The Sandbox
Posted on January 23, 2023 by Ching under Food and Drink, Pickleball.
I finally had the chance to check out the Sandbox in Derby, KS. Food and pickleball are two of my favorite things so much like, Chicken N Pickle, this place is a winning combination. The hourly court reservation fees are similar to CNP during prime time ($40 per hour per court) but slightly less before 5 PM (just $15 per hour, instead of $20). The advantages of Sandbox (besides being $5 less during certain times) are…
- There’s more court availability right now because fewer people know about it or know how to book online.
- It provides us with another indoor option because there are very few indoor court facilities with outdoor court surface.
- It serves an under-served area and makes pickleball more accessible for those who live South of Wichita.
- The food is actually not bad.
Here are some pictures of the food we tried when we were there last week during Martin Luther King Day. Gotta love the holidays!
Of course the chicken tenders and fries were Brian’s plate! LOL.
I put together a video playlist on YouTube of games that were played at the Sandbox last weekend (MLK weekend). I played some mixed doubles rec there on Sunday with Jonathan Maugans, Jared Smart, and Lori Below; and also held a DUPR King and Queen of Courts event on Monday morning.
Molly Sager and Mitch Spencer reigned supreme and were our top female and male players for that session. We played 7 rounds of mixed doubles and 3 rounds of gender doubles and Molly only lost 1 game the entire time. I don’t remember how many Mitch lost but he had the winning record on the male side.
I know this post is about the Sandbox but that day was a little crazy. Since I was off work, I decided to schedule multiple plays. In addition to the King and Queen of Courts at Sandbox, I had a 3:00 PM King of Courts and 5:30 PM Queen of Courts at the Pickle Club. Needless to say, I learned my lesson and I’m never doing that again. It just got to be too much to keep track of payments (and refunds, with people dropping last minute). And, I had a stressful time trying to find fill ins.
But I digress… the Sandbox is a great option for all you pickleball lovers. CNP has more courts and I like the set up there better and it’s closer to my house but with the lack of court availability at CNP, the Sandbox is looking more and more appealing despite the longer drive. Go check it out for yourself.
Until next time, GNG.
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Lesson with Kas at NPC
Posted on January 17, 2023 by Ching under Life.
Finally got to check out Newton Pickleball Club when my friends Janelle, Karen, and I took a “play with a pro” type lesson with Kasandra Gehrke while she was in Wichita conducting her Empowher pickleball camps at Chicken N Pickle.
Each of us took turns playing with Kas and all the while receiving nuggets of wisdom to help us take our pickleball game to the next level. Kas was informative and helpful and I thoroughly enjoyed the time we got to spend with her. But what I loved most of all was we got to have this experience in a private setting.
Laurie’s house is amazing and her backyard pickleball setup is probably the best I’d ever seen. It was the perfect setting for our lesson with Kas. It’s also a great party house and it’s no surprise that it is super popular with the picklers. It was cold and windy that day but I bet it’s a fantastic hangout spot all summer long.
Thank you to Laurie for opening her house up for Kas’ private group lessons and also to Kas for sharing her knowledge.
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New Year’s Day
Posted on January 11, 2023 by Ching under Life, Pickleball.
Last year, I was out of town playing in a pickleball tournament on New Year’s Day. This year I decided to have a purposefully relaxing NYD by not leaving town. I did play in a fun team tournament on NYE but nothing too serious.
Brian and I prepared a hearty breakfast, consisting of bacon, sausage, potatoes, eggs, and biscuits, the next morning for our house guests. We thought we were going to have three (Katie Merrill, Ramon Lozano, and Josh McAllister) but Josh decided to just make an up-and-back trip so we ended up with leftovers.
Ramon, Katie, and several other friends played in the Hangover pickleball tournament at Chicken N Pickle that day. Speaking of Chicken N Pickle, huge shout out to them for hooking Katie up with the blue dri-fit shirt from the last sponsored athletes box so that she could match me, Ramon, and Jared (Smart) for the team event. Lindsey Vermillion actually had to expedite the package so it would arrive in time for her to wear it to the team event.
I didn’t get any pictures at the tournament but I did livestream the championship match between Vi Dang and Mitch Spencer vs Molly Sager and Austin Corley. Interestingly, Molly and Cory Sager were supposed to play together but then Jenny and Austin Corley signed up for the tournament when we were all hanging out during NYE at the Egan’s. They made a game-time decision to swap partners because Austin and Molly and Cory and Jenny are playing together in the iPickle Nation January Jam this weekend. The four of them figured they would use the Hangover tournament for practice.
Despite this being Austin and Molly’s first time playing together, they played really well and had great on-court chemistry. I think the four of them will do really well at the iPN tournament in Kansas City this weekend.
I think the highlight of my day had to be taking Rosie (Katie’s dog) to Chicken N Pickle to watch her mama play pickleball but also to show her off because she is so stinkin’ cute. Anyway, I’ve always dreamed of taking my dog there but our dogs are not fit to be in public. Molly was always too amped and Saki is super jittery and afraid of people. Everyone was asking me about my dog. I wish she was mine because she is so good and well-behaved. And, she is super cuddly.
The weather was absolutely beautiful and the way NYD went was the perfect start to the year. I remember thinking, “If the rest of the year goes like this, it will be an amazing one!” It was just a super relaxing, fun day. Until next time, GNG.
