Category: Philippines Trip 2025

Busuanga – Day #2.

At breakfast, we learn that during the night the S’s air conditioning unit went out AGAIN! The resort staff is going to move them to a different room while we are out and about today. I am so glad they are going to be able to get this resolved, but not as much as they are!! No bueno! Again, I am so grateful that our “no air conditioning” happened when it did.

Today is supposed to be a rest day, however, we decide to go into town and do some souvenir shopping. My $12.50 cross body special from Belk Outlet is already coming apart at the seems – quite literally. DS purchased a cute purple cross body bag in Baguio City, so today my main priority is to find one like it.

The 10 of us pile in the Busuanga Bay Lodge van and 40 minutes later they drop us off in the town of Coron. Its streets are narrow and traffic mainly consists of scooters and “trike bikes,” although occasionally there are vehicles too. It is a mini traffic version of Manila.

At our first shop, we find some good deals on T-shirts, Dad buys some Filipino snacks (some kind of chocolate wafers), but no sweet, sweet cross body bag. It is pretty toasty today, and I quickly discover that Dad is not going to last long walking in the heat, despite having a neck fan to help provide some breeze (The majority of the shops are not air conditioned and the roads don’t really have sidewalks. If there are sidewalks, they are not very level. Also, being that the town is located in the valley of the island, there is not any breeze to speak of to give some reprieve from the heat). Fortunately, there is an air-conditioned JolliBees (what I would describe as the Filipino equivalent of KFC, without the varied sides). Half of our group stays here for an early lunch and half of our group heads to McDonalds (Would you believe that they have McDonalds on virtually every corner?? This has been the case within each city we have been in so far…or even in the country as we traveled between cities. Every few miles there are advertisements for McDonalds. Crazy.)

One of the attractions in the town of Coron is to climb the 700+ stairs to the top of Mount Talapay. Our group decides to take a trike-bike to McDonalds (It is maybe half a mile from Jolliebees, and it is also air-conditioned). Dad, KS, and AS stay here, and the rest of us hale a trike bike (it takes 2 for our group of 7) to the bottom of Mount Tapyas. 700+ stairs later, we are at the top! Magnificent views. It’s totally worth all the steps and sweat to the top!

On the way back down, MC and I each purchase a blue coral bracelet from a vender who had set up shop at one of the rest points. It memorializes doing this climb together. I love it.

Down at the bottom of the mountain, our trike bike drivers await. We head back to McDonalds, pick up Dad, KS, and AS. Once reunited, the ten of us (5 and 5) get back into our trike bikes and are given a tour of the town by our drivers.

They take us to the town’s pier…

I ask the driver if he knows of any stores that sell bags like the one that DS has. He is sure that they do and takes us to a store – kind of like a Dollar General. Alas, there is no cross body bag similar to DS’s. After a few more shop stops, (this really is the way to shop in this town, just hire a trike bike driver for the day) our drivers drop us off at the small parking lot in front of McDonalds, where we had arranged for our van to pick us up to take us back to the lodge.

“Back at the ranch,” we take some time to rest and get cleaned up and then up the hill to the “dining room” for supper. As we head back to our rooms for the night, the S’s are grateful for an air conditioner that works, and we continue to be thankful for this beyond beautiful place to rest and rejuvenate. Busuanga Day #2 is in the bag (but not my cross body bag ~_~)

Busuanga – Day #1.

Over breakfast, the S family share that in one of their rooms, the air conditioning quit in the middle of the night. Oh dear. Now I guess we have all had the “no air conditioning” experience. I am P.R.E.T.T.Y. sure that we got the better “no air conditioning” deal being that during our situation we were in the mountains with a breeze coming through our windows and temps of 60s / low 70s during the night. Interesting how one’s perspective can change. How would I have felt if this happened to us here? At this 5 star resort? I am so glad that our occurrence happened when and where it did! I heard DS say, “I thought about getting up and lying on the floor.” Bless her heart. The S family took it like champs, and the staff resolved the issue while we were out on our first excursion.

