Visits: Walkies & Bye bye!

The good weather continued to hold through the duration of Tante's stay, and with no more destinations planned, we went on our normal walks in the late afternoon, enjoying the beautiful light and company, while Kecil went on with her flower gathering routine.

Among other things, we walked, and took pictures, every one of us: Mama, Tantes and even Kecil!

Kecil Shot

Mama shot Tante shooting

Mama shot

And all too soon, it was time again to make the long trip to Manila to send Tantes off. We stopped along the highway to get some gifts for the Tantes to bring home, a chance that was used by Kecil to explore the nearby playground.

It was a pretty tiring trip, so there weren't many pics this time round.

But all in all, we had a good time with the two Tantes, and we look forward to many more visits from the family. Until next time, Tante!

(and hopefully no more fighting over gadgets next time!)

Visits: Manila part 2

The journey from Intramurros to Makati took quite a while, and Kecil actually managed to sleep along the way. So since Mama was carrying Kecil during the trip, no pics. Thank goodness we soon arrived at our destination, and Kecil woke up. Mama's hand was getting totally numb. (In fact, it took about 3 days for the pain to go away, but that's a different story)

Makati, as the 'center of civilization', has a totally different feel from the area surrounding Intramurros.

The beautiful late afternoon sun did help in making the scene even more beautiful.

Still, I guess one can still get lost even in Makati. Especially when  you are just a little girl with a penchant for wearing a certain non-descript cat on your clothes and shoes. Hmm....

We saw weird trucks and funny buildings, and Kecil got a hit from pressing all the pedestrian buttons at every junction. Soon, we managed to find our way to Greenbelt, where we just sat down and rest our tired feet. Kecil, however, managed to find her own form of entertainment.

The water fountain! Indeed. It's funny how little boys and girls are always attracted to water. Here's an old picture of Kecil in this exact same spot:

Those, I believe, were taken like about 2 years back. Nowadays, Kecil's game has gotten more sophisticated:

... complete with testing the waters, a new friend, even taking off her shoes and rolling her pants to prevent them from getting wet. Good thing too, because nowadays, Mama does not carry extra pair of clothes for her. She's a big girl already. 

Look, she even can take a picture of Mama taking a picture of her:

Well, after Greenbelt, basically we met up with Daddy, had dinner and made our way home. It was a good, tiring day out. But the Tantes are still around, so stay tuned for more stories of Tantes' visit. Cheers!

Visits: Manila part 1

The day following Kecil's Tantes' arrival, Daddy had to attend a meeting in his office in Manila, and so we trooped back into the rented car and drove back to Manila, a day after taking the very same expressway.

We did, however, bring the various gadgets along to entertain the kid during the long ride.

Upon reaching Daddy's meeting place, we parted company: Daddy went for his meeting, while Mama, Tantes and Kecil went off to explore the city. To be precise, we wanted to visit the walled city, or Intramurros, and since we left the car with Daddy (there is no way Mama was going to drive in Manila, yet), we took the LRT.

Mama got scolded for trying to take pics inside the station, so here's one Mama took surreptitiously while the guard was looking away.

Guess who was in charge of navigation?

Following the recommendation of Mama's travel bible (and after failing to cover reasonable distance on foot with Kecil in tow), we took the kalesa to go around the city.

Not only the kalesa is big enough to take all four of us, plus one driver (note: 3 big of us. Mama and Tante's are not exactly small, you know!), it was also pretty! And since it was not as fast as motorized vehicle, we did manage to take quite a few nice pics along the way.

The driver even stopped at picturesque spots (according to him) so that we can take pics.

Well... I guess the driver did know what he was talking about. The pics did turn out all right, no?

Soon it was time to go back to meet up with Daddy, so when we finished the kalesa tour, we took pedicab and made our way back to the nearest LRT station.

Pedicabs, unlike tricycle, are manually pedaled. So Mama was again able to take a few pic, including the one below of Tante's pedicab following ours:

T'was great fun, but we were not done yet as Daddy's meeting was extended.

After Intramurros, we actually took sometime exploring Ayala and Greenbelt Mall in Makati. But perhaps we'll continue with that in the next post.

Until then, and before we part, let me just share Mama's favorite pic of the day: