Our First AirBnB Experience
Posted on July 7, 2022 by Ching under Travel.
I’d been trying to convince Brian to use an AirBnB for years. Being a very paranoid person, he was always hesitant. He preferred to stay in hotels. Always. For our most recent trip to St. Louis, we didn’t have a choice. Hotels were crazy expensive around the time of our trip due to some very popular baseball games. The same hotel that we stayed at last year that we paid about $120 per night for cost twice that amount. That’s how I finally managed to convince Brian to try an AirBnB.
Brian pored over several options with me one night and we decided on a two bedroom and one bath carriage house within walking distance from the tournament venue. We shared the rental with our friend Chris Wilson who took one of the bedrooms. Brian and I took the other. It worked out great.
The place was nice enough but the location was absolutely perfect. I thought the giraffe in our closet was strange so I took a pic with it, but it was actually part of a game that our hosts had cooked up. You had to correctly guess the number of giraffes in the apartment. It kept us entertained one day when we were stuck inside due to rain. We went room to room and looked in every nook and cranny, counting all the giraffes. We got it right and won a bottle of wine, which we couldn’t claim because we were leaving the next morning. I guess we will just have to claim it on our next trip back — except the Middle States Diamond Regional pickleball tournament is moving to Springfield next year so it won’t be in St. Louis. I’m sure we will come up with another reason to visit.
Our first AirBnB experience was a huge success overall. I finally convinced Brian that AirBnBs are the way to go if we want to save money on future trips. Besides, it’s easier to find an AirBnB that is pet friendly so we could even bring Saki with us rather than boarding her, which I always feel really bad about. Anyway, that’s all for now. Until next time, GNG.
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El Burro Loco
Posted on July 6, 2022 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
Whenever we travel with our pickleball pals — particularly Donnie and Tiffany Lesperance — we always end up eating tons of Mexican food. That’s all Donnie and Tiffany ever want to eat. Our recent trip to St. Louis was no exception.
There are five dishes pictured because Chris Wilson was also with us. Chris split our AirBnB with us on this trip. More on that next post! Until then, GNG.
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Middle States Diamond Regional
Posted on July 6, 2022 by Ching under Pickleball, Travel.
Every time I try to get caught up, I fall further and further behind on the blog. There’s just so much stuff going on and, when I had planned to compete in one tournament per month at the beginning of the year, I completely underestimated how many tournaments there truly are — if I count the local ones. It’s been more like a tournament every week. And, even then, I have to really pick and choose because there are often multiple tournaments going on in the same weekend.
Despite not having the best results, I really enjoyed participating in the Middle States Regional pickleball tournament last year so Brian and I traveled to St. Louis again this year. The tournament was held at the same location, Dwight Davis Tennis Center, but the difference is, instead of being a “golden ticket” event for Nationals, the regional tournaments are now qualifiers for the Diamond Amateur Championships. Click here for an explanation of how you qualify for Nationals. It’s not as straight forward as it used to be, unless you play in one of the National Championship Series tournaments, which are the new “golden ticket” tournaments rather than regionals.
This tournament is most memorable to me because it was my first ever triple crown. It’s the best results I’ve ever gotten in any tournament that I’ve participated in so far (thanks to my awesome partners Kendra Wicks and Ramon Lozano)…
- 3.0 19+, 35+ women’s singles – GOLD
- 3.0 19+ women’s doubles – GOLD
- 3.5 35+ mixed doubles – GOLD
Here are some podium pics:
Play was canceled on the first day due to rain so I ended up playing both women’s doubles and women’s singles on the same day. Thankfully, due to multiple tournaments happening on the same weekend, the field was a lot smaller this year (about 200 players less than last year) so I didn’t have to play that many games. Women’s doubles and singles were both round robin formats rather than a regular double elimination bracket. Since my rating is still pretty low, I got to play 3.0 which was pretty manageable for me. The biggest challenge I had was getting combined with 19+ age group for singles. I was literally the oldest person in our division! But I pulled through and won gold.
Ramon and I had a pretty smooth run in mixed doubles. We played in the exact same division we played in last year (with different partners). I think we had an easier time for a couple of reasons: (a) there were fewer teams playing this year, and (b) we’d both improved a lot since last year. I guess it’s also worth mentioning that we make a pretty good team. Ramon is easily one of my most favorite mixed doubles partners. He is always so encouraging and patient.
Here are a few more pics from the tournament…
I think the weather this year was better than last year but not by much. LOL. It was a fun, productive trip overall and I was super happy with my results because it qualified me to compete in the Diamond Amateur Championships at Pictona in Holly Hill, Florida in December.
Until next time, GNG.
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Dream Team Doubles at Riverside
Posted on June 28, 2022 by Ching under Community, Pickleball.
Last month we held our first Dream Team Doubles pickleball tournament at Ralph Wulz Riverside Tennis Center. We ended up with six teams of four — two men and two women — to complete for the title of ultimate team champion. It was my first time running a mini tournament with this specific format (women’s doubles, men’s doubles, and two mixed doubles) and I was so proud of myself for staying right on schedule. I think I’m starting to get the hang of this!
This is the Excel template that I created specifically for the round robin portion this event. After five rounds of play, which gave everyone a chance to play against all the other teams in the tournament, we did a single elimination bracket.
Personally, I like the round robin + single elimination format compared to a double elimination format because if you have a rough day then you could go 0-2 (meaning play twice, lose twice and be out) and only play a couple of matches. The round robin + single elimination ensures everyone gets to play lots of games, which in turn is way more fun. Even if you do end up finishing last, you still got to play a ton.
These were the two teams that made it to the championship round — Team Topps (Antwome Topps, Jody Vinson, Lesli Toubassi, and Chris Wilson) and 1 Right 3 Wrongs (Caesar Naftzger, Cindy Egan, Vickie Hancock, and Cory Sager). It was a really tight match. Actually, all of the matches were super close and some matches even came down to a point or two.
Team Topps prevailed that day with their solid play. Congratulations to all! Can’t wait until we do this again. Noi?
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Wichita Wind Surge Ballgame
Posted on June 25, 2022 by Ching under Things to Do.
I finally got a chance to check out a Wind Surge baseball game (part of it anyway) earlier this week. Brian went a couple of times already. One time he was at the Coors Light Party Porch with Jenni and Adam and then another time he was in general admission with my Rotary club.
Here are some pictures they took at the Coors Light Party Porch, in case you are wondering what it’s like up there.
Here are some pictures from the Fidelity Bank Bravely Onward Club.
Brian said the food was better here because all they got were burgers and hotdogs at the Coors Light Party Porch. And no dessert, only cookies.
Besides getting fed, the best part of the ballgame was running into Danielle Dillon and Crystal Torres, both of whom I hadn’t seen in ages.
We had a great time at the ballpark despite the weather not being ideal.
Until next time, GNG.
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