Our first excursion was a full day out on the Black Island. One of the many blessings of traveling together as a group this size is that we filled all of the spots on each excursion. It was like having a private tour without the extra cost.

The Black Island is only accessible by boat. The cheaper boat was under maintenance, so for the same price, we were given use of the faster, more modern boat. We were taken by a captain and a tour guide. Again, a very VIP experience. Our tour guide, Aldy, was very warm and friendly and his English was pretty good. The captain was also warm and friendly, but always deferred to the Aldy when we had questions.

Upon arrival to Black Island, initially, we were the only people there. Again – SO COOL not to be on a crowded beach or in an area where we are rubbing elbows for space. I practically run into the water. It is just the right temperature. I don’t know if it is the salt water or what, but I float rather effortlessly. (This is normally the case for me, but for some reason, I am literally a human life vest. I am sure my water shoes were part of the reason. I could not keep my feet down in the water if I wanted to. They just kept popping up to the surface.) MC and DS kept commenting about my floatation “powers.” It was like being a super hero for a day! Ha!

The morning was spent swimming and gathering shells. Aldy said we could keep anything that we found, so the hunt was on for who could find the “shell of the day.” There was a rock to climb on and jump off of out in the middle of the water. Everyone but my dad and AS (7 months pregnant) took multiple turns climbing up and jumping off of it. There were rock outcroppings to explore, another beach to walk on. The art of discovery was endless. The boat came equipped with snorkeling gear for each one of us. It was delightful to hoover in the water and share our fish and other ocean life finds with one another.

We had pre-ordered lunch. The S family chose the BBQ lunch, while we chose sandwiches and fruit. Aldy and the captain actually make the cooked part of the BBQ lunch while we swim and then call us “to the table” to eat. They spread a white linen cloth over a covered bamboo table, set up plates and silverware, and then position the spread in family style fashion in the middle of the table. For the BBQ lunch, Aldy and the captain make a fire and cook the tiger prawns (relative to the shrimp). Once we were finished eating, they encourage us to continue to relax, swim, and enjoy our surroundings while they clean up lunch. It feels like we have island butlers. They certainly cater to our every need.

After lunch, we explore a cave that is there. Aldy says that here was a professional dive team that came and explored the cave. The cave is connected to the ocean. He says that the documentary showed beautiful scenes of ocean life. It is pretty dim in the cave, but light enough to see bats hanging from the ceiling. We each take turns getting in the cooler water. I stay close to my husband. I don’t like swimming in areas where I can’t see well.

In the afternoon, we hovered over a shipwreck in the shallows close to our boat. I found it interesting that there were so many different kinds of fish hanging out here, versus 200 feet away where we had been swimming early this morning. I figured that we would continue to see more of the same fish and coral, but it was like we had entered a different oceanic neighborhood. So cool.

My dad participated in everything but jumping off of the rock. He enjoyed wading in the water and gathering sea shells. We put him in a life vest, gave him a mask, and he intermittently held his breath while taking in the underwater scenery. While he was swimming / floating in his life vest out in the water, Aldy swam close by with a yellow plastic bowey in case he needed something to hold onto and rest. Dad didn’t need it even once, but none the less, I was very grateful for the extra eyes on him, which allowed me to continue to swim around more freely. I was impressed at his stamina and ability to hold his breath for significant periods of time. After lunch, I encouraged him to lie down on the covered bamboo bench for a rest, and he did for about 30 minutes and then was up and at ‘em again.

Around 4PM, I hear Aldy say, “time to go.” Our little band of 10 climb up into the boat, and 40 minutes later, we are back at our resort.

Each group takes a minute to rest and clean up, and then we all meet up by the pool in the dining area for supper and recount the events and discoveries of the day. The resort is built into a hill. Its campus is stacked vertically, versus being spread out horizontally. In order to get to the “dining hall,” there are many stairs and steep concrete paths to traverse. Thankfully, upon request, the resort has a golf cart to transport guests to and from their rooms and the dining hall. For my dad and AS, this is definitely a blessing to help them save their strength for the many days of activities while we were there.

