Our First Family Trip to Baguio City

I've always loved Baguio City. The first time I went there was when I was 3 years old; I can't remember a single thing we did there. I only saw the photos my late father took. Mama said we were there to celebrate my younger brother's 1st birthday. My eldest sister, M rode a horse together with my other sister, N. I also saw a photo of Papa with my brother A, riding the horse, too. What the eff was my problem as a child? Why didn't I have a photo riding the horse in Wright Park? I felt a bit sad. So when I was growing up, I promised myself I will be Mikee Cojuangco of a rider. I went to Baguio a lot of time already but I never rode, not even once; not even a cute pony. What is just wrong with me? So, maybe it was not time yet. I thought, "hey R has plans to go there after New Year's so I might this time..." Lo and behold, ang mahaaaaaal. Php200 for 30 minutes? Are you kidding me? Si Sophia na nga lang. Sulit na sulit ang bayad sa ngiti at hagikhik niya. Feeling niya rancho namin ang nilalakaran ng pink pony niya. And, who would take pictures for posterity if I will ride, right? Speaking of photos, I did take a lot! Here's a photo essay of how R's homecoming and Sophia's first Baguio adventure went through. I will make side kwento na rin. 

Those are shots taken on our way to the City of Pines. We left the camp around 4 in the morning and had breakfast at Jollibee in Pangasinan.

First stop: Philippine Military Academy. I can see how R was so excited when we were about to enter the gates of his home of four years. He was in the front seat of the car so I didn't see if he was teary-eyed or what. Haha! But one thing I was very sure of, the king wanted to show off his Alma Mater to his princess.

It was actually not allowed for anyone civilians to have their photos taken at the Borromeo Field, because of its sanctity. Ayan, may siga. #maypinagmanahan

I haven't met a mom who doesn't love taking photos of her child. So there, Sophia's photos forever. I love my model! She's a natural. 

Feeling bagong mag-jowa na nagdedate, here are Dodong and Inday's day-off souvenirs. Panglagay sa wallet. Teka, ipapa-develop ko muna.

We actually wanted to go to the infamous Flirtation Walk again. We went there in 2007 during PMA Alumni Homecoming, but this sign stopped us. I wonder why. Wait, hindi civilian ang asawa ko. At dependents niya kami, dapat pala pinaglaban ko yun. Char.

Anyway, R is a proud Anak ng Baka - a cadet who belongs to the 1st Batallion, Bravo Company of the CCAFP. That makes me Manugang ng Baka and Sophia, an Apo ng Baka. Apir. :p

It was still holiday break for the rest of the cadets, that's why the Plebes were the King of Barracks. They were everywhere. So when R found a fellow Anak ng Baka, Sophia and I pose with them as they do a very quick "gathering" and marching - whatever it was called.

At dahil hindi ko pa naman nobyo si R when he was still a cadet, ang bagets na lang pinagdiskitahan ko. Infer ha, ang bango niya. Sana maka-graduate siya para madagdagan ang mababangong sundalo ng Pilipinas. Haha!

So whenever's a beautiful bulaklak with a colorful talulot, pic pac galore yan for sure. Addicting. ♥

My stomach churned and craved for real food so off we went to Barrio Fiesta for Crispy Pata and Sinigang na Sugpo. Jeez, camp food was anything but fish and bland and a sight of pity. I literally wolfed down more than two cups of rice. My tiny Tyra Banks of a model loved the papier-maché statues of Cory Aquino, Cardinal Sin and the Igorots. She specifically told me, not asked, to take photos of her with them. Crazy kid. 

Guess what - Sophia took a photo of where REKELI (her imaginary friend) was sitting. Is that cute or what? Sometimes, it's scaring the sh*t out of me.

When I was doggone tired and sleepy, I begged the hyper explorers to have at least an hour of rest. We stayed at the officers' quarters in PMA Naval Base. No water heater and no extra blanket. Army way, yes it was. 

