spontaneous decisions lead us to the City of Pines

Two weeks after my batch mates’ trip to Baguio, we had our family trip to Pampanga. It was never planned. It just happened that my Tita Lily (mom’s sister) purchased a house-and-lot and they want to see it and visit my Tito Pabling as well. My mom and my cousins asked me to join them and I did. Oh, thank God I did! :D I almost back-out due to conflict of schedule, it was supposed to be Saturday-to-Sunday but was moved to Friday night-to-Saturday. I told my mom that I won’t be able to join them. They’d leave at 6pm while I’d arrive at 8pm. To be able to join them, I took a Friday leave.

Friday came and we left. We arrived at Angeles City at past 10:00 spent the entire night chatting then woke up early to catch up Hot Air Balloon Festival at Clark before going to Mabalacat.

(from left) DJ, Te Gigi, Me, Erica & Mama

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to watch Hot Air balloons, so we went off to SM Clark then went to visit our Tito Abling's family in Mabalacat.

look at my Lola (a.k.a Blue Riding Hood) eating ice cream at SM Clark. It's her favorite.

After eating our late lunch, again, we went to Clark to catch up the afternoon event at the festival. We were able to watch Cessna plane exhibition, RP/Malaysian/UK paragliding exhibition and of course, the Hot Air Balloon Night Glow.

Hot Air Balloon Night Glow

We had our dinner at Tito Abling’s. Tita Fel (his wife) made us a sumptuous dinner. By the way, she celebrated her birthday last Valentine's day. Happy Birthday Tita Fel!

Yummy dinner! Oh and FYI, the lunch served was knocked out! :D

It wasn’t planned though; we’re supposed to leave Saturday and go back to Batangas but we ended up attending the Sunday mass at Our Lady of Manaoag Church in Pangasinan.

(from left) Erica, Te Gigi, Mama, Me, Te Amy & DJ - posing in front of Our Lady of Manaoag

Nitro Family - Te Amy, DJ, Kuya Tutoy & Jom

And… (drum roll) the most spontaneous trip, BAGUIO! After visiting Our Lady of Manaoag, Tito Henry (Tita Lily’s husband) offered to tour us to the City of Pines.

DJ, Te Gigi, Me & Erica

The only photo of Tito Abeth (middle) during the entire trip. Laging absent sa pikturan e.

Kudos to Tito Henry! He even treated us to a late lunch at Rose Bowl near Burnham Park.

(from left) Tita Doring, Tita Lily, Tito Henry, Mama, Erica

The trip to Pampanga brought us to Pangasinan and Baguio. This escapade was our HAPPIEST FAMILY TRIP ever! :)

Next trip to Pampanga, come April! This time, my cousins who weren’t able to join (because of their children’s school activities) will join us. Ang sarap nga pala mang-inggit sa mga hindi nakasama, now I know the feeling! :)

We arrived in Batangas at almost 2:00AM, and I left for Manila at 5:00AM to go to work. How's that? Walang sawa sa byahe! We're all tired and sleepy but nevertheless, we had so much fun! Hope it won't be the last. :)

P.S. Pictures were posted at these links: Pampanga Trip, Our Lady of Manaog, City of Pines.