Each meal it was fun to order something new from the menu.

It was at meal time that we discovered the Asian time table – in a word, delayed. Every meal took at least an hour, if not longer to be served. Even then, there was a staggered delivery of what was ordered. There was always one person who was last to be served, often getting his or her meal when everyone else was finished eating. Interesting, BUT it did teach us to relax, visit, not rush – all of which we desperately need to work on doing more of back at home.

Check out the evening views as Busuanga – Day 1 comes to an end. 

Baguio City – Day #3

I awakened more rested than yesterday morning. YAY! My mom would say that good rest and stable blood sugar always helps one’s perspective. I must say this is most certainly true, even on the other side of the planet, because our seminary dorm rooms are beginning to feel homey.

For our breakfast today, we walked down to the seminary’s cafeteria. Breakfast consisted of rice, 2 different types of sausage choices, pork choice, “taquito” type thing choice, water or coffee. It was okay. It was a good “daily morning breakfast options for the seminary student” immersion moment.

After breakfast, we returned to our rooms and changed clothes for the graduation service, which was held on the seminary campus in their gymnasium.

The graduation ceremony was fantastic. Their music department is very impressive, with the choir singing several numbers. The keynote speaker was tremendous – she was very easy to understand and a very gifted, engaging speaker. (I don’t think that I mentioned it, but both baccalaureate and graduation services were primarily spoken in English, which was a great blessing for us to be able to literally “partake” of each speaker’s “shares” during each event) The keynote speaker’s name was Dr. Nativity Petellar. She was an alumni of the seminary. The theme of graduation was “Looking back, moving forward.” She used the story of the Red Sea to illustrate this theme. One of her quote’s was the following, “Looking back is redemptive remembering. A time to thank God. Moving forward is advancing, knowing that God is on our side.” Amen.

Another fantastic speaker was the president of the student council. He was A.B.S.O.L.U.T.E.L.Y. dynamic. I wish I would have thought to record some of his speech, or written down a quote or two, however, I was totally wrapped up in his presentation. I get the feeling that he might have an unusually out going personality for a Filipino. One thing that I do remember is him listing the difficulties that he and other student’s faced during their time at seminary. He emotionally shared how there were times that he didn’t have enough money to eat at the cafeteria, or times when he didn’t have enough money for the bus ride home. His vulnerability caused an emotional response within me – I thought to myself, “When I get home, I am going to set up a “lemonade stand,” with all proceeds going to a fund that could be available for students here whenever they were short on funds. …Kind of like the ministerial alliance fund that we have at home for people who cannot meet pay their bills, or buy groceries. I will keep you posted ~_~

When it came time to announce each of the graduates, they recognized several who had won various awards – awards that they did not know they had won until this moment. Each award had a monetary attachment. CP is a very talented student. He won the following awards: Proficiency in English Award, Silbor-Escobar Old Testament Studies Award (GPA of 97.5%), and Christian Education Award.

At the end of graduation, it was very evident to me that these students were receiving quality education, equipping them for both vocation and ministry. I am excited for them as they “go forth” from here.

There is a fairly large group of students from Myramar. After graduation, their friends and family had prepared traditional “snacks” (steamed rice, boiled eggs, different “greens,” some kind of broth? – it was almost like a soup..combine everything in a bowl and pour the broth over all of it) while students mingled and took pictures. After we took our photos with NP’s family, we politely declined the snacks, headed up to our dorm rooms, changed clothes, got in our rental car, and drove into town in hopes of having lunch at Chilies – on the top floor of at the big mall. The online pictures of food looked like home. We were all ready for an American meal.