Then we headed to Wright Park so our little equestrienne can go "yeeha" for 30 minutes. It was one of our family's happiest moments. Whenever the little girl's happy, Nanay and Tatay are happy, too. Only she was tulala when we were about to leave her pink pony behind. :(

The king didn't pass the chance to enjoy whatever we can in the summer capital of the country; that even if it's getting dark already, we still rode the boat in Burnham Park (which as of posting this, is now drained and dug up for the reason I don't know). Sophia wanted the pink cobra boat but we went to the wrong direction. So we settled for the mermaid boat instead. Honestly, it's nothing fancy. Haha! But we did bother to give it a try no? It's Php150 for 30 minutes and judging from Sophia's reaction, she didn't enjoy. Well, I guess it's nothing new to her since she has rode a number of boat rides when we went to the islands of Magalawa and Potipot.  But again, photos for posterity! :)

I promised to meet with my Baguio-based friend, D and her new guy so we went to Solibao for dinner. Read a snippet of what I got to say about the resto, here. Dhimson, D's boyfriend is from Ifugao so as a GI (geographically-idiot, heehee), I learned a lot about the Cordillera Region and not just the Banawe Rice Terraces. Really, I'm poor at these things. 

The next day, we went to Vizco's for a heavenly breakfast and bought some pasalubong after. Then we rolled home. It was not easy being in the passenger seat while R's driving - because I was the navigator! I learned to read Google Maps from his phone. Cheers! That's another new thing for me this 2013. Kidding aside, it never was easy to be just a passenger. All because I wanted to sleep but I feel I can't. I felt the need to entertain the driver. Oh, thank you my Lord, for the gift of gab. But hey, I think R likes it much better if I'm asleep. Well, he can't avoid me. He will be with this talkative lady for the rest of his life. Haha! And we planned to conquer Luzon (then Visayas then Mindanao before the world) after this Baguio trip. So help us, God. ♥

I Should Have Named Her Julie. Or Julia?

Who, you ask? Sophia. I know I should be sleeping now since I need to wake up by 7:30ish in the morning tomorrow later to cook breakfast for me and the little one. Yup, after 3 weeks of being together with my breakfast-eating soldier, my tummy now looks for something else aside from Nescafe 3-in-1 coffee in the morning. Okay, not really that early. I actually set my alarm clock (phone!) to 8am but I usually get up around 8:15. Right, right. That's me. I'm not a morning person. Is 12:41am considered morning? Midnight? Whatever. I just don't get those people waking up too early reasoning out they could do so much by such but ending up sleeping a lot in the afternoon. Hello, what difference does it make? Well, most of my WORK requires being at home so I could do it any time I want. Or in some cases, when this little snoring duchess is busy, asleep or in school. Better if asleep; no disturbance, just a cute, tiny snore. So, I'm not into hitting the sack yet despite a basket full of laundry, which I gave my years of experience into earlier. I started washing our family of five's dirty clothes at 5th grade. Get this, without continuous run of water! If that's not passion, I don't know what it's called. Note to self: you got too much segue. Get down to business.

Source

And what exactly kept me awake? Aside from some neighbors by-standing outside, meaninglessly wasting their lives and time talking about some old man getting drunk who didn't eat his dinner (is that eavesdropping?), it's Julie & Julia.  I sincerely loved the movie. I was hooked!  

Blogging about her Julie/Julia Project has been her world. That it screwed her marriage and work. Shucks, this blog has become that, too at some point. That in order to meet my own deadline, I have yelled to the helper (who hasn't come back from her vacay and that I decided to not call anymore) and always pissed off to my innocent little darling. That shouldn't be the case since I AM A MOMMY BLOGGER. Right? I should know how to practice what I preached. But hey, I never preached about life as all flowers and butterflies! Just like Julia Child, she admitted that having mistakes in the kitchen is very understandable and that you could always correct it. Well, that's how I interpreted it. Julie Powell is Julia Child's fan. And I am a fan of the movie that featured them. So that is what you call serious fangirling. ♥

Breakfast at Vizco's

I haven't done a restaurant review since I started blogging because I felt that it'll be something forced if I would do one after visiting a new place. But this time, I am so into raving about Vizco's! I just thought it would be best to do it now as to have something new for 2013. When we went to Baguio City on January 2nd to make R's holiday break more special, we didn't go to places we are used to dining in here in Manila. My husband, despite being a graduate of the Philippine Military Academy has not actually explored the city that he failed to suggest a good place for good food. Good thing that I have a friend who resides there - she served as our human restaurant-finder.

My friend, D and her boyfriend met us for dinner. We ate at Solibao because I told her I want something where families dine, since we were with Sophia, but affordable at the same time. Oh yeah, the price was right! But the food was just so-so. Though I loved their Sinigang na Baka (okay, I'm drooling now), everything else was so ordinary. R ordered Blueberry Cheesecake for dessert and he was so disappointed. So D recommended Vizco's!

