Another Year, Another Birthday
Posted on November 5, 2017 by Ching under Food and Drink, Life.
Last month was a very festive month. We celebrated almost every single day. Then again, I guess that’s just kind of how we are. We love living life and celebrate every moment. Here are some of the things that happened leading up to our trip to Great Exuma, Bahamas.
First, there was our escape room adventure with Kate and Deanna. Remember how we tried to do it last month but couldn’t do it because Escapology changed their hours on me so they were closed on the day we went? Well, we finally made it happen. We did the Cuban Crisis room and we escaped!
We couldn’t have done it without Kate, though. She was whiz at the puzzles.
We also hit all of our favorite restaurants during my birthday month.
We really shouldn’t have been eating out but your birthday month is a good excuse to fall off the wagon. Anyway, I won’t post all of the food pictures. I’ll just post one picture from each place and let you guys figure out where we went.
Besides our favorite restaurants, we also had the opportunity to try a new place we’d never dined at before when we met a couple of my Leadership Wichita classmates (Teresa and Jason) for lunch a couple of weeks ago. I will post all of these food pics because it was a first for all of us.
We ate at the Rail at Union Station because Teresa wanted to try one of the restaurants in the area as she hadn’t tried any of them yet. I suggested the Rail since I’d already been to the Kitchen. I actually suggested Mumbai Rail, which confused the heck out of Teresa who got there first. Apparently, Mumbai Rail is no more and has been rebranded as the Rail Scratch Cocktails.
We were all very worried at first because there was no one else at the restaurant besides our group for lunch. You know how the really great places are always busy and the terrible places are dead? We were sort of thinking along those lines. But we were already there and it was too late to back out.
Anyway, the food was surprisingly fabulous. At least, my meal was very tasty and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The quality of the food was definitely not representative of the restaurants lack of patrons. I later found a news article (through my friend Alicia who told me that she thought the restaurant had closed for good) that said the restaurant would no longer be open for lunch. The article was written back in June. I’m guessing people still don’t know that they’re open for lunch.
Which was good for us because it meant great food and no wait. LOL. Probably not great business, though. I hope the restaurant survives because I really did enjoy our lunch. Of course, the great company had a lot to do with that but I really did like their food. I actually want to go back at some point.
This was on Thursday, October 26, final day before departure. We flew out of the Wichita airport very early the next day.
Anyway, I’m sure you’re really anxious to hear about our trip to the Bahamas. I’ve got a few other things that I need to catch up on and then I’ll be able to devote some attention to a full-fledged trip recap. I hoping to do that by the end of the week so check back soon.
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Best Zumba Surprise Ever
Posted on October 26, 2017 by Ching under Zumba.
Missy, Brynden, and Andrea totally got me last week. Apparently, Andrea knew that Missy and Brynden were coming to 5:15 AM Zumba but they kept it a secret so they could surprise me. Not only did they surprise me by showing up to my early morning class but all three of them wore matching outfits to boot!
They really made my day!
These girls are the best Zumba besties ever!
This is how thrilled I was to see them in class that morning.
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Win a Ford for Kids’ Sake Appreciation Event
Posted on October 20, 2017 by Ching under Events.
The DeVaughns hosted an appreciation event over the weekend for everyone who helped with the Win a Ford for Kids’ Sake campaign. Here are some pictures.
Brian got to check out their fancy wine cellar.
There was also beer pong in the basement.
Brian and I had a great time. It was super nice of Susan and Dustin to open up their home to everyone and host the appreciation event.
It gave Brian and I a taste of what grownup parties are like. LOL. There are days when I think we’ve finally got this adulating thing down and then when we get a glimpse of how other people our age host parties, it makes me realize that we live and act like a couple of frat boys.
We can grow old but we may never grow up.
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ICT Bloktoberfest 2017
Posted on October 20, 2017 by Ching under Events.
It has been quite a festive couple of months. First, there was Zoobilee. Then Ava’s Army Pub Crawl and the Home for Doc Gala. Then Greater Andover Days and Strike a Pose! Then Haus of Brews. The fun times never end!
We actually planned to take a break last weekend but, as luck would have it, we ended up winning tickets to the beer tasting event at ICT Bloktoberfest. We won the Bloktoberfest Beer Fest tickets from the Cards Against Humanity Night event at Hopping Gnome Brewery, of all places!