Alas, after driving around and around for about an hour and a half with no parking to be found – every parking lot was full…“Are we in New York City?” – we decided to drive back to the seminary and eat at the Hatch coffee shop that we walked to for breakfast on our first morning in Baguio City. I dropped off my dad and MC, and was in process of finding a parking spot when MC called and said that there was a wait to eat. With no indication of how long the wait would be, I drove around the block and picked up my dad and MC. Back to the seminary we went. At this point, my dad said he would be fine with eating his snacks for lunch and wanted to rest. Meanwhile, my husband, MC, and I walked to a local “burger joint” that my husband found on Google and had lunch. I had a burger, sweet potato fries, and a freshly squeezed lemonade. The sweet potatoe fries and lemonade were extraordinary. The burger was interesting – it was supposed to be 100% beef, but to me it looked like an albino patty. Still…it was tasty and nice to have some comfort food.

Our bellies full, we walked back to our dorm rooms (which we now felt was a place of refuge and called “home”) and rested until the evening meal. For supper, CP had arranged for us to eat at a very special restaurant called, Aqua Garden Cafe. NP and his family took a taxi, and my husband navigated us “the back way” to the restaurant. I didn’t think that driving in Baguio City could get any more diverse than it already had been, but I was VERY wrong. This back way took us up and down VERY steep and VERY narrow streets, as in “one car at a time” narrow. My husband said, “Sorry, Card. I had no idea.” Suggestion to Google maps…could you please provide a topography map for streets with extreme inclines and declines, as well as notification of street width, so that it doesn’t look like a person will be driving “flat” and “normal” roads to their destination? I did not envy my husband’s navigational roll.

Once at Aqua Garden Cafe, we were delighted with the views of our surroundings… the views of the valley below, the colorful birds in cages, and the fish in various aquariums. We ate together, visited – again, as best a we could, although CP’s English is very good, and CP opened his gifts from Texas. At the end of the night, we said our goodbyes. In the morning, they were headed to a beach about 2 hours from Baguio City and we would be headed to Clark International Airport to board a flight for our next leg of our trip – several days of beach vacation on the island of Busuanga.

Bless his heart, my husband figured out a different route back to the seminary. Much. Much. Much more “normal” streets and travel. All of us breathed a sigh of relief when we arrived back at the seminary. If you are familiar with the movie “The Pacifier,” all I could think of was the girl who flies out of the van that her student driver sister was driving, flings herself on the ground in front of her school, and gratefully cries, “LAND!!!” (To be honest, this is not the first or the last time that this movie clip popped up in my mind)

Back in our dorm rooms, we have the routine down now! We are practically honorary students now! …A hot shower, fans plugged in, fan app on, and off to sleep we drift… The adventure of tomorrow awaits.

Securing the rental car:
We had breakfast at our hotel. They had both American and Filipino food options. It was buffet style. I tried a little of everything. No complaints.
Interestingly enough they had a dining room dress code: No cut off shirts for men. And no pajamas or slippers. LOVE THIS! Wish our hotels also had dining room dress codes!

In the Philippines, their Uber equivalent is called Grab. Being the tech savvy people we are (not so much – but it wasn’t too difficult to figure out), we acquired a Grab ride to our rental car company location. The reason why we went with this Avis location, versus a rental company at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, is because they allowed for a car to be rented from their location and returned to a different location without tacking on a large fee. AND the reason why we chose to return the car to a different location was because, pending traffic, Baguio City is a 4-6 hour drive from Manila. Clark International Airport is somewhat in between the 2 cities, AND it is a smaller airport. We thought that both the shorter drive to the airport and navigating a smaller airport would be less stressful for us and less wear and tear on Dad.

Baguio City is the location of CP’s seminary. We had discussed taking a bus, but then were not sure how we would get from the bus station to the seminary. Additionally, from our research, it did not appear that any of the buses ran from Baguio City to Clark International Airport. So we decided to rent a car and caravan with the family we are traveling with (they had to rent 2 cars in order to fit 6 people and their luggage, and because of the large fee to return the cars to a different location other than the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, they are returning their cars to the airport in Manila).