That's where we went for breakfast the morning after. We thought we'll have cakes at 8 in the morning eh. But they have a wide array of delectable breakfast dishes to choose from naman pala. 

I ordered Spanish Omelette, which was so creamy on the inside. The Garlic Rice that came along with it has the perfect texture - I love my rice "buhaghag". 

R ordered Baked Rice, which he can't finish because he wanted to leave space for his Red Velvet Cake. The Baked Rice has this sinful mozzarella cheese on top that made my cheese-monster of a husband super dee-duper happy!

Sophia has inherited my penchant for anything pink so she chose Vizco's best seller on the menu - Strawberry Shortcake! Baguio is known to have the best strawberries in the country. So having the freshest strawberries on top of the cake was heaven. And it's only Php80 per slice! The cake itself is not dry and the filling has strawberry bits in it. Howmaygad. I already miss it. I just didn't eat that much from the slice since I saw how R liked it. 

I didn't order Belgian Waffles for the girl anymore because I thought she's going to finish the whole slice but it was her pop who made the crime scene as shown in the photo above. He obviously loved it.

Yup, he didn't eat the Red Velvet Cake that he ordered. He said it just tasted like those old breads sold in some community bakery elsewhere. So I ate it. I can't tell if it really has to taste like that. It was my first Red Velvet Cake. And I didn't become a fan. I know a few netizens who go gaga over it that it even went trending at some point. Not me, though. So can somebody change my mind about it? Where could I find an orgasmic red velvet cake?

I like the friendly and fresh ambiance of the restaurant. What I didn't like though was their house music. It was too dance-y for the place. I was expecting more like a Sitti Navarro, Lenka, James Morrison, Colbie Caillat or something chill and soothing. The current music played while we were eating was so Jolibee-ish. But it didn't ruin our stay there. It was just a very small fraction of negativity as compared to how we really enjoyed the food and Vizco's per se. 

I just forgot to take a photo of that one pretty server, who has a Barbie-like feature. Yeah, I'm the one who noticed her. Or was he my husband just good in hiding it from me? Charot. So I took pictures of the breads and cakes that the magical hands of the pastry chef behind Vizco's has made instead. Drool. Cry. And travel to Baguio now! 

R and I looked for its fan page in Facebook while we were still satiating the best Strawberry Shortcake we have ever tasted. You can find them HERE. You will most probably forget other versions once you tried this one from Vizco's. And we will definitely go back should we visit the summer capital of the Philippines again. ♥

VIZCO'S RESTAURANT AND CAKE SHOP
8GF Puso ng Baguio Building 
Session Road, 2600 Baguio City, Philippines
(074) 446-7092
+63917-570962
vizcos_resto@yahoo.com

Come, 2013! Give Me a Hug.

Today's the first week of 2013 and what can I say? This is my first post for this year. I know, I know, I owe you a lot of kwento. I feel bad about that, too. Well, things had been pretty hectic since January 1. Rhambo really wanted to make LB see Baguio City and his alma mater, so we planned it the day after. I will tell you more about that on a separate post. My little Mikee Cojuangco loved her pink pony in Wright Park! Grabe lang how she gave us so many beautiful smile and giggles. Super sulit our Php200. Anyway, as you can see, I changed my header and profile photo on the sidebar. Hmm. It looked awful. Sigh. It was not made of Corel, Photoshop or whatever. It was made of Photoscape. So pang-bagets ba? Hihi. Eh kasi I just can't teach myself how. I'm a very experiential/visual learner. I need to get the feel to learn something. Though you can walk me through if it has to do with a little troubleshooting. But if it has to start from scratch, naku, super poor ako. I just wish one day when I wake up, marunong na ako ng mga header thingamajigs na ganyan.

Another milestone that I want for my blog is to have my own domain. It's just an easy process, and actually not that expensive, but I still have to make sure that I'm going to do the right thing. Thus, its delay. Yes, I will ditch the blogspot word on the address very soon. It will sound more professional na. Charot. Seriously, I want to take this blog to a different level. Upon realization that I have inspired many readers (mostly moms) of my journey as a army wife and my funny moments as a fabulous mudrabelle, I promised to myself that I will write MORE this year. I shall still be doing sponsored posts, collaborations and giveaways to make this little space survive in this crazy but beautiful world of blogging; but the core and bone of all of these is my love for words and its significance. 

Bebengisms will still be full of pink punkness, beki flair, strength and honesty. It still aims to touch hearts and make women of today relate to each and every story. I hope 2013 will be as colorful as last year. Cheers! ♥