FLIP + CHING

Pickleball Everywhere

Posted on October 18, 2024 by Ching under Pickleball, Travel.

While we were on the Garden of the Gods trolley tour a couple of months ago, we happened upon Fields Park on the South outskirts of the park. There were people playing on the two courts early in the morning while we were on the trolley tour so we decided that we would go back there after we were done exploring the park.

Alas, when we returned later in the day, there was absolutely no one there. I took pictures of the beautiful courts though. If you’re in the area and have at least three friends willing to play with you, this is a great spot.

I found out later through their local Facebook group that there is usually a group that plays there in the morning (around the time we came by on the trolley tour) but it wraps up around 11 am. If you want to meet people, go around that time. If you want the courts to yourself, it looks like you can have both courts to yourself and don’t have to fight anyone off in the afternoon.

About 40 minutes away, in ritzy Banning Lewis Ranch, we found 8 dedicated pickleball courts at Vista Park. They were having a tournament that day so I couldn’t take photos of just the courts but the satellite view shows the courts, a spacious parking lot, and a nice dog park across the lot.

Each court is fenced and they are lighted so you can play at night. I took a photo of the posted rules. I think this is probably quite a pickleball hotbed for the area which seemed to me a more affluent area in Colorado Springs based off the look of the surrounding homes and neighborhood. If you’re looking to relocate to Colorado Springs and enjoy pickleball, Lewis Banning Ranch is a winner.

It seems pickleball courts are popping up everywhere and they’re the latest popular new amenity that most housing developments and subdivisions now offer. Pickleball fanatics everywhere are also building private pickleball courts in their backyards. People seem to be opting for courts instead of swimming pools these days. Maybe someday I’ll be able to live somewhere that I have access to one of these. In the meantime, I just gotta settle for the options we have here in Wichita.

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Another Day, Another Brewery

Posted on October 14, 2024 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.

Voodoo Brewing Co. is another brewery that we tried on our trip to Colorado in August. The place definitely had an interesting interior decor.

The also had interesting cocktails.

The food was just okay and Brian’s pretzel was very salty.

We were not overly impressed with this place and we may or may not return next time we are in the area.

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Revisiting Cerberus

Posted on October 14, 2024 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.

We went back to Cerberus which was one of our favorites the last time we visited Colorado Springs. We really enjoyed the drinks and the food that we actually went back twice on our previous trip. Naturally, we had to make a stop there again this trip. Folks, it’s still a winner!

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Our 22nd Anniversary

Posted on October 7, 2024 by Ching under Food and Drink, Life.

What did we do on our actual 22nd wedding anniversary? It was pretty low key but did get to check out a new place. Neither of us had been to Elderslie Farm before and we’d heard great things so we decided to start our day there. I’ve had their food before when my friend Chris and I ate at 1400 at the Wichita Art Museum. I really enjoyed it so I knew I would like the food at Bramble Cafe at the farm. The big question was whether Brian would like it.

I’m glad Brian was a good sport and was down to check it out even though it’s quite a bit of a trek from our house. It seems so far away because it’s in Kechi but, when we finally got there, we both concluded that the drive really isn’t that bad. And totally worth it to experience something that you wouldn’t normally in Wichita.

Here’s a picture of the menu for when you decide to go.

Here are some pics from breakfast.

Brian always gets black coffee – no sugar or creamer. He jokes that he likes it black like his soul. I almost always get some sort of mimosa, unless the place offers a specialty breakfast cocktail. Because I’m always down to try new drinks that I’ve never had before.

You can pretty much tell who ordered what based on these food pics.

Naturally, we had to a take a selfie by the sign since it was our first visit there.

Later that night we continued the celebration at Red Rock. It was a place we used to go to all the time when we lived in Northeast Wichita but we rarely ever go there anymore. There are just too many restaurants in the regular rotation.

Our friend Bo works there so we asked for his section.

Here are some pics of our food.

And of course you can’t go there and not get the “something chocolate” dessert. It’s our favorite dessert there.