The location of the Avis car rental company was literally in the middle of what I would call slums. In fact, when we pulled up to the address listed, I didn’t even see any building that resembled a business of any kind. In fact, our driver had to ask 2 people where to go. It was a very sad state of affairs – as my mother would say. RBC and I were looking at each other speaking without words, “What have we gotten ourselves into?!” It reminded me of a “rental deal” that I reserved for a family trip to Miami, FL. On that trip we ended up giving the car back after driving 2 blocks and the engine check light came on, taking a shuttle back to the airport, and renting from a different company. This particular Avis car rental company gave the same vibe. We struggled through the paperwork – possibly paying for renters insurance twice? (I had paid for car renter’s insurance online? But we could not tell if their paperwork was reflecting this insurance – since it was pre-selected? Oh well…). We reviewed the car together, signing off on all the marks and dings the car had before we drove it away. We were given a copy of the paperwork, but then as we were pulling out of the warehouse, a security guard? asked to see the copy of the “ding list,” and check that everything was in order. Then he waved us on – and kept the paperwork (hmmm…did we need that?)
Silver lining… because we needed a particular license plate to drive in Baguio (some sort of curfew thing set up by the government to try and limit how many cars on on the road in every city) they gave us a van with automatic transmission. The only van that was available when we reserved our car online was one with standard transmission. This was absolutely a gift from the Lord – keep reading, you will understand why.

I was the driver. We had decided before we left for the Philippines that I would drive the Manila to Baguio City stretch. I was confident in my manual transmission driving skills (I owned a Nissan 240SX after graduating from nursing school and drove it for many years before needing to trade it in for a more baby friendly vehicle) AND I have a tendency to get car sick. So we decided that I would drive and RBC would navigate. After watching the driving on our way to the hotel from the airport and again on our way to the rental car company, I prayed that the Lord would keep us safe and give me the confidence I needed to drive these roads. It is a literal free for all…lanes are a suggestion. Motorcycles and scooters drive in between the lanes and weave in and out of cars to get to where ever they are going as quickly as possible. There aren’t really any traffic lights and for intersections that have really heavy traffic they have “traffic directors” that rotate holding off one group of cars / motorcycles and waving on another. There are moments when cars on either side of our rental car are L.I.T.E.R.A.L.L.Y. INCHES from touching our vehicle. It gives a WHOLE new meaning to “reach out and touch someone.”

On our way: We made it back to the hotel from the rental car company in one piece. I am thinking to myself, “Okay, that wasn’t too bad.” (Hmmmm, just wait RRC, you thought that was challenging… you just barely scratched the surface of driving in Manila, wait to you see what driving in Baguio City is like).
We checked out of our hotel around 10:00AM and our little caravan of 2 vans and 1 car hit the road to Baguio City. The drive out of Manila wasn’t horrible – it was as I described above. We were the last vehicle in our caravan and there were times when the first 2 vehicles had to pull over, put their emergency lights on, and wait for us to catch up, but for the most part we were able to keep together.

Once out of the city, the drive in the country was much more “normal.” As we passed vehicles, both my husband and MC both commented how our little group was our own version of “the fast and the furious.” As we began the literal climb in elevation and winding roads up the hillside into the city of Baguio, we WERE the fast and the furious. Passing cars, vans, and buses…yep on a 2 way road, sometimes not a whole lot of room to spare. My husband said that I made him nervous a few times…once when I passed on the right hand side of the road. Hey, what happens on the road in the Philippines, stays on the road in the Philippines. No lie. Having an automatic transmission was an absolute gift from the Lord – so many times we were stopped on a steep incline. I would not have wanted to added stress of trying to keep the car from rolling back down the mountain!

We followed our traveling companions to their hotel, so that we would know where they were in comparison to the seminary, where we would be staying over the next several days. At this point, it was around 6:30PM and dark. We decided to part ways – each group to do supper on their own, and us navigating our way to the seminary.

