platter and deviled eggs.
Don’t let the presentation fool you. Yes, it looks messy and unappealing but it is so darn delicious. I wish they’d serve them by the dozen. LOL.
Brian shared a carafe of sangria with me.
The sangria at Mike’s is delicious. If I was a “happy hour” kind of girl, I’d be at Mike’s every night after work just for the sangria. LOL.
It’s so good, even Brian likes it.
Normally I would get the lobster mac & cheese, but we didn’t want to go too crazy so we opted for a smaller meal — chicken piccata with mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables. Brian doesn’t like capers, but I thought they went great with the email. Mashed potatoes could have used more flavor, but I like my food really salty so it’s probably just me. It was fine and I didn’t complain.
Much to my disappointment the chocolate bag has been discontinued. What they had instead are these lame chocolate bowls. Execution is similar but it’s just not the same. The chocolate bag was awesome. This was just okay. It was enough to satiate my sugar craving, though.
Our server Corina was nice. She even took our photo. I’m not posting it because it’s not very good. Not because of her, but because of me. I just wasn’t feeling pretty that day. I wore my hair straight, which I haven’t done in a couple of years, and it looked really flat. That, and I’ve been feeling fat lately. Eating out probably isn’t helping but, hey, how often do you get to celebrate an 11th wedding anniversary? Some people never get there.
Here’s how we’ve celebrated in previous years…
2003: We went to dinner at Red Rock, followed by dancing at Copa Cabana and America’s Pub.
2004: Couples massage at Healing Waters and weekend at Country Club Plaza in Kansas City.
2005: Most of our third anniversary was spent at the Historic Campbell Castle. We stayed in The Royal Court, the inn’s best room, for two nights. There may or may not have been a sex tape as a result of this weekend. 😉 Just kidding! We also got a couples massage at Healing Waters, our then favorite spa.
2006: We celebrated by going to Harrah’s NKC. We both played in a poker tournament. Brian took second place and won $400+ dollars.
2007: This was a big one because it was our fifth wedding anniversary. We wanted to do something special, but we couldn’t celebrate in August because I was in grad school and I didn’t want to miss classes or be unprepared for the start of the semester. We ended up celebrating a month early. We spent seven days at an all-inclusive resort in Jamaica and met some really cool people. For our actual anniversary weekend, we went to the drive-in. It was my first time.
2008: Our anniversary was sandwiched between a trip to Vegas for Cory and April’s wedding and then the WPT APL poker cruise so we pretty much just laid low. Brian got a new lawnmower.
2009: Couples massage at Serenity, Midwest Rockfest, Tanganyika. Nothing major since we had our trip to the Philippines coming up and we were focused on that.
2010: Dinner at Bonefish and dancing at Suede. We celebrated early because we had Logan stay with us during our actual anniversary weekend. I think this was the catalyst for our Friday night salsa ritual. We also went to see the Rush Time Machine Tour last August.
2011: This was the most exciting wedding anniversary celebration ever. I got an ambulance ride to the ER following dinner. Follow the link for the full story.
2012: We celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary by closing on our house. Yup. We timed it so we actually signed papers on August 10. The real celebration happened in Kansas City a few days later, when we went to watch Journey perform — in the rain.
2013: This year we just had a low key dinner at Mike’s Wine Dive then went to see The Wolverine (great movie, by the way). The celebration continues later this week in Orlando. Of course, we celebrate our marriage everyday not just during our anniversary week. And that, my friends, is how you get to almost 15 years of being together.
Happy anniversary, baby!
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