Middle States Regional Championships
Posted on June 7, 2021 by Ching under Hobbies, Travel.
About thirty players from our #ICTpickleball family traveled to St. Louis last week to compete in the 2021 USA Pickleball Middle States Regional Championships. My friend Karen Fox rode with Brian and me. We left Wichita first thing in the morning and arrived in St. Louis around three in the afternoon. When we arrived, Dave New had already scoped out the location and grabbed the perfect spot for our crew.
They converted the Dwight Davis Tennis Center into 40 pickleball courts and we set up our #ICTpickleball base camp in the grassy area right by court 27. We really had the best spot there because it had great access to all of the courts and was pretty much the only grassy area available. We also grabbed one of the picnic tables tucked under the bleachers and moved it to Dave’s tent canopy, and claimed it as seating for those in our group who flew to St. Louis (instead of driving up) and couldn’t bring their lawn chairs.
Here’s a picture of the early crew. Besides claiming a spot for Dave’s canopy, we also decided to play a few practice games.
After playing some games with my #ICTpickleball fam, Brian and I went to meet “my friend I hadn’t met yet” Kat Tomlin at Des Peres Park. The park only has three pickleball courts but they are lighted and beautiful. The park itself is expansive and amazing and is a real neighborhood gem. The park is so nice that if I were looking for a house to buy in St. Louis, I would totally pick that area.
I made all sorts of new friends on this trip. This is Bob Myers, a pickleball player from Texas who also knows my friend Rodel Chiu who is another friend who falls under the “friend I haven’t met yet” category.
Here’s a picture of me and my friend Tiffany Lesperance on singles day.
These are Ramon Lozano and Kyle Starkel (aka Nick Soapdish). Ramon is from Hays but we claim him as part of our extended #ICTpickleball family.
My friend Kat and I decided to wear our navy Lucy Kovalova FILA pickleball outfits and be matchy matchy on singles day. It’s still fun to twin even though we weren’t actually playing together.
They had a roving professional photographer at the tournament who snapped this picture of me while I was playing one of my matches. I thought it was cool that you could see Kat in her matching outfit in the background.
This is the Women’s Singles 3.5 50+ podium picture with Karen taking Gold and Tiffany taking Bronze. Singles was a good day for our group, despite the afternoon portion of the tournament being pushed to the next day due to sudden torrential downpour. We took home ten medals altogether — 4 Gold medals, 3 Silver medals, and 3 Bronze medals. You can see the full results tally here.
Anyway, because of the rain, they canceled all of the matches for the rest of the day so Erica and I didn’t get our singles medals until the next day. Since the rain put a damper on things (literally, no one could play pickleball because it was pouring outside and the courts were wet), a bunch of us decided to get some BBQ instead.
Friday was Women’s Doubles day and our group did pretty decent. Karen and Jenny (Cole) took Bronze in 3.5 35+ division.
Jen Reifschneider and Jennifer Tiano (together they are known as “The Jens”) took Silver in 3.5 19+ division.
Laurie Newton and her partner Karen Fielding took Bronze in 3.5 50+ division.
While Erica and I took Bronze in the 3.0 35+ division. I thought it worked out great that all the ladies played in different divisions so we weren’t all competing for the same medals. We all had an opportunity to reach the podium in our respective groups without having to fight one of our friends for it.
I really liked their magnet board where you could tell which referee is assigned to which court and which refs are available or on break at a given moment.
Saturday was Mixed Doubles day. The roving photographer got some pictures of me and my partner Chris Wilson.
We marked our spot with a Wichita flag to make our group easy to find for #ICTpickleball players arriving later that week. I love this pic because the ladies were all sporting their Chicken N Pickle gear.
We were more spread out early in the day but then we had to move everything (and everyone) under the canopy when it started raining.
Just some of our group trying to stay dry.
Picture of me with Erica and Karen.
Friday was a cold and wet women’s doubles day.
Brian, pretty much the entire time we were there. LOL.
Saturday was mixed doubles day. Here’s a pic of Tiffany and Donnie. They earned Gold in mixed 3.5 50+ division. You can see the full results tally here.
This was such a fun trip. We get to do it all again when we go to the Great Plains Regional Championships in Colorado in a few weeks. Stay tuned for pics from that. Until then, GNG.
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Mexican Train Dominoes
Posted on June 3, 2021 by Ching under Games.
Brian and I discovered a new game while we were in St. Louis thanks to our friends Tiffany and Donnie. It’s called Mexican Train Dominoes.
