On the Road: Nepal

I wish I had time to sit down and tell you all about Nepal.  About the four-hour day hikes we took, scaling hundreds of steps to witness a postcard-perfect sunset, the monasteries, the temples, the burst of colors. The insane sound of too many horns beeping in the middle of traffic one minute and the serene ringing of meditation bowls and Tibetan chants in the next. How we met Krishna - hands down best tour guide who we hired for a day but ended up keeping for five. What it feels like to walk through a Nepali village one second and then see the Himalayan range the next. Then there were the people with these crazy beautiful eyes and matching smiles and that all around positive vibe I'm seeing less and less but the world needs more and more of right now.

But I'm having that week when a hundred and sixty plus hours just isn't enough to get things done. 

Luckily, MacD's photos tell it all.

Namaste.

Top of the World

MacDaddy, at one crazy point in time, dreamed of climbing Everest. We read every book, every account, watched every documentary we could get our hands on.  We soon realized we didn't have the money,  the commitment, the time, the endurance.  Standing on the world's highest mountain was relegated  to his 'twas-worth-wishing-about-but-no-chance-in-hell-it's-happening list.

Last week we celebrated Our Thirteenth well above the clouds on a ride across the Himalayan ranges of Nepal.  Our fifty-minute mountain flight gave us the chance to stare in awe at eight of the world's highest peaks.

Best of all, with matching goosebumps, we took that one good, solid look at  Everest. 

It's the closest we will probably ever get to being on top of the world. 

We Were on a Break

...the two-week We-Time MacDaddy and I promised ourselves we'd find time once a year to do until we're old and grey.  Leaving the boys behind still isn't the easiest thing to do even after all these years but it helps they're surprisingly supportive and really cool about the whole deal. Plus MacDaddy is the world's best travel buddy.  

Rewind to months before we were off

Me: Mak, Tato, remember Mama and Papa go on a vacation once a year?  We're going in November.  You'll have fun things to do also here in Manila.  You'll go to the beach with Lala, and live some days with Nani and Dada.  You're even going to have a sleepover with your cousins. I'll call and I'll email you all the time and Papa will take lots of photos to show you. 

Mak:  Where are you going?

Me:  We're going to Paris and Prague and Munich and ....

Tato:  Munich! Munich!  Yes!!!  Can you buy me the Bayern Munich jersey of Neuer!  Yay!  Yes!!!

And there I was ready with the "it will be a quick trip" / "we'll be back in no time"/  "we'll miss you but  we'll have lots of stories to tell each other after"  speeches but I didn't need them.  Sweet.  

So I guess We-Time was now "We" on a mission to find new football jerseys. Sweet. 

Yes!

and the only photos we have together this time 

Island Adventure

MY trip report, this time.  First destination was Siargao - a surfer and beach bum's paradise. Next stop: Camiguin, one of the country's most beautiful islands and home to seven volcanoes. We chilled out (literally!) in the cold springs, swam in the falls, then dipped into the hot springs.  We drove around one of the most gorgeous coastlines I have seen around here.  Final stop was Cagayan de Oro with lots of family to see and lots of catching up to do.

We planned to have a simple birthday dinner for the four celebrants on the eve of their birthday.  The actual birthday was going to be a hectic one that entailed waking up at  dawn, taking a boat ride and speeding through town after town with barely enough time to spare to catch our second boat ride.  The boys  already knew they weren't getting A party.  We had establshed that early on.  But kids are kids and they started asking all day:  Where are the loot bags?  What's the theme?  Will there be balloons? And moms are moms and we semi-cave too.  A day before we left Manila I bought an assortment of stuff at the book store. Lots of paper, crafty things, art supplies, stamps.  Just in case.  They turned out to be perfect "giveaways" for the "party".  I pretended we had a  theme:  Island Amazing Race. It was the only thing I could think up fast.  Plus it justified no decorations. With the nipa huts, crashing waves and the surfers in the horizon, who needed decor anyway?  I planned a scavenger hunt around the resort and made colorful wired bracelets to wear. 

It helped we we had this wonderful oasis  all to ourselves and a great ally, the resort's French owner. He helped big time.  He found fresh crabs, prawns  and lobsters for dinner -  GrandadDoc, Mak and MacDaddy's all -time favorites.  He made brick fire oven pizza with nothing on it but tomato sauce for Tato. He prepared pasta for the younger cousins.

He even baked a birthday cake from scratch.  Who knows where he managed to dig up candles  with such little notice, but he did. Merci beaucoup, Fred. You saved the day.  

All in all a great way to turn six, fourty-one and eighty-two.  See, kids, no balloons necessary. 

Out of the Mouth of Babe(s)

We're back from our island adventure. Today's guest post is by my brand new six-year old.  Mak says he will do the next one.  

This is teo. I loved camiguin siargao and cagayan  it was my birthday  October 3 I rode a Roro. The family sang the Birthday song  8:46 in the boat because  that's my real birthday time we sang 8:43 for Mik. 

the three islands were the best.

In Siargao we found an island nobody was my Papa left his slippers on that island he had to buy orange slippers from a man after. funny

in camiguin I tried new food called spam  super yummy tastes meaty.   looks like a red soft pillow.  mt.hibok hibok  was a volcano when it erupted thirty -four thousand people died. the hotel reustraunt hibok hibok was named after the volcano in hotel paras beach resort. 

we had a amazing scavener hunt the first guess was everyones ninang ...........................ninang den next biggest cottage the fifth cottage. amala hot cold teo strech out arm. Teo wins the big bag of treats (school suppies)!!

Bye!

Suckers for Soccer

MacDaddy will say it is football. Not soccer, futbol. But my title would have sucked. So there.

Anyway, it's been a fun-filled and crazy summer. And were just getting started. The boys have five full months of summer this year because big school is next on the agenda. Yup, big school. Don't even get me started on that.

So thank you, first half of summer. That was fun. Mak and Tato are living, breathing, sleeping and eating football. It isn't even funny anymore. They're still sporting football jerseys every single minute. I've stopped counting. I think its well over thirty days straight already.

Forget still life. Artwork for their acrylic painting class.

At the beach still in jerseys

Finally out of his jersey to enjoy a gorgeous morning at the beach

Oh wait.. they're drawing football logos

Were off tonight on a really long trip. Hello, Summer Part Two. Major roadtrip planned and amusement park overload together with my Folks, My BigBro and LilBro, the niece and nephew and a little bean on the way (not mine!). We can't remember the last time we were all together like this. It should be a lot of fun. Welcoming some serious family bonding (unless we kill each other first). Plus, plus MacDaddy and I have a date with Bono. That was #2 on our bucket list.

Our bags are packed. Our plane leaves in a few hours. And it doesn't even shock the hell out of me anymore to see these inside Mak and Tato's luggage.

Guess who's geared for vacation? See you in a month!