I think the universe just really wanted us to be out and about this weekend.
I’m so glad we decided to go because the weather was fabulous! Here are few pictures from Friday night…
We got there early to ensure we got good parking but that also meant we got a head start on the beer tasting.
There were over 70 beers to try (see the beer tasting lineup below) but, honestly, Brian just kept going back to his favorites.
There were other things to try also like whiskey and gin.
Here’s a picture of us with one of my coworkers who we ran into at the event.
It was a beautiful evening and they set up a very nice open area with various yard games. The #TogetherWichita sign was also there.
Of course, Brian and I got a selfie with it.
Here’s a better one.
Brian also wanted a picture with this car.
Apparently, it’s pretty special.
I’m not a car person; so I wouldn’t know. He admired it extensively.
It was a beautiful evening for a little car show.
We stayed a little longer than we planned but the beer kept flowing freely and we wanted to make the most of our FREE beer fest tickets.
What a fun event! I’m so glad that we had the opportunity to go this year!
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Prairie Fire Marathon
Posted on October 14, 2017 by Ching under Events, Things to Do.
After a late night of partying at Haus of Brews, Brian and I decided to get up super duper early the next day to support some friends who were running in the Prairie Fire Marathon. #PFM has been going on for years but we’d never really had any interest in being part of the mob before.
This year was an extra special one, however, because our friend Jimbo was in town over the weekend to run in the marathon AND also sing the national anthem.
Here’s us at around 7 am, waiting for the event to start. I still can’t believe I managed to talk Brian into going. If we we look rough, it’s because we didn’t go to bed until 1 am that morning. It took that long to unwind after Haus of Brews.
We got there early and found a good spot. We also found Jimbo.
We realized later that the reason we got a good spot that morning is that very few spectators actually show up for the start of the race. Most people just show up to watch their friends and family finish.
Not us, though. We were committed. We wanted to see Jimbo sing the national anthem so we got there early and found the perfect spot.
Here he is singing the national anthem.
Here are some pictures of the runners as they waited for the race to begin.
The race started shortly after. As you can see from the pics above and the video below, there were hundreds of runners participating in the event.
The sea of runners continued for several minutes.
Brian’s reward for getting up early was supposed to be a big breakfast at Doo-Dah Diner but, when we got there, we found out that they wouldn’t open until 8 am. So we snapped this photo and then decided to go elsewhere for breakfast.
My friend Derek recommended the app RaceJoy so we were able to track the progress of the runners we knew. We decided to make our way back to #PFM around 9 am to watch and cheer as the half marathon runners crossed the finish line. It was about half past 9 by the time we made it back to our spot near the finish line. Derek had already finished. However, we did manage to find him and get a couple of photos of him and his fancy medals.
He got a #Back2Back medal in addition to his finisher medal since he also ran the #PFM earlier this year in Spring.
As we waited for Jimbo to reach the finish line, we saw several people we knew complete their respective races. Tammie, Alicia, and Angi all ran the half marathon. Francie, a friend and fellow Zumba instructor, ran the full marathon. The husband of one of my friends from high school also ran the full marathon.
It was quite inspiring to watch runners from such diverse backgrounds cross the finish line. There were young people. There were old people. They came in various shapes and sizes. And they all crossed the finish line. It was amazing.
There were at least two couples that we watched cross the finish line holding hands. It was adorable. I told Brian, “That could be us, except you don’t run.” LOL.
Here’s a video of Jimbo crossing the finish line.
His parents were there to watch him finish the race as well. We caught up with them afterwards. This was Jimbo’s 50th marathon and you could tell they were very proud of him and all that he has accomplished.
We didn’t linger too long downtown because I still had to teach my Zumba class. Mostly we wanted to be there to cheer Jimbo on and also watch some other friends finish. It was a beautiful day to be out and about but we were both ready to go once all the people we knew had crossed the finish line. We’d been standing out there for several hours already after all.
P.S. KWCH featured our friend Jimbo in their race coverage that evening. You can read about it here. So glad we could there to witness his 50th marathon and watch him sing the national anthem at the start of the race.
Congrats, Jimbo!
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