Batangas

Grandma Yuyu arrived to Manila on Wednesday! She’s been soaking up Adam time for the past couple of days and this Saturday we decided to get out of Manila and show Grandma something more. It was our first time driving outside of Manila. We probably should have done a little research instead of just getting in the car and driving but even without having planned the day out it still ended up being a great day.

We drove to Batangas (and by we – I mean our driver Rico drove us). Side note here, it was so amazing having someone else drive us. The drive was 2 and a half hours each way. We thought it would be two but with traffic it was closer to 3. Without Rico, the driving would have fallen on Randy and the directing on me and I can assure you it would not have been as calm a drive and some marital strife probably would have ensued.

We stopped first at a Canyon Cove. It was a litte crowded, but the beach was really nice, the water was warm and Adam loved it. He was a little nervous about the sand at first but with Grandma’s help he soon ventured all the way down to the shore line and into the water. We didn’t even have time to change him into his bathing suit.

Then it was all the way into the water with daddy and more playing in the sand.

We had heard about another beach, Pico de Loro in Hamilo coast and headed over there but it turned out to be a members only beach…so of course we did what any Staten Islander would do and pretended to be interested in joining so we could see the place. It ended up resembling an old Hilton in Tampa (no offense Tampa). So we’ll be saving our membership fees.

After our tour we headed to Sonya’s Garden. We’ve been hearing about this restaurant since we arrived in Philippines. It’s an organic restaurant in the middle of a garden with fountains. I’m sure everyone is surprised that a certain someone was OBSESSED with the fountains.

We were excited about lunch and we started off with one of the best salads I’ve ever had. But that was defintiely the highlight of the meal. Except for the chocolate cake…maybe we’ll go back for the chocolate cake and salad.

We stopped on our way home to get Starbucks. Can you imagine sitting here, enjoying a coffee and reading a book with this view!

It was really nice to get out of Manila and see some more of Philippines. I forgot how much longer the weekend feels when you do more. Saying that it’s now Sunday afternoon ar 2:17 and we have yet to leave the house 🙂