Birthday Vacation Tradition 2009 in Boracay Island, a Photoblog We have been to Boracay several times and we never get tired of it..Here is a photoblog of our trip to Boracay for my traditional birthday vacation... ... read more

It was an extraordinary trip to Monterey, California for I went to attend an ocean side wedding of my brother, Vance. He is physician assistant at Turlock, California where he met her bride and now his sweet wife, Alise. I didn't expect Monterey to be a sightly, ocean side locus. Coming from a 3 hour trip from Santa Rosa where my mom now lived, I was greeted with a view of the peninsula, its beach, the coast and the fresh scent of sea air. Excited, I immediately left my luggage at our hotel room at Monterey Plaza Hotel and Spa. The wedding was scheduled at 2pm and I wasn't yet prepared! I walked two blocks from the hotel and was glad to see a salon where I had my hair made up. It was a lovely ... read more

Northern Palawan, known as The Calamianes Group of Islands as described by National Geographic is beautiful—extensive fringing reefs, sandy beaches, majestic vertical cliffs, mangrove forests, seagrass beds, and protected bays and inlets. Again, as part of the summer tradition on my birthday, we planned for a vacation. This time, we decided to go to Coron and Busuanga Palawan. And, as an added treat for me, who loved giraffes, we included Calauit Island as part of the itinerary. Puerto Princesa, Palawan We flew from Manila to Palawan via 4pm flight of Air Philippines (a 1 hour flight). Palawan was a place one could get in love with easily. Nature’s beauty could be seen through its abundant trees, green fields, mountains, clear lakes, lagoons, rivers, islands and cream sand beaches. While its non-existent towering malls, fairly good ... read more

Hong Kong Disneyland The highlight of our son's birthday celebration was spending his day in Hong Kong Disneyland. It was colder compared yesterday (Day 1), about 9 - 10 degrees outside and it was drizzling. We woke up early and again enjoyed the view from our hotel room. We got a double treat because we had 2 great views from our room, on the left side is the view of the town/city while a view of the bay on the right side. We already knew how to go to Disneyland via MTR - from Tsun Wan West, go down at Nam Cheong, transfer to Tung Chung line (orange line, MTR lines are color-coded), go down at Sunny Bay then from their take the Disneyland Resort train (fuschia line). It was actually travelling from New Territories to ... read more

The rain was continuous, threatening to become stronger and storm signal no. 1 was up in Metro Manila. To go or not to goDennis wanted to race and got registered in the National Age Group Triathlon (NAGT) University of the Philippines Los Banos (UPLB) leg but the sky was dark and raining when we woke up that day. He called up the organizers and was told that the race would go on - we wondered why??? Manila was experiencing storm signal no.1, so maybe it wasn't raining at all in Laguna. Dennis decided that we must go, so we prepared for the race and good thing the race would start at 3pm. This was unusual - starting race is 3pm. Usually, by 3pm, the sun is hot and the heat from the sun makes one become ... read more