Friday, March 08, 2013

Favorites From My Last Out of Town Trip

The main reason for traveling out of town again was to commemorate dad's 6th death anniversary. Coming home from a recent Baguio Trip filled with images and stories to share, mom thought it would be great for us to travel to Baguio, too, since dad's death anniversary would fall on a Tuesday and she has the full weekend off at work.

Mom, brother, and I left the house 11pm of Friday (01 Mar), but it was already 3am of Saturday (02 Mar) that we were able to leave the bus terminal (way too many people, all buses were fully booked). It totally blew off my plans since we arrived in Baguio City at nearly 10am and it took time before we found a hotel to stay at. Still, with things not going as planned, it was a great time to be with the family.

I was thinking what pictures to share and thought I'd do another "favorites" post. Quite a lot of images taken this time around (compared to my last Baguio Trip), so I chose to choose just one favorite per day, just to make this a concise post. It doesn't necessarily mean that these are best images (for there are a lot of much better pictures than these), but I guess you'll have to agree with me that sometimes... those that end up taking a space in our heart aren't always the best ones.

Mines View Park

02 March 2013
Mines View Park - Baguio City

I planned to visit the Cemetery of Negativism and the Philippine Military Museum for the early part of this day, but because it was already near lunch time when we left the hotel, we decided to just roam around nearby places. Mines View Park was the very first place we visited, and this one was taken before we went to the view deck.
Laperal White House

03 March 2013
Laperal White House - Baguio City

Sister arrived in Baguio City around midnight. We welcomed the day by visiting the Strawberry Farm in La Trinidad (next town) before taking an Eco-Tour around the Tam-Awan Village where us girls joined some Igorots for a traditional dance. After waiting for a long time to be seated at 50s Diner, I figured it would be nice to visit the Laperal White House, known more as the ever famous Haunted House in Baguio City. I don't know the stories of people who experienced paranormal activity, and we didn't feel any spirits inside the house, but there was this part that would give anyone the scare. I was just thankful that I already climbed the stairs going to the topmost floor of the house before I saw the big scary picture. :)

I truly wanted to stay longer in Baguio... but we had to take the 6pm bus going to La Union.

Sunset at Thunderbird Resorts

04 March 2013
Thunderbird Resorts - San Fernando, La Union

This was the only full day in La Union with the whole family, so we made sure this day was jam-packed as well. We first visited dad's grave, then we had lunch, then we went shopping for a while, then we went to Thunderbird Resort to wait for the sunset.

Dad's 6th Death Anniversary

05 March 2013
Forest Lake en Cielo - San Juan, La Union

As painful as it was to be reminded of this day as the day when we lost the main man of the house, I still felt great that we commemorate this day as a whole family. We have accepted his death, but we still miss him, of course. Sister left after that short visit... mom, brother, and I went to Ma-Cho Temple and had lunch at Halo-Halo de Iloko, then we took a much needed rest at home and traveled back to Manila around 10pm that night.

I don't know if sister and I will be traveling back to La Union this Holy Week, I hope we will.