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New Year’s Eve
Posted on January 9, 2023 by Ching under Events, Pickleball.
New Year’s Eve was super fun. We started the day with the One Last Dink team tournament at the Pickle Club. This is my second team event with Ramon Lozano and Katie Merrill (the first one was the DUPR Teams event at Northland Racquet Club last month) and my first one with Jared Smart. Last month our fourth team member was Kyle Rinck.
When we first talked about playing in team events, Tanner Rice was going to our fourth team member but he missed the DUPR Teams event last month due to a hamstring injury and then couldn’t play One Last Dink because he was spending the holidays in Las Vegas with his family. Kyle and Jared were both amazing teammates and definitely complemented our team well.
Here are some highlights from One Last Dink:
Brian was such a trooper. He spent the entire day with us to help me run the event so I could also play in it. He even went to grab lunch for a few of us so we didn’t have to leave the venue. Brian proves time and time again why he deserves the title of “Best Husband Ever.”
We rang in the New Year at Egan’s. Since Molly and Cory Sager were staying with them, Cindy decided to host a small gather for NYE. We had a ton of fun playing games with everyone. Coincidentally, Levi Hobart (one of Brian’s former employees at T-Mobile) and his wife stopped by to return a suitcase to Cindy. They happen to be neighbors. What a small world!
This New Year’s Eve was absolutely perfect from start to finish. I’m hoping that this sets the tone for me for 2023. Happy New Year!
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New Year’s Eve Eve with My Pickleball Besties
Posted on January 6, 2023 by Ching under Food and Drink, Pickleball.
My friend Ramon Lozano from Hays, Kansas was in town last weekend. You might remember me talking about him a few weeks ago in this post. Anyway, this past visit was the longest he had ever stayed with us. He usually only stays overnight. This time he stayed from Thursday all the way through Sunday.
I actually wasn’t expecting to see Ramon until Friday but he drove up a day early because he had a play date with Matt Nola and Jay Devilliers at Chicken N Pickle on Friday morning that he didn’t want to miss. I just happened to be off the entire week so I set up play for us on Thursday afternoon. Afterwards, I called Brian to see if he wanted to meet us for dinner on the way home from our pickleball session at the Pickle Club. Brian said he made dinner (porkchops and rice) that he had enough food for Ramon also. We decided to head home. We taught Ramon how to eat Filipino-style (with a fork and spoon) that night.
After dinner the three of us went to the basement to watch the Invitation on Netflix. I joked that the movie would be really romantic had I not already watched the movie trailer and know it was a horror flick. LOL.
The next day was cleaning day. I usually don’t like being home when the cleaners are cleaning because it makes me feel like such a lazy bum. Anyway, Brian left for work in the morning. Ramon and I had to make ourselves scarce. We decided to eat breakfast at HomeGrown before his 11 AM play date at CNP.
Even at 8:30 AM on a Friday morning they had a 30-minute wait for a table. Crazy, right? We decided to eat at the bar rather than wait.
I always like to try their seasonal drinks so I had the hot White Russian. I’ve only ever had this drink cold so this was different. It was so good!
Here are some pictures of our food:
Ramon remembered to order his toast with his meal this time. Unlike that time at Succotash when he forgot and he ordered his toast after and they brought it out when he was nearly finished eating.
I got the biscuits and gravy, which is what Brian normally gets and then I also asked for a full order of bacon on the side. You can never go wrong with bacon but they have Yoder bacon at HomeGrown and it’s really good.
Ramon ordered a Bloody Mary while we were killing time before we had to head to CNP. It was the most photogenic Bloody Mary I had ever laid my eyes on.
These next to plates were not ours. They were the meals of the ladies sitting next to us at the bar. One of them was Junetta Everett so not a total stranger. LOL.
After breakfast we headed to CNP where we hung out for almost the entire day. We got there around 10:30 AM and didn’t leave until 4-ish. Ramon played with his group from 11 AM to 1 PM. Brian and I got our cars washed next door at Tommy’s Express and then came back to have lunch while we watched them play.
Brian went home after lunch but I stayed because I was playing with a group (different group than Ramon) from 1 to 3 PM. Ramon hung around, drank some beers, and ate tostadas (his favorite thing to eat at CNP) while we played. We actually drove separate cars that morning because I didn’t think he would stick around. We could have totally carpooled!
Before heading home to pick up our friend Katie Merrill from our house so the three of us could carpool to the Pickle Club, Ramon and I stopped by Mochinut (Matt Nola’s place) so he could try mochi donuts, milk tea, and Korean corndog.
I think he had the half and half coated in hot Cheetos.
We worked up a pretty good appetite after our team practice session at the Pickle Club so then we hit Bubba’s 33 on the way home. Here are pictures of dinner…
I told Ramon I feel like all we did was eat all day. LOL.
The next day was New Year’s Eve and we played in the One Last Dink team tournament at the Pickle Club (it’s what we were practicing for on Friday night), which was so much fun. It really warrants its own entry.
I had such a great time with Ramon and Katie. I feel like we got some extra #teambonding time this past weekend. It was the most perfect Friday (and weekend, which I will tell you more about next time) ever. Until next time, GNG.
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