Heartspring Recognition Breakfast
Posted on June 29, 2017 by Ching under Community, Events.
I attended the inaugural Heartspring Recognition Breakfast a few weeks ago and look who I ran into! What a happy coincidence!
That’s not even the best part. The best part is that Jarrica and I were wearing the exact same Lularoe dress (the Amelia, which is my favorite LLR dress style) just in different prints. Oh, and her friend between us was wearing a Lularoe dress too. She’s wearing the Julia style.
Another nice surprise was seeing Jenn Canare, a girl that my sister went to school with, receive several awards. I thought that was pretty neat.
I had no idea that she’s a huge supporter of Heartspring.
Brian was by himself at the office that week so he couldn’t attend. Since he couldn’t go, I recruited my coworker/friend Faith to be my plus-one. However, something came up and she couldn’t go either. She felt bad for bailing on me but I told her not to worry. I was sure that I’d run into some familiar faces.
Besides running into Jarrica, I actually ran into another coworker who was seated at the same table as me. This is my coworker/friend Kristen. She recently joined the Heartspring board of directors and was a late addition to the event. As luck would have it, there was an empty seat at our table and we got to sit together. That worked out nicely. I didn’t have to be alone after all.
The event was very nice. Heartspring President & CEO David Stupay provided an update about the organization and then they gave out several awards (a bunch of them to Jenn Canare and her team – LOL).
At the end of the event, all of the guests got to take home coffee that was specially blended for Heartspring. That was a really nice touch. I took Faith’s back to the office for her at Kristen’s suggestion. The coffee smelled delicious but I ended up giving mine away. I don’t really drink coffee and Brian is allergic to blueberries.
which reminds me. I should ask Matt, my coworker that I gave my bag of coffee to, and Faith how the coffee was!
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Bowling and Escapology at the Alley
Posted on June 28, 2017 by Ching under Things to Do.
Have you checked out the newest attraction at the Alley yet? It’s pretty amazing.
Brian and I decided to check it out after bowling one night.
The cool thing is that you can enter from the arcade or through the private entrance outside the bowling alley.
Either way, you can’t miss the massive lounge which is the perfect waiting area for large groups. They had nice, dark furnishings, consistent with the escape room theme. Brian and I thought the only thing missing was a server to serve drinks while you waited for your room escape adventure to begin.
You can’t start until you sign an electronic waiver on one of these tablets. I liked that they had three stations which speeds things up a bit specially if you have a large group with you.
At the time we went, they had six escape rooms — four unique ones and they had two of their most popular escape room. I thought this was a great idea should you want to have a little friendly competition going.
Our options were Antidote (the most popular room, which they have two of), Cuban Crisis, the Code, Budapest Express, and Under Pressure.
Brian and I chose Antidote because, besides being the most popular, it was also the least challenging. I really didn’t want to go full-out on Brian’s first escape room experience. I mean, what if we don’t get out? Brian would hate it and he’d never want to do it again.
As it turns out, even though we make great partners in life, we suck at solving puzzles as a team. The good news is we both still had a great time and Brian didn’t hate it. He’s actually open to doing it again.
Most people would consider not getting out of the room a failure but I consider our experience a success. Yes, we sucked, but at least we didn’t fight or, worse yet, end up killing each other. I was really worried that not getting out meant arguing and fighting and getting divorced. LOL.
So if you’re a couple with marital issues but aren’t quite ready for counseling yet, maybe locking yourself in a room with your partner is the answer. I’m joking!
It was really fun, though. I highly recommend it for couples and small groups. They max out at 6 players per room. Although, I have to say, it was very challenging to complete all those puzzles with only two people.
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Saturdate with Grandma – Zoo Edition
Posted on June 27, 2017 by Ching under Family, Food and Drink.
Brian and I took grandma out for an early birthday treat a couple of weeks ago. We went on a zoo date but, before that, we stopped for lunch at Aero Plains Brewing where we knew that LumpiaPalooza would be.
Here’s a picture of Brian chatting with the owner, Cynthia Wilson. She is a relative of Matt, who was our server at 49th State Brewing Company in Anchorage.
We couldn’t decide what to get so we ordered the “Make Me One With Everything” – TWICE! This package consists of five savory lumpia flavors (original with spicy sweet and sour sauce, pulled pork with BBQ sauce, Caribbean veggie with mango salsa, mac and cheese and bacon with BBQ sauce, and mozzarella stick with marinara sauce) and three dessert lumpias (lemon blueberry, chocolate chip cookie dough, and Nutella banana).
Here’s the full menu.
