Vacation

One more week and I will be having my vacation. I will back to my home country, the beautiful Philippines and I am looking forward to it. Actually, there will be several family occasions that I will be attending. There's the birthday of my 2 nephews, sister-in-law and the graduation rites of my niece in UP, Baguio. I may stay in Baguio for 2 days and go down to La Union.




Hhhmmm, the last time I have been to Baguio was way back in 1997. That was 13 years ago. I wonder whether the temperature up there was still cool. During summer in Philippines, people usually go up to Baguio city for it's cool climate. It is because of its cool climate that Baguio city was called the "Summer Capital of the Philippines. Some of the tourist attractions in Baguio that I have previously been to were :
a. Mansion House which serves as the official residence of the President of the Phillipines during his/her visit to the city.
b. Camp John Hay - former american base and was now converted into a world class resort.
c. Teacher's Camp - feature several function halls, museum and cottages
d. Wright Park - the place where your could ride horses along the towering pine trees for a minimal fee.
e. Mines View Park - one could see the mountain ranges where gold, silver and ores were once quarried. I remember when I was a kid, some local kids would ask tourists to throw coins and the kids would try to catch it along the slope of the mountain. Hopefully, these things have been stop
f. Botanical Garden - features native huts typical of the Cordillera architecture. The garden is also a site of cultural presentations and other tribal meetings.
g. Burnham Park - the oldest park in Baguio where you could rent bikes and skates. It also has man-made lake in the middle of the park and you could rent boats to row in the lake.
h. Lourdes Grotto - about 252 steps leads to this religious shrine housing the image of Lady of Lourdes. One could have a beautiful panoramic view of the city upon reaching the shrine.

Hopefully, I would be able to visit some of these places.