USA Trip Day 8 / May 18, 2006 Thursday

I slept at Tita Ita’s house in Torrance. My cousin Rachelle Capulong picked me up around 8AM and we had breakfast in their house in Venice, Ca. Though I’m not much into houses, it’s a pretty house. The location is great, LAX airport was just a stone’s throw away. I met my new nephews Bodhi and Kai and her hubby Ari Hakeem. T’was very nice to see family especially those who I haven’t seen in a long time. The next 5 hours were precious because the flight from LA to NY gave me a chance to rest. I left LA around 12NN and arrived in NY at 8PM. There’s nothing wrong with your math, my friend. The flight time is 5 hours plus a 3 hour time diff from west to east. Gutch, my cousin Bubbles Luchango – Yamaguchi’s hubby picked me up at the airport. The last time I saw my cousin was at least 8 years ago. Aside from her family and the new environment, Bula hasn’t changed. She’s still the bubbly Bula who loves to tell lotsa stories. I used to kid her that our relationship is like a radio, she does the talking and I do the listening. My high school and college life would not be complete without a Bubbles Luchangco.

USA Trip Day 7 / May 17, 2006 Wednesday

“Say Ah!” Picture taken at the Shark Encounter at San Diego Sea World. Celine took the day off and showed me around San Diego. We went to the church where Celine & her cool hubby Rich got married. The church is Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcala founded in 1769. An 18th century church that is well maintained!!! In our country, 20th century churches don’t even come close to maintenance. Afterwards, we went to Sea World. Yes, we saw Shamu. In fact, we saw Shamu 1, 2, 3, 4… I’ve heard of Shamu since I was young but I realized that Shamu is what they call a Killer Whale. I took the Amtrak train called the Pacific Surfliner from La Jolla to Irvine (that’s about an hour) and was met by Uncle Pong Lacsamana. We had dinner at a mall with my cousins Jason and Tim who I haven’t seen in nearly 10 years. Uncle Pong was right, his two travel tips are: 1- pack lots of stories and 2- plan your itinerary but be satisfied if you hit 50% of the sites that you targeted.

USA Trip Day 6 / May 16, 2006 Tuesday

I stayed overnight at my friend Celine’s house in San Diego. When asked what I wanted to do, I requested that I sleep at least until lunchtime. The word "rest" has been alien to me since I arrived 6 days ago. My body was complaining already so I had to compromise. We had a very quick lunch at Panda Express near the Park Valley Center train station. Then I was off to my overwhelming San Diego City tour. I took the Old Town Trolley Tour. The first stop was Old Town San Diego Historic State Park. The tour took us to the airport where we saw low flying airplanes, Cruise Ship Terminal, Seaport Village, Marriott Marina/Convention Center, Horton Plaza/Gaslamp Quarter, Coronado (Mc P’s Orange Ave), San Diego Zoo, Balboa Park (El Prado) and some locations in the 1986 Top Gun movie. The whole page of this website is not enough if I detailed my trip. There was just too much interesting information that I learned that day.

USA Trip Day 5 / May 15, 2006 Monday

Rina took the day off and accompanied me to more sight seeing. We went to Mission San Juan Capistrano, it's an over 200 year old well preserved community. We also went to St. Edward the Confessor Catholic Church where Kobe Bryant got married. Very nice chapel. It offers a magnificent view of the Pacific Ocean from inside the church. We had Tacos for lunch. We passed by Farm to Market arcade. It was not part of the itinerary but we just had to stop. I’m sure my father would LOVE seeing the old but colorful farm equipment display. This is art! in the perspective of farmers like me. Rina asked me to try cherries, my first time, but didn’t like the taste. We went to Wood’s Cove where we saw another view of the Pacific Ocean. Then we went shopping at Robinsons May. I didn’t buy much because I was reserving my major shopping in Florida. The sales tax is cheaper there and by the time I reach Fla, I reckon there would be tons of memorial day sale. The highlight of the day is that I drove from Laguna Niguel to San Diego. That's about an hour and a half drive using Rina’s Civic. We had a mini reunion in San Diego with ex-Smartees Cecile Pulido and Celine Pido.

USA Trip Day 4 / May 14, 2006 Sunday

Tita Jing & I had breakfast at a local diner. I am amazed at the size of the meal servings. The meal was good for 2 persons! So this explains why the average height of Filipinos is 5’5” (Yehey! I’m considered “above” average) while the average height of an American is 5’10.” My friend Rina Santos & her roommate Agnes Cruz picked me up at Tita Jing's place around 1030AM. We went to mass in Torrance. The choir sang a slang version of “Hindi Kita Malilimutan.” It was another day of pasyalans, we went to Cathedral of our Lady of the Angels where Lea Salonga got married. After lunch, we went to Dana's Point overlooking the Pacific Ocean. We went to the marina and walked from end to end. That was one long walk but very relaxing.