Oconnor Family

As our peeps wake up to Christmas Morning on the +8 GMT zones, let me wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas. We are lucky and fortunate to count you all as Family and Friends. We love the feedback we get from writing this blog. For anyone considering travel like this in the future, this is a fun and relaxing project to do during downtime. And it's permanent...so you can revisit this site in 10 years when the kids are older and take a walk down memory lane. Let me get on with it. Though the sun never broke through in DaNang, we still had a great time. Aside from an outing we took to Hoi An, we stayed close to our beautiful Hyatt resort. In this part of the world? Should definitely stay here. The beach ... read more

Let's begin this post with our first activities with the family last weekend. On Saturday afternoon we travelled about an hour south of Manila to the municipality of Pampango. Each year they host a "lantern parade" with the different neighborhoods designing, building and displaying their lantern in a big competition. Think of it as a small-scale Macy's thanksgiving day parade that features the lanterns-or Parol's-instead of inflated floats/balloons. In the Philippines a Parol is a seasonal star-shaped lantern that appears throughout the nation during the holiday season. They are made of all different types of material but the original Parol's were make of colored paper or shells with a frame made of bamboo or other type of light ridged material. They are everywhere one looks...hanging from telephone poles, buildings, bridges; in store windows; on or in ... read more

Hi all, just a quick note to let everyone know that we made it home tonight. I have a few more pictures I will share with you in the next day or so. ... read more

Ok, back to the blog. Internet access has been spotty the last 2-3 days but I will do my best to catch up. After returning from Bohol, we took a day trip about an hour south of manila to maria's cousin's house. Michael and Elna live in a nice gated subdivision that sports a community swimming pool and rec-center. The kids got some more swimming in and we had a wonderful lunch at a local Chinese restaurant. Michael and Elna got dessert from a popular boutique bakery, Contis, and spent the remaining part of the afternoon eating (see the pics) and swimming. Erin spent the following 2 nights with Amber, Maria's cousin's 8 year-old daughter. Last Monday the 20th I went golfing at Capitol Hills GC with Maria's Uncle. The weather really held up for us ... read more

Where to start?? We had a very adventurous day indeed. Woke up to a beautiful sunrise, another great meal here at Amorita and then we met our guide, Tatsky. Tatsky greeted us in a nice Toyota Innova which is like a 4-door minivan but smaller and we set out. Our itinerary was to include a visit to the Chocolate Hills, a butterfly farm, a special cave, checking out the largest Philippine python in captivity, hop on a "Floating Resto"--or restaurant boat--for lunch, see Tarsiers and alot more. Before I begin, a little backround on the island of Bohol. Bohol is a large island south of Manila with a land area of about 1590 sq miles and a population of about 1.2 million people. The capital is Tagbilaran City. The main industries are farming, fishing and agriculture ... read more