Mai Pho & Cedar Rapids Leatherjackets Part 2

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

After completing the first day of the Cedar Rapids Leatherjackets tournament, we spent the night at the DoubleTree. In the morning, we did some running on the sidewalks in town. We returned to the hotel and took the stairs up to our room on the 9th floor. But...we didn't stop there. The hotel has 16 floors, so we headed up to the top! Before long, I was thinking of A Stairway Chase on Studio C! I started out running, but by the last floor I was slowly walking. The view from the 16th floor was beautiful.
For lunch, we stopped at Mai Pho in Cedar Rapids, which is a favorite with my family because of their bubble teas and other sweet beverages. 
The restaurant was very busy, which meant we had to wait a couple minutes to be seated, and wait a bit longer to be served. As popular as Mai Pho seems to be, I wonder if they should hire a couple more waiters!


As usual, I ordered chicken pho. I was happy to see the bowl of pho came with basil, bean sprouts, and lime--all the right flavorings. It seems every pho restaurant I've visited have one thing in common: large bowls. I definitely got my money's worth out of the meal with more than I could eat.

The restaurant had nice decor and seemed clean. Everything served was presented very tastefully, and my family enjoyed their orders.

The third round of the tournament I had a bye, but got to play an extra game against Jess Fiedorowicz (1228). He tenaciously held his ground. I had to fight to survive, and I couldn't get anything more than a draw out of the game.

The final round, I played Nathan Chen (1764). He outplayed me throughout most of the game and made it to the endgame with an extra pawn and a superior position.

Congratulations to James Neal, who won the tournament with 4.5 out of 5 points. As always, I enjoyed attending the Cedar Rapids Leatherjackets. Thanks to Jim Hodina and Robert Keating for directing and hosting a very nice event.

Read Sarah Faith's post about the weekend at her blog!

17 comments:

  1. Sounds like a good time and good food, even good competition.

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  2. Oh, it was so nice to see a post from you today! I have missed you. I hope all is going well with your new job, I am sure it keeps you very busy. Thank you for sharing your fun adventure with us here. God bless you, sweet friend. :)

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    1. Thanks for stopping by, Cheryl! God bless you too.

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  3. Haha, anytime I'm climbing several flights of stairs I can't help but think of "A Stairway Chase" as well. XD

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    1. Ha! Some of these Studio C episodes are pretty memorable...

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  4. Only two games this time, eh? ;) That dinner looks delicious--and that's saying something since I just got done with my dinner.

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    1. This is the same tournament I posted Part 1 for a month ago, so there were three games the first day and two games the second. The pho was pretty good.

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  5. Sounds like a great time. And the food looks so good!

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  6. Yum....the pho looks so good. I am glad you got to enjoy it and playing some more chess games, too...and running...more...

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  7. Good for you for running/walking all the way to the top of your hotel building! Sometimes, I exercise during my lunch break by walking up and down 6 flights of stairs. The bubble teas served at Mai Pho look yummy!

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    1. Sounds like a good way to get some exercise in!

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  8. The food you tasted at Mai Pho restaurant is similar to the Chinese food we have here in our city.
    We have lots of Chinese restaurants with us, and people likes the food very much. :)

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