We decided to head to the seminary first, get settled, and then find a place to eat. On our way to the seminary, we took a wrong turn and needed to turn around. It was dark. The street was very narrow, but I thought I had found a reasonable place to turn around. It was one of those drive forward, back up, drive forward, back up moments. During the final back up, I hear a scrape of the back of the vehicle. Not good. Whelp, no time to check things over, a car is coming. On to the seminary.

Once there, Charis met us and showed us where to park and walked us to our rooms.

We had reserved three, 2 person rooms. They were dorm rooms. I was surprised to find that they had no air conditioning – I thought that I had confirmed this prior to reserving these, but maybe not? So hard to know when there are so many moving parts to planning a trip like this. My husband took the first room, MC and I took the next one, and my dad settled into the third one. Thankfully it was not hot there. I would guess temps ranged from 70s to 60s while we were there. There was a breeze coming in the window, along with all the sounds of the neighborhood. After “parking” our bags in our designated rooms, I must confess, I walked into my husband’s room and was in tears. He gave me a hug and said it was ALLLLL going to be alright. No time to weep. Charis was waiting to take us to supper.

We walked with Charis to a local “restaurant” for supper (back home, we would call it a hole in a wall”). Dad and I had chicken sisig, and MC and RBC had beef sisig. The best way to describe it is “an interesting rice dish.” CP also ordered “egg roll” for the table – not what I was expecting, it was like a baked egg omelet that was cut into slices for each person to sample. The best item of the meal for me was my drink – watermelon water. It came in a clear plastic can that looked like a regular soda can. It was very refreshing.

The other best part of our meal was the walk. It was good to be on solid ground after the stressful drive up the mountain to the city of Baguio. Both driving in Manila and Baguio city was challenging, but each had their own challenges. Manila had many more motorcycles to watch out for. Baguio city’s steeply pitched and curvy roads threw a literal wrench into contending with other vehicles on the road.

Once back on the seminary campus, we glance at the car. Looks like there are some scratches underneath the back fender. There is nothing that can be done about it, but to wait and see what the rental car company has to say upon return of the vehicle. I worked at moving past this potential added cost to our trip.

At the dorm, I checked in with Dad and asked how he was doing. He said that he was doing just fine. Back in my room with MC, I am thinking, “Maybe we can check with JS tomorrow morning and see if their hotel has any rooms available?” I decide to take a shower before bed. I think, “Surely this will help me sleep better and I will be cooler after having showered.” I start the process, but apparently there is no hot water out of the faucet? There is a bucket with “a scoop” in it on the floor of the shower stall (looks like a small cooking pot inside a 5 gallon Home Depot bucket) “Hmmm, maybe that is what this is for?” (for scooping water out of the bucket to pour over oneself) “Oh well,” I think to myself, “Get over it. You have done this in Indonesia (For one year after high school, I lived in Indonesia on the island of Borneo with my aunt and uncle, who served as medical missionaries there.) You can do this here.” So I take the “scooper,” dip it in the bucket of cold water, and poor it over myself with an audible, but non-verbal “you can do it” cringe. Before I know it, my shower is over, and I am definitely cooler. As I climb into the top bunk, I am reminded, grateful, and humbled by how blessed we are in the States, and I asked the Lord for wisdom regarding how to best to proceed tomorrow.

Baguio City

This was quite a day (Wednesday, June 11)…here is a teaser. It is a text written by my husband to me via a text note at the end of our journey here:

