Yellow Signage

We drove to Subic yesterday with my friend on the steering wheel.   Catching this yellow signage of the All Hands Beach, a nice beach with calm water which I plan to go back to for our summer outing.

Sharing this as my entry for Mellow Yellow Monday.  Have a delightful Monday everyone!

Weird Christmas 2010

Christmas Tree and Ginger Bread House at SM Fairview Mall.

It's Christmas time once again! Still trying to catch the spirit of the season thus this photo taken from the mall in our vicinity.

Almost all the past Christmases were spent at home. This year though, I want to create summer out of Christmas season. And so I plan to spend Christmas in a Beach Resort. Sounds weird? Yeah, maybe! But the family wants it too. So we are now looking forward to a Noche Buena by the beach. Weee!

Birthday bash post script - 1

We had gone out on another out of town escapade but let me share this birthday bash post script first. I cherish that outing we had and  I feel there are still a number of nice moments worth sharing so here it is...

Sunday, November 14, I woke up early and took a walk by the beach alone.  I had always thought of doing this every time I am drowned in my household chores. And that Sunday morning, I was so excited for that early morning stroll by the beach I so longed for.  Nothing was extraordinary but the moment of being alone in a place I love so much was so uplifting to my considerably weary spirit.  I love the cool morning breeze, the feel of the fine sand beneath my feet and the sound of the rustling waves that  race to the shore.  I wished I could stop the time and hang in there forever…

Back for breakfast in the resort's resto. Everyone seemed to have a good fill. Then a stroll around and short lull by the pool.   Then enjoyed the free live telecast of Pacquiao-Margarito Fight in our room, through the courtesy of resort's wifi connection. It was much fun watching all together  in one room. You could hear the oohhs and ahhs much louder. Lol!







We checked-out right after the boxing bout then headed on to Subic for Extreme Pizza

Soothing Subic

As mentioned in my previous post, our weekend destination was Subic, (…again!) This time around though, we spent the day in one of the unimposing fine beaches inside the Freeport Zone named All Hands Beach Resort. It’s my second time to visit the said resort since 2001 and I saw some beautiful additional renovations around. Glad to find that the clear blue waters haven’t been muddled together with its almost white fine sand. The waters is as sparkling clear as it was many years ago. We enjoyed our dip in the lukewarm water which is devoid of sharp corals that usually hurt swimmers. The surroundings is thoroughly maintained and being watched over by many staff. I would have loved the place if only for it's steep entrance fee of P150.00 for adults and P75.00 for kids, aside from the Nipa Hut charge of P1,500.00. How wrong to think that we will find low cost resort fees because it’s lean season. Not on this beach resort! Anyway, it was a wonderful day and we had fun. It was all that matters!

Back to Sun Moon Beach

The beach lover in me struck again. Last Saturday, I longed for the Bagac beach that we used to go. I wanna be with my own kinfolk but they couldn't come along due to unavailability of their own vehicle. I couldn’t force them coz I couldn't provide them their need. Anyway, I just sent text messages to my sister and my niece-in-law informing them that we’re going to Sun Moon Beach on the following day, Sunday. The replies were “where do we meet?”. I called up sis-in-law and her daughter but they didn’t want to come. So with those available people, (Sis, her son, her daughter, daughter-in-law, granddaughter and d-i-l’s mom, also with hubby’s nephew and his wife, with my family and daughter’s friend) off we went to Sun Moon Beach for a whole day of fun.

Lunch was aplenty. Each one brought lots of dishes, fresh fruits, snacks with some sodas and beers. How I love being with the people I care and at the same time being in a place I adore. On good times such as that, I could feel the goodness of life!

Jaja, Pie, Mae, Iya, Tatie and Little Lianne

Pie, Mae, Iya, Tatie and Alvin at the background

Little Lianne and Mommy Iya

Ryan cutting the sweet watermelon

Road Trip to Batangas

We plan to go outing next weekend with my deceased brother’s family. We can’t finalize the plan coz we can’t make up our mind where to go to. We’ve been surfing the internet for the beach resorts in Batangas, and last night, we opted to go on a road trip to the said province to personally see the resorts we saw on the net. With my family and my nephew together with his wife and son, we headed to this far away town of Laiya, San Juan, Batangas. We left our place at around 7 am and reached the place at noontime. Stopping on each and every resort, we’d inspect and asked for prices. There are a number of beautiful resorts. However, we found their prices too exorbitant. In one resort, an overnight stay with three meals costs P2, 185.00 per head excluding taxes and parking fees. Imagine how much we would be spending for our group of 12! Additional steep prices for some water sports equipments like kayaks and the likes are on the side. The prices don’t vary much from the other resorts in the vicinity except for a few that we couldn’t force ourselves to like despite the economical prices. These are the unsightly resorts which is surrounded by small shanties. We’ve even gone following some resorts signs that just led us to an unending rough road that went up and down like a roller coaster. Our passengers at the back of the car had much fun in the rollercoaster-like ride. (see their shots below.) We gave up on this, though we’ve heard the place is good. The name of the place is La Luz Beach Resort. It’s a pity we didn’t see that resort which has a good review from people who’ve been there.

The resort hopping ended without getting any final decision where to go to for my own kins summer outing. According to Hubby, it's either the place is too expensive or we dislike it. Ha ha ha! Heading back home, we stopped for lunch in one restaurant along the way. We reached our place at around seven after having dinner in our favorite Mongkok Restaurant. It was a tiring but exciting whole day spent on the road.

Here are the photos:

These people are enjoying their roller coaster-like ride.

Picnic at San Fabian PTA Beach Resort

Two days and two nights in Baguio is apparently not enough for all of us. But the weekend holiday is running out so we packed our stuff early on and readied for early Sunday morning departure for San Fabian, Pangasinan. The ‘aquaholic” in me didn’t want to pass the opportunity of stepping on a beach and frolic on the rolling waves. We reached the beach resort almost lunchtime. It’s good that Pie had already cooked the remaining crabs for our lunch. The shrimps were grilled and I ordered Beef Sinigang and Pancit from the Resort’s Restaurant. It was another fun filled day. Good food, fresh air, the relaxing sound of the rushing waves, Elvie’s funny stories and jokes, plus the beautiful view of the setting sun, all of these were truly enjoyed to the highest level. I only wish there’d be another day of this kind soon!

Sharing you some of our photos:

Wonderful days are over. Celebration's done. Another happy memories to fill my mind.