Travel: Up on the Mountains

Holy Week in Manila means almost all places are closed, traffic is somewhat non-existent, and everyone is leaving the city. People usually leave on Holy Wednesday and come back Easter. Well, like any other family leaving in the metro -- except for a few who stayed behind because of makeup classes in school -- we went to my parents' farm, and decided to continue up north and get a feel of cooler air in the mountains of Baguio.

We avoided the toxic traffic Wednesday by leaving the day before and headed to Pangasinan for the night. It's always a treat when we go to the farm. We get to stay in the main house.

In the morning, we wake up to this amazing sight and sound of the koi pond.

We get to hang out in the lanai. Sometimes, we eat breakfast there too.

We went up to Baguio after breakfast. It took about 2 hours.

The Lion on the way up was jam-packed with people and cars. First-time visitors always stop here and take pictures.

It was lunchtime when we arrived. We stopped at O'mai Khan for a Mongolian style lunch. Incidentally, the restaurant's name is a play on an Ilocano word that means "Let's go!" (edited). I'll go into detail about this place in another post.

After a hearty meal, we headed on to Baguio Country Club to check in. While waiting, we bought some yummy raisin bread (theirs is better than those from Bag of Beans in Tagaytay). We stayed in one of their cottages, which is really a 3-bedroom vacation house. The location is amazing, but I really think the place needs renovation and maintenance if they want to keep a steady flow of clients. They should really upgrade the kitchen, the bathrooms, and the paint (omg the paint).

Check out the wall behind Allie. Not only is it peach (eek!), but it's terra fresco faux finished (double eek!). Okay, I'm sorry if I offended some people, but it really makes the whole house feel soo old and dingy. It was still an okay stay nonetheless. Anyway, Allie loves the rocking chair in the living room. She chose her own outfit in this photo, and she loves her Naraya bag so much, she doesn't let it out of her sight.

We have two chefs in the family so we didn't bring a cook with us. The next morning, they prepared vegetable frittata and French toast topped with yummy fresh strawberries and condensed milk.

We ordered uncut loaves of bread from the Baguio Country Club bakery, and our chefs just cut the bread thick like in the photo. French toasts this way is sooo much better.

For lunch, we headed over to Camp John Hay and had their lunch buffet. Allie enjoyed the grass area near the teeing area of the golf course. She loves the grass, the plants, the flowers, and the butterflies.

She picked a yellow flower and gave it to me. So sweet.

Here's daddy E giving Allie a spin. Looks like Allie's really enjoying it.

We then went to get some goodies from the Good Shepherd convent that afternoon. But surprise surprise, the line was so long and it started to drizzle. Well, not really a surprise because the line is always long when it's peak season. Anyway, my tita and tito came back the next morning and we just had them buy whatever we wanted -- chocolate crinkles. Sorry, no photos. Ubos agad e.

Then it was time to head back to the farm and spend the weekend. Someone was exhausted.