Hey Love, it’s me in the next room, just wanted to let you know it’s all okay. The scratch on the car, no big deal, still cheaper than JS‘s even if we have to pay the deductible. The rooms, why it reminds me of all the times in my life I’ve slept without A/C, so no big deal for me. I agree, not the best for your dad, though, so we will need to work on a change tomorrow. If we were doing our 10 day enduro motorcycle ride trip here, this would probably be better than some of the places we would be staying. It’s okay to experience every once in a while how most of the world lives – without good heat or air, not great living conditions. Your dad was saying this morning he hoped we wouldn’t be staying at Microtel Mall of Asia again(the hotel is undergoing some renovation and had no water from 11P-5A in the guest rooms), he’s probably thinking that was a pretty nice place now. So it’s all good, actually it’s better than good, it’s a blog writers dream, one experience after another to delight the reader. I will say, I wouldn’t eat at the place we ate supper again, no bueno. I think that’s all, I’ll be doing some reading, if you need to come talk. ~RBC

Stay tuned for the details… ~RRC

Evening in Manila

We all rested after our lunch at Shakeys and around 5:30 PM NP, his wife, and daughter came to our hotel lobby to visit with us. Originally we were to attend 2 graduations – NP’s son (CP) AND his daughter (HP), but HP’s class schedule was unexpectedly altered, so she will not graduation until next spring – Take heart US college, university, and seminary students! Looks like this happens any where in the world ~_~

Dad brought a suitcase of books from his personal library to donate to NP’s seminary in Burma. He gave it to him at this time – one less suitcase to manage! I like it!! They presented us with traditional cultural attire to wear at CP’s baccalaureate service tomorrow night. Evidently the ladies at NP and his wife’s church made these for us. MC received both a vest and a dress.

After we visited (NP understands English fairly well and speaks with a heavy accent. His wife doesn’t speak English at all, but appears to understand some. HP speaks and understands English fairly well. So we hobbled along, doing the best we could to communicate one another) they took transportation back to HP’s seminary / apartment, and we walked to supper. We ate at a local place and had local food. I had some sort of fried rice with shrimp dish. It was okay. So far nothing has surpassed good ole’ Bamboo House of Bohnam, Texas.

On our walk back to the hotel, MC treated us with an ice cream treat – this would be my mom’s favorite way to end the day. It has become mine as well.

We arrived on time in Manila – 5:00AM.

Went through customs without issues – I took an illegal picture.  Oops. MC was sure we were all going to jail.

Getting to our hotel was a lengthy process, but all took it in stride.

We went in 2 waves. Our traveling family went first and then we followed. Almost 3 and a half hours after we landed we got into our hotel. We are staying at the Microtel Inn and Suites by Wyndam. It is next to the Asia Mall – biggest mall in the world.

We ate at Shakeys, a pizza place that TS is familiar with in Lubbock. It is a small world folks.

Welcome to Business Class.

Not as nice as first class, however, it was quite roomy and the seats did recline to a flat position. (See photos) Everyone was able to get some decent chunks of sleep. I am very grateful for this. Again, this will give Dad (and the rest of us too) a good start to our trip.

Meals: See the menu…I had the sea bass, it was okay…and the wagon wheel type things (lotus root) were interesting. They had kind of a bland, potato like flavor. In the morning, I had the Filipino breakfast – Tapsilog. It was delicious.

“Morning” conversation – or whatever time it was…Dad leaned over to me and said, “Well, instead of coffee with the Lord, I had water with the Lord this morning.” He went on to add, “At home, every morning I sit in my chair with my cup of coffee and I have time with the Lord.” I asked him, “What is your time with the Lord like?” He replied, “Well, I have a list of things that I pray about…” he listed various missionaries and their ministries, several local people who were having health issues, he said he prayed for me and that I would continue to recover from my cancer journey and not have any recurrence, he mentioned JS – who is the dad of the family that we are traveling with (he has a very aggressive type of squamous cell cancer that he has been dealing with) – that he prays for complete healing of his body, he mentioned his granddaughters – that he prays for their future. He then concluded, “And that’s my time with the Lord.” As he spoke, I felt emotion begin to well up within me. I felt both grateful and convicted at the same time. Grateful…because I have a dad who actively and intentionally prays for me. What a priceless gift. Convicted…because there are times when he agitates me with habits / patterns of behavior and that agitation becomes more the focus of my mind versus the priceless benefit of his prayers for me. As we all are, I am a work in progress, and I am thankful that the Lord is helping me learn how to better love and accept him for who he is. Thank you Lord for this very special morning chat over proverbial coffee in our business class seats.