Cheers to another amazing year! May we have many more years of celebrating ahead of us!

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It’s Been a Wonderful 22 Years

Posted on October 3, 2024 by Ching under Life, Relationship, Travel.

Can you believe that Brian and I have been together for a quarter of a century? Neither can I. When we first met in 1999, I had no idea we would be here in 2024. It’s been (and continues to be) an amazing ride.

While we’ve been together for 25 years, we’ve only been married for 22. For our anniversary this year, we decided to go to Colorado. Why? First, Brian doesn’t really like leaving the United States so while my first choice would have been to travel somewhere exotic that’s not really Brian’s jam. Second, we wanted to visit Garden of the Gods because neither of us had been there since we were young (or so we thought).

You know you’re getting old when you start forgetting shit. We were so excited to go on this trip because we thought we had never been. I don’t know if Brian knew it all along and just didn’t want to let on because he didn’t want me to veto the idea. On the trip up, things started looking familiar (mostly to Brian because I can’t remember anything). While we’re pulling into the hotel parking lot, Brian makes a comment about how we’d stayed there before. I just chalked it up to all Hyatt Place hotels looking the same but Brian was convinced we’d been here. To settle the debate, I looked up my emails from years past and, lo and behold, sure as shit, I had a receipt from that same hotel from three years before. I guess we had stayed there for the Great Plains Regional Tournament at Monument Valley Park in 2021. I felt sure that we stayed closer to the tournament venue but I guess not.

Looking back, we probably picked this hotel because of its proximity to Garden of the Gods and we figured that we could check out the park on my non-playing days, which we actually did and I had just forgotten about it.

I looked up past blog posts and here’s what happened – it started raining on the day we went to check out Garden of the Gods so we took a picture in front of balanced rock and then we spent the rest of the time having lunch at the Trading Post because we didn’t want to risk walking/climbing on the wet, potentially slippery rocks. Since we didn’t really spend a lot of time there and didn’t get to do much exploring, I guess the visit didn’t register and completely got erased from memory. This recent trip turned out to be our do-over.

Brian isn’t really much of a hiker. Actually, he doesn’t care much for walking. So when we were at Garden of the God, we decided to take the trolley tour. I found it amusing because it was the two of us and a bunch of old people. By old people, I mean people way older than us — because I suppose now that we’re around 50 we technically fall under “old people” category as well.

I looked at the other people who seemed to have difficulty walking and such and I felt like the two of us really should have walked/hiked instead of taking the trolley. But, hey, it’s a park donation.

After the fact, we did the free, self-paced, guided audio tour of Garden of the Gods in the Travel Storys app which turned out way better than the trolley tour. First, because you can stop at the various parking lots strategically placed throughout the park to do some exploring and then, as soon as you get in the car and start moving again, the guided tour just picks back up where it left off. You really couldn’t get off the trolley so you were just stuck there. And second, because it is absolutely free. We totally could have saved the $50+ (before tip) that we spent on the trolley tour. Anyway, we just chalked it up to a donation but, if we ever do this again, we are totally skipping the trolley tour and just doing the Travel Storys audio tour instead.

Here’s our Garden of the Gods highlight reel:

We also drove to nearby Manitou Springs to check out the Manitou Spring Penny Arcade. They had all sorts of old school games that didn’t cost hardly anything to play. You could get a $5 roll of quarters and be entertained for hours.

Hands down my most favorite part of this trip was our visit to the Convergence Station (aka Meow Wolf – Denver). I am officially obsessed and want to see all of the Meow Wolf exhibits all over the nation.

Brian and I also got to drive through the Glen Eyrie Castle property. You’re not allowed in the castle unless you have an appointment so these highlights are all we got.

The most underwhelming activity of this trip was the Ghost Town Museum, which I thought would be more like Old Cowtown Museum but sadly it wasn’t anywhere close. I joked to Brian that I can see why it’s a “Ghost Town.” LOL.