We spent several hours at night playing. It was so fun. I am completely hooked and bought my own set immediately upon returning home.
All the dots are a bit overwhelming but you get the hang of it once you get used to the colors and dot configurations. The game is really fun. We will have to play it next time we have family over.
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St. Louis BBQ
Posted on June 2, 2021 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
While in St. Louis this past weekend, we had the opportunity to try a couple of BBQ joints. The first place we tried was Pappy’s Smokehouse.
Pappy’s supposedly has the best ribs in America, according to the Food Network. We decided to all go there on Thursday after the tournament got rained out. All the matches that didn’t complete were pushed to the next day. As for us, we decided to use the time to grab some St. Louis BBQ.
Pappy’s had a specific seating process whereby you can’t get seated until after you’ve placed your order and you can’t order until all of your party is present. As some of the people in our group were getting hangry, we decided to send four people in at a time since their tables were mostly four-tops.
We sent Ramon, Dave, Karen, and Erica ahead of us while we waited for Tiffany and Donnie and the others. The others turned out to be just Ben because Kyle changed his mind and decided not to meet us at Pappy’s.
I think Ben stepped away for a work phone call when this picture was taken.
Here are some pictures of our food. Everything was delicious.
Since they are known for their ribs, I decided to order a half rack and try it. The ribs were excellent and very flavorful, even without additional BBQ sauce.
Salt + Smoke in Delmar is the other BBQ restaurant we tried. Theirs is also really good BBQ. The Salt + Smoke atmosphere is more upscale and they have individually wrapped BBQ sauces as a safety precaution.
Only four of us – Karen, Chris, Brian and me – went this time.
Here are some pictures of our food.
I decided to order ribs again because I wanted to compare them. The dry rub at Salt + Smoke is excellent and the ribs were absolutely perfect; however, I found that I liked Pappy’s ribs better because Salt + Smoke’s ribs had a spicy kick which I think most people like but I didn’t much care for.
The fries at Salt + Smoke were definitely way better than Pappy’s and the freshly baked popover bread was a really nice touch. I also enjoyed my mac and cheese a lot. Overall, as far as food goes, I think Salt + Smoke is better, but I liked Pappy’s ribs much more.
I’m sure the others would have liked to continue the St. Louis BBQ tour and try a few more places but I was quite happy with having tried two of them. We didn’t have much time for outings or other touristy things since I was focused on the pickleball tournament so I guess we will just have to go back and do those things next time. Until then, GNG.
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Wade Waffle Co.
Posted on June 1, 2021 by Ching under Food and Drink.
Brian and tried our first new food truck in a long while a couple of weeks ago. It’s called Wade Waffle Co. and they offer both savory and sweet waffles. The two waffles I tried were delicious and I am completely hooked.
The first one I tried was their Toscana waffle. It’s a waffle containing Italian dry salami, oregano and parmesan cheese served with sun-dried tomato aioli.
The second waffle I tried was the strawberry tuxedo, which consists of strawberries, chocolate sauce, white chocolate shavings, and whipped cream. Both waffles were so delicious. I cannot wait to try their other flavors.
Follow them on Facebook here to see where they will be next. Until next time. GNG.
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Explore Wichita
Posted on May 25, 2021 by Ching under Things to Do.
As everyone knows, I love to explore and experience new things and sometimes it involves activities that none of my friends really have interest in. In the past I’ve joined groups like the Adventurous Babes Society just to find others to do things with. I joined the Explore Wichita meetup group a long time ago but had never really attended any outings until recently.
A few weeks ago we all went to Enigma for salsa night. There was supposed to be a salsa lesson but the instructors couldn’t make it that night but we still made the best of it. My friend Greg was there and got us started with the social dancing.
Trivia night at Chicken N Pickle was the second outing I attended. I’d always wanted to try trivia night at Chicken N Pickle but couldn’t get a group together. I’m so glad that Explore Wichita decided to do it because then I could just join their group. It was a really good turnout and our team took second that night.
If you are looking to do things and don’t have people to do things with, I highly recommend joining the Explore Wichita group. It’s an excellent networking group for Wichita professionals who just want to have fun. The group gives you an opportunity to meet and socialize with a diverse group of people, discover some unique places, and experience activities around town that you’ve never done. The group does tend to eat out a lot but they also do a lot of different things. JJ does an excellent job of organizing activities and leading the group. Also, everyone is super nice and welcoming to new people. Whether you are new to Wichita or you’ve been around a while, I highly recommend joining this group.
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