MANILA

Well, we are at our final stop on our trip to the Philippines. Let me say that yesterday, was so much fun. Allegre is located next to a marine wildlife sanctuary so there were many fish to be seen. We rented snorkel equipment and spent several hours with our noses in the water. I can prove it by the nice burn that I got on my back side. (Yes, Allen, I put sunscreen on, but evidently not enough.) Today sort of felt like I had the bun warmer on that couldn't be turned off in the airplane. A little tender to say the least...but alas, I was in good company! The other concern was my face... I was grateful to see that my mask marking had disappeared this morning. I was a bit worried last night when I looked in the mirror and saw the remnants of a snorkel mask outlining my face. Embarrassing, but true. Maybe I had it on a little too tight?!

Today was a travel day. It was a two-hour ride to the airport, an hour flight to Manila, lots of city driving (stop and go and stop and stop,go and stop) and finally to our hotel for the night.

We made a stop at the WW2 American/Filipino Memorial Cemetery for about an hour. We visited it with the kids the last time we were here... It is large, peaceful and very beautiful. Then, it was off to the mall for lunch and one last shopping stop. Our driver, Danny (who we have hired each time we have visited Manila) took us to the mall - a GIANT mall I might add! He dropped us off at about 3 p.m. The plan was for him to pick us up in two hours...OR I would call. I had his cell phone number and tried it in the van while we were still together to make sure it would work. We had a great lunch and did a little bit of last-minute shopping. As we headed back to the entrance, I called Danny to see if he could pick us up. Unfortunately, my phone wouldn't work. I tried calling some of my CSC contacts in CEBU to have THEM try the number, but my phone would not work for those numbers either. We watched and waited and watched and waited for about 45 minutes. You have no idea how many white toyota vans there are in Manila...but there are lots. All of the sudden, Manila was feeling pretty big and scary. I wasn't too scared myself, but I felt kind of responsible for everyone else. I could tell that people were starting to feel a bit nervous about our predicament...so I suggested we take a cab to the hotel which was just a few blocks away... The problem with that was that we would need to separate and some were not too comfortable with that. To make a long story short, Danny came to the rescue just in time. He parked the van because he was worried and came to look for us on foot. Fortunately, we hadn't hopped in another taxi yet. His first words..."What happened?" Poor guy. Can you imagine being responsible for 3 lost American women and their teenage daughters? We were all very happy to see each other and be on our way.

Chalk it up to another little adventure. Some people would call it scary. I would call it exciting and memorable. It's time to gather my stuff and try to get some sleep. Danny picks us up at 4:30 a.m. tomorrow a.m. so it will be a short night. It is 8:30 p.m. and as I look out the window to the street outside, it is pouring rain. There is something very cool about being here. These two weeks have been an adventure that I will add to my Cebu/Philippines memory bank. It has been awesome. Thanks for checking in on me! See you in the States!!