Areo Plains is Brian’s favorite brewery in town so he took advantage of the opportunity to enjoy a glass while we waited for our food.
I also took a picture of Brian and grandma while we were waiting.
And, an obligatory group selfie.
Here are some pictures of our amazing lumpias.
This was grandma’s very first food truck experience so, of course, we had to take a picture with the owner before we left.
Then it was off to the zoo for the rest of grandma’s pre-birthday treat.
Here are some of my favorite pics from our zoo trip that day.
We were going to go on the boat ride but they shut it down early because of the weather. It was rainy the day. It had been raining lightly on and off but then it started to really pour. We didn’t get our boat ride but we got to see a lot of stuff and it was a fun day overall.
Brian and I had a great time and hope that grandma did as well.
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49th State Brewing Company
Posted on June 25, 2017 by Ching under Food and Drink.
No trip anywhere is complete without visiting a local brewery.
This one has a neat restaurant with lots of good food choices.
Grownups only on this dining excursion, for obvious reasons.
The flights were a good deal. They offered several options that you could mix and match or even completely create your own.
I really wanted a set of these cute little pilsners. Alas, they weren’t for sale.
We weren’t that hungry so we just ordered a bunch of appetizers to share.
The chips were just okay. Nothing to write home about.
This was the crab dip, which I enjoyed, even though I think it was fake crab.
These bacon bites were my favorite out of everything we tried.
And, of course, we had to try their chicharrones, which were just okay too. We still like the ones they serve at The Hill the best.
Here’s a pic of Brian trying one of the bacon bites.
It was cloudy and cold the entire time we were in Anchorage but imagine this view had Mother Nature decided to cooperate.
This is the view from 49th State Brewing Company’s deck.
I imagine this would be a neat place to hangout in throughout the summer.
Here’s a panoramic so you get the full effect.
And a group photo of us out on the deck.
After taking a short break for photos on the deck, it was time for dessert. This is the tiramisu that Clayton and Sheryll picked out.
This is a slice of chocolate pie, which was Brian’s pick.
I got creme brûlée.
All four of us shared the appetizers and desserts though, so everyone got to try a little bit of everything. It was a great experience over all with good food, good drinks, and good friends.
Our server Matt was super friendly and, because it’s a small world, we found out that he has family in Wichita. He’s actually loosely related to Cynthia, the owner of Lumpiapalooza and Parsnipity Cafe.
The only thing I would have changed about the entire experience, had I had the foresight to plan the activity, would have been to schedule a brewery tour. I think that would have been really cool. Perhaps we will do so on our next visit because I doubt this will be our last trip to Alaska.
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We’ve Been to Dog Heaven and It’s in Anchorage
Posted on June 20, 2017 by Ching under Travel.
I forgot to mention the best part about SpringHill Suites Anchorage University Lake. There’s an amazing dog park next door and we were told it’s the best in the area. After walking the trail several times, we have to agree.
Here’s a map of the lake that shows the trails and the areas where the dogs can be off-leash. The dog park more suitable for well-behaved dogs though, because it’s completely open with no fences. It’s beautiful but I’m not quite sure how our dogs would fare. We’d probably need to train them really well first.
One of our favorite things while in Anchorage was to walk around the lake every morning after breakfast. There were always lots of friendly dogs around which made us really miss Molly and Saki.
There was no shortage of happy dogs and friendly pet owners.
I had to take pictures of the dog park because it’s the most beautiful park I’d ever seen. Most of the dog parks around here are just fenced grassy areas. This was nature at its finest.
Our surroundings were so breathtaking we had to take a bunch of selfies!
The park is so huge that, even though it’s frequented by lots of visitors (humans and dogs), it never felt overcrowded.
It wasn’t unusual to see dogs roaming about freely with their owners either lagging behind or walking ahead.
This is the part of the lake opposite our hotel. You can kind of see the building through the trees.
The dog park is amazing with breathtaking scenery but wasn’t without risks. There were signs like this in certain parts, which was a bit scary but we never did run into any moose — aggressive or otherwise.
It was pretty cold the entire time that we were in Alaska but it didn’t keep us from enjoying our daily walks around the lake. We loved meeting all the friendly dogs and people. Not only did we get our daily allotment of physical activity, we also got our daily doggy fix.
The sun finally came out on our last day in Alaska so we at least had one jacket-free day and we enjoyed the dog park even more.
We cannot recommend this hotel enough. It would have been way cooler if we had Molly and Saki with us but you’ll love staying at the hotel whether or not you have your fur-babies with you.
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