Family Vacation: Manaoag and Baguio Day 1

As part of my mom's seemingly endless 60th birthday celebration (we have already enjoyed 2 lunch treats and 1 dessert treat), she treated the whole family to a short vacation in Baguio. We have all been looking forward to this trip as it was our first vacation as a complete family (the last vacation we had was in Subic back in 2010 and Lila and Sofia weren't born yet). I was extra excited because the last time I was in Baguio was way back in 1994.

The plan was to leave Manila early Thursday (Dec 27) morning and meet up at Manaoag, Pangasinan to hear mass before going up to Baguio. We left the house at 430am hoping to be able to hear the 7 or 8 am mass. Unfortunately, due to a slight miscommunication between me and my mom (I won't elaborate to keep the peace), we reached Manaoag midway through the 10am mass. And then I was disappointed to find out that my sister and her family won't be joining the trip because my brother-in-law was not feeling well. Yikes! The vacation was off to a shaky start, but Mama advised us to just shrug it off and think good vibes. So after the mass we lit up some candles and offered our prayers and thanks, and then we were on our way to Baguio.

I love those floating candles

Bonding with the grandparents

We used Marcos Highway and while there was no traffic, I got a bit biyahilo with the drive. Ugh. Entertaining a toddler and an infant inside a car only worsened my sorry state. Then when we got to Baguio city proper, we got lost finding the hotel and had to go through the SM area (and the horrible traffic as all SM malls have) twice before we finally reached Mircrotel Inn. Thankfully the weather was cool and I felt instantly better as soon as I alighted from the car. It also helped that my mom and brother took to entertaining a kid each.

We ate a late lunch at 50's Diner, a small restaurant off the main road. I was so surprised that for such a nondescript place the queue was quite long! We waited for more than 15 minutes for a table to free up, but it was worth it. The food was yummy and the serving size was good. Plus points for the cheap prices. Our total bill came to under Php800 for 5 adults and 1 toddler. Crazy! 

Our next stop was at Good Shepherd Convent to buy ube jam and chocolate covered cereals. Oh, and I have a new discovery- choco-covered walnuts! Insanely addicting! And at only Php215/200g tub, it was such a good deal! I am so bummed that I didn't buy more.

Sorry, I couldn't resist :)

We went back to the hotel after a quick pass through Wright Park to look at the horses. Ally was thrilled to see a white horse with pink-dyed mane and kept calling it Pinky Pie Princess Pony (I have no idea how she comes up with names like this), but she absolutely refused to go near the horse and have her photo taken with it.

After a not-so short rest at the hotel, we went to Session Road for dinner. We ate at an Asian-inspired resto called Le Cha (I think. I don't know if I remember it correctly though). The food was really yummy and very reasonably priced! We ordered a lot and our bill was barely Php1500. Not bad at all!

Our day ended with a quick drive by Camp John Hay, a nice hot tea drink back at the hotel and an sms from my sister that she and her family would be going up to Baguio the following day. Yay!

All in all, it was still a great start to our family vacation!