A Welcome Respite

I just returned from a 2-week vacation in the US the other Sunday. It was my first trip abroad with family and without any obligations (paper/poster presentations, training, seminar participation). We rented an SUV in San Diego (SD) (courtesy of my daughter, Sheila) and drove to Santa Monica, LA, Las Vegas, and then back to SD. Sheila took charge of the wheels with KT, navigating, and with Tomtom's (GPS) accurate guidance, we didn't get lost. We arrived at LA on Good Friday. Black Saturday was spent with the Celino sisters at the Malibu and Venice beaches (strolling). Then we visited Getty Villa and drove through Beverly Hills before going to Porter Ranch. We slept at Ceny & Louie's house, which was located right next to a golf course and a small lake, where ducks and birds stop by to feed, a very lovely sight from the breakfast nook. On Easter Sunday, we heard mass at Porter Ranch with good friends Ceny and Louie (our hosts in LA), then proceeded to Universal Studios. Sheeha (Miz's sis) was our guide together with her daughter Mica and a nephew. In the evening, Bibs and I were treated to dinner at Bubba Gump by a former classmate in UPRHS, Vladimir Velasco, while the kids went to Hollywood. The following day, we drove to Las Vegas. We stopped by Barstow and visited the Outlet shops and did some shopping. MGM Grand Hotel is a good place to spend the night after walking non-stop through the Strip and watching the dancing fountains at Bellagio. Got to taste Pink's hotdogs. Caesar's Palace is awesome, with the gigantic sculpture and the dome, painted to simulate the blue sky and clouds giving an illusion that one is walking outdoors under the blue sky. I can't describe everything here. The following day, we drove back to SD ; Bibs and I had to catch the flight to Phoenix in the afternoon. The kids were left in SD and they flew to San Francisco the following day. At Phoenix, Arlyn met us at the airport and we had a steak dinner at their house. The next day, Noel and Arlyn brought us to Sedona (with the beautifulm huge, red rocks) and the Grand Canyon, we stopped by a ski resort on the way. The mountain top still had some snow. The Grand Canyon is really "grand" (literally) and exotic, very nice to look at. The landscape is awesome. The night was spent at Holiday Inn. The following morning we went to another beautiful place with a blue lake and huge rounded rocks. Then we stopped by Prescott and had ice cream in one of the old shops there. We had lunch at a Vietnamese resto and as usual the servings were so big. Bibs and I always share one order, otherwise, we won't be able to finish everything. Then we flew back to San Diego on Thursday. On Friday night Bibs, Ferdie, and I were invited for dinner at the house of a former high school classmate, Baby Vega. The food was so good. We had steak, clams, salad, boiled corn, and ice cream. The Noveleta Town Fiesta was celebrated the following Day so I had the chance to see relatives, and former townmates. There were about 400 people there, more or less. We joined the caracol, held inside the huge hall of the National Training Center. We helped Ferdie serve the desserts that they prepared the night before: cassava cake, nilupak, maja blanca, chocolate and butter cake, and buco pandan. There were lots of food, entertainment, music, and dancing. The kids spent the day at Legoland and joined us later in the day. We heard mass at St. Rita's Church the following day. An old friend of Bibs, Dr. Rey Elizondo and his son, came all the way from Fresno to meet us at SD and we spent the morning touring the USS Midway. We had lunch at the Seafood Market and toured Coronado Hotel afterwards. The Coronado Bridge is so impressive. It was time to visit Disneyland on Monday with Ferdie, my brother as our tour guide. We spent the night the Hotel Pepper Tree to enable us to go to California Adventure the following day. It was so hot in Anaheim. The kids enjoyed the rides at California Adventure. We watched Aladdin, the musical. The next day, I visited my sister, Nardit, and she treated me to buffet lunch at Sunrise(?). Food is so difficult to resist in the US. The kids went to the San Diego Zoo, while I was bonding with my sister. It was time to go shopping day before leaving SD. We went to the outlet shops before the Mexican border. It's a great place to shop with lots of discounts. The goods, though, are made in Asia, including RP. In between sight seeing, I was able to visit public libraries in LA and SD. They're all well-equipped and spacious. I wish we had them in RP, too. The last stop before leaving is Fashion Valley to do more shopping. Friday, we were fetched by the shuttle service en route to the LA Airport. The Asiana plane took a different route on the way back to Manila. The onward flight from Incheon to LA took only 10 hours and 5 minutes while the return flight took more than 13 hours going to Incheon. We passed over Alaska, Siberia, part of Russia? We reached Manila at noon on Sunday, May 8. It was a great vacation. I hope we would be able to do this again with Glenn and Miz, who were not able to join us.