Welcome to First Class. I thought to myself, “Hmmm, this is a far cry from my childhood memory of an Arby’s coupon for 5 sandwiches for $5, and no thank you for drinks because we have a 2 liter Coke at home.” I decided to book this leg of the trip 1^st class because of our long journey. It would give Dad the best opportunity to start our trip well rested and well stretched. It is roomy to say the least. Everyone had their own cubical of space – I would imagine that people who work in cubicles for a living would put these in their work’s suggestion box for the next work space make over. Crazy. Crazy good. If you are able, this is worth doing at least once.

When we got off of this flight, I told our traveling companions (our friends – family of 6 – traveled economy), “The perks of being with a senior!” Initially we had thought about only getting Dad and one other person a 1^st class and then business plane ticket, but then I thought that it may be nice to switch out keeping an eye out / helping Dad with navigating all of the newfangled gadgets (positioning the chair, the seat belt with a cross body strap, helping be another set of ears if he could not hear or understand the flight attendant, pointing out where the restrooms were, helping with stowing his carry on, etc.). However, the more my husband and I talked about it, the more we thought it would be easier to all stick together. When I presented this idea to Dad, he only became comfortable with it when he knew that the 4 of us would be traveling in the same class. He didn’t want any one person getting preferential treatment – so thoughtful.

I know some of you are curious about meals and such. Whelp, it was no Arby’s beef and cheddar (however, I do like to have one of those from time to time). I had some kind of salad – Greek goddess bla, bla, bla. It had quinoa, peas, sweet potato chunks, broccoli, and a green dressing. I tried the white mystery food ? – nope not for me, and the cream cheese stuffed pepper – it was okay, but I was full from the salad and it was not tasty enough to devour despite a full stomach. The cheese cake was very good. It had a lemony flavor.

I like to refer to them as character building moments:

Dad got stung by wasps on Wednesday. He is allergic – like EPI-PEN allergic. He calmly texts me, “I got stung by 2 or 3 wasps building a nest that I hadn’t noticed. I smashed their nest off with a broom before I came to the house and put triple antibiotic ointment on the red places.” I drive over to his house and take a look. Initially the spots seem okay. I start him on the “soak it with epsom salt,” take 2 benadryl before bed, and 1 clariton in the morning regimen. On Friday, his arm is twice as big as the day before and redness is moving up his arm. Praise the Lord, we were able to get in to see his primary physician before noon (they close at noon on Friday’s). We leave the clinic with a steroid pack, prescription for antibiotics – in case the redness worsens, and an updated prescription for an EPI-PEN. Thankfully, today Dad’s arm is MUCH better. Silver lining…we tell Dad’s primary physician about our trip to the Philippines and he writes us a script for a daily preventive for Malaria for the 4 of us.

TS, the mom of the other family going with us, broke her toe on Tuesday. Doctor’s orders: walking boot, no running, and minimal walking for 4-6 weeks. Hmmmmm, how is that going to work? She is actually not wearing her shoe because it started to aggravate her heel, so she got some heel lifts / cushions for her shoes and seems to be doing okay now.

My husband’s and my heel have been having empathy pains…no real source, just spontaneous discomfort. We were given some stretching exercises for plantar fasciitis. These have been quite helpful for me. My husband’s heel is still quite bothersome.

The family traveling with us lost electricity the morning of our flight out and had to drive into town to print off their boarding passes.

Irregardless of these incidentals… these inconveniences… usually things that we have no control over, we do have the opportunity to control our minds / our perspectives about these occurrences. When these things occur, I am trying to rest in the promises of Jesus. Only with the help of His Holy Spirit can I do so. I find it humbling that He is so patient with me as a hobble along, and I pray that with each incidental that I grow and mature a little more to reflect the fruits of His Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.