===Subic Getaway===
May 12 (Saturday) – Paul and I together with my in-laws and Paul’s siblings drove to Subic for an overnight relaxation away from the city. This summer getaway was planned for a triple celebration: Paul’s birthday on the 14th, Mothers Day celeb on the 13th and mom-in-law’s birthday on the 16th. We hit the road at about 7 am. By past 8 am, we were already at Bacolor, Pampanga to fetch and convoyed with my sis-in-law’s family. If not with the slow-moving caravans of election candidates doing their last round campaigns on the highway, we could have arrived in Subic earlier. We reached Sheavens Beach View Hotel in Baretto, Olongapo by 10:30 am. Since they’re still arranging the rooms and check in time is not until 12 noon, we just hang around the tropical garden and lounged and took some photos by the waters of Subic Bay.
After a while, we then settled in our rooms and since we were all salivating for lunch, we hurriedly scoured the main road of Gapo for a nice and cheap diner. Well knowing Gapo, obviously, pubs and beer gardens mostly lined up the main road. Luckily, there’s a resto just a few blocks away from the hotel and there we stuffed ourselves (although, food was not that great). Back in the hotel, I brought out my laptop and luckily, a wireless connection was detected however it was so intermittent and slow that I fell asleep while waiting for the page to load. Lolz.
We walked to nearby Baloy Beach later in the afternoon for a swim.
Later that evening, we headed back to the hotel, freshened up and got ready for dinner. Again, hunting for a good resto was a challenge. Subic’s beach and hotels sprawled near the shoreline of Baloy are really appealing and nice but how I wish they’ll also put up cheap and nice restos to dine in. At any rate, we wre able to find in the outskirts of the highway a so-so grillery and there we ate.
We went back to the hotel, stayed up late watching TV and DVDs on the laptop, then retired the night. The next morning, we had a Jollibee breakfast, went for a morning swim in the beach except for me who was slacking of changing into my swimwear. Later, we checked out and drove back to Manila with the unforgiving and sweltering heat.
Credits:
Photo Clusters by Nancy Comelab
All a Flutter Alpha by Robin Carlton
Doodles by Lively
Happy daisy paper by Shelley Chua