babble mix

Northern California Pasyal

It was the best icing on our road-trip cake: staying with Rosie and her bro, Kuya JR for 6 days before we drove to our final destination, Los Angeles.

Hollister was so laid back that the word “stress” was not in their vocabulary. I heard birds chirping for the first time in a very, very long time.

Ang saya to just rest and chill, yung tambay lang, taking your sweet time with everything. Unfortunately (and fortunately) for Nino, he had to go to “work” in his pajamas early until 2:30 PM (Eastern kasi ang time niya) while I read my magazines, or surf the net looking for a job. After his work day is done, we proceeded to do other things – like shopping and pasyal with Rosie and her bro.

Kuya JR would often cook for us, tatay na tatay. Ang sarap, both ng luto niya and ng feeling na alagang-alaga.

We also made new friends, like Rosie’s friend from High School, Aileen, who also went to visit with Rosie. We went together all over Northern CA:

San Juan Bautista

It’s an old town close to Hollister, where I seriously felt like we were in a setting of an old Western movie, complete with a super old chapel. Kulang na lang may lalabas na cowboy tapos magpapa-putok ng gun pag labas sa swinging doors.

San Jose
Here we had some Goldilocks-classic food and ate more dumplings and sweets at Santana Row.
Santana Row reminded me of Greenbelt. Na-miss ko tuloy ang old Greenbelt/Glorietta days, when friends and I would just hang out over dinner and coffee until closing time, literally – when the crew starts to clean up and put the chairs up upside down on the tables, as if saying “hello, sarado na kami, baka gusto niyo na umalis?” Hehehe! It was great to sort of do that again with a couple of Tagalog-speaking friends here in the US.

Monterey
Ito daw ang lugar ng mga rich, close to San Jose. Lapit din niya sa dagat, kaya picture, picture lang kami sa Fisherman’s Wharf, then dinner.

San Francisco
New friends Faust and Irene brought us around (pix here), to try out Faust’s tour-guide business. He’s pretty good and fun to be with, never a dull moment. Kaya ia-advertise ko na ang kanyang services, if any of you plan to go to SF but have no clue about the place. Just let me know, ire-refer ko kayo sa kanya.

Painted Ladies–yung bahay yun sa likod, hindi kami	Painted Ladies behind us
Twin Peaks	Lombard St. a.k.a. Crooked St.

The Golden Gate Bridge, Marin Headlands side

Sayang lang kasi towards the end of our trip, nag-mega-acid-attack ang tiyan ni Rosie. Bilib nga ako sa kanya, kahit mamatay-matay na siya, she never complained. We only knew how bad she felt because she was quiet (something really unusual hehehe) and very weak.

Even on our last day, despite still feeling sick, she tried to be her same cheerful self, kahit energy level niya ay nasa -2.

Thank you sooo much Rose Ann and Kuya JR for making us feel like family when we were with you. Totoo yung sabi ko, our stay with you was the best bonus of our trip. Babalik kami, pramis!

posted by meL @ 8:23 PM