Top Photo : Beach by the Pawikan Conservation Center
Bottom Photo (L-R) : Mt. Samat, Pawikan Conservation Center, Sisiman Bay

Summer. Living in a tropical country like the Philippines, it almost feels like summer for the whole 365 days of the year.

But since June is about to kick in, it officialy marks the end of our summer season.  It has started to rain the past couple of days — but nonetheless, as soon as the rain stops, Mr. Sun will be back out shining oh-so-brightly. :)

The photo above is what made my Summer 2012 really special.  A random road trip last April 28 to Bataan.  Photo above is a collage of all the places we visited that day.   Please do visit my previous posts about this road trip (1st stop - Mt. Samat; 2nd stop – Pawikan Conservation Center; 3rd stop – Sisiman Bay).

I LOVE SUMMER!

See my past 5 Weekly Photo Challenge entries

Weekly Photo Challenge : Hands

Weekly Photo Challenge : Unfocused

Weekly Photo Challenge : Together

Weekly Photo Challenge : Sun

Weekly Photo Challenge : Two Subjects

To join in on the fun, visit WordPress Daily Post!

My husband would constantly remind me to wear flats more often and I’m also aware that wearing heels at all times will eventually take a toll on a woman’s health, back pains and all.

So last Friday, I thought of giving in to my husband’s constant request and decided to wear one of my Chuck Taylors to work (Fridays are smart casual Fridays at work, which means, we can wear jeans and sneakers — but I still end up wearing my heels most of the time).

AND GUESS WHAT!?!? (drum roll please…)

My dear officemate, after seeing me wear my Chucks and who knows that I’ve been lusting over a pair of white Chuck Taylors for a few months now, decided to challenge me into wearing flats for 9 consecutive Fridays starting June 1! And if I get to do that, HE WILL BUY ME MY WHITE CHUCK TAYLORS! Woohoo! How cool is that!?!? Hurrah for cool friends!

It may mean nothing for girls who prefer wearing flats over heels, but not for me — but I’m definitely up for the challenge! Spamy, watch out! I CAN DO THIS and I WILL DO THIS! Lezzzzdodizzzz!!!

White Chuck Taylors, I WILL SEE YOU ON JULY 27! Now, to set an alarm on my phone every Friday morning to remind myself to wear flats! <3 <3 <3

A few REAL reasons why I decided to wear my Chuck Taylors last Friday — and ended up with a cool challenge

1. I miss wearing my Chuck Taylors. I almost forgot how comfortable they are. (see how I matched them with my floral skirt here).

2. Hidden agenda? Since I wanted a white pair of Chuck Taylors, I had to show my husband that I’m actually wearing them Teehee…

* image from weheartit.com

Again, relying solely on our Garmin and iPad for maps, off we went to Sisiman Bay. After almost an hour of driving thru smooth and well-paved roads, we have finally reached our destination (Ok, we got lost a bit as there were no visible signs and we took a wrong turn, hehe!). Woohooo! My husband and I were so excited to take photos!

The townspeople informed us that we might not be able to bring down our car close to the bay because of the rocks. So a little trekking is needed — I was totally ok with that My husband thought of checking it out first… while I took more photos, hahaha (what a cam-whore!) :p

We parked our car and trekked down the hill. IT. WAS. SOOOO. HOT!!! We trekked the whole stretch in search for a lighthouse. No lighthouse in sight. Hmmm… How can we miss such a big structure?

After a few minutes of trekking, taking photos and enjoying the view, my husband decided to ask some locals who were fishing by the bay. To our surprise, the lighthouse was destroyed last 2011 by typhoons which hit the country. So sad!

See the rock formation? That is where the lighthouse used to stand

You can view old photos of the lighthouse here. Sooo nice! I sure hope they rebuild it someday…

Since there was no lighthouse to take photos of, my husband and I just decided to just enjoy the bay. We put on our skele-toes and got our feet wet. It was soooo relaxing. Summer heat, cool water, splashing waves on rocks… it was PERFECT!

We wanted to wait for sunset as I’m sure it would be picture perfect but I didn’t want to get back to Manila really late as my husband has been driving the whole day. So at around 5pm, we decided to hit the road. We reached Pampanga at around 7:30pm, had dinner at Shakey’s (we wanted to try out a new restaurant while in Pampanga but we were soooo hungry to even look and explore!) and finally hit home by 9:30pm.

It was really a fun and memorable road trip. We’ll definitely do more in the coming months!

Read previous posts on this road trip here (First Stop, Second Stop)

My outfit for a lazy Sunday with family

White Loose Top – Forever 21

Inner Shirt – Victoria’s Secret

Floral Skirt – Forever 21

Shoes – Converse Chuck Taylors

Bracelets – Vintage, Mango, Reminder Bracelets and gifted Spike bracelet

I really need to start wearing my Chuck Taylors during weekends.  I almost forgot how comfortable they are!

Black Chiffon Batwing Top – Forever21

Sequined Mini Skirt – Forever21

Inner Body Suit – H&M

Shoes – Sugarfree

Bracelets – gifted spike and zipper bracelets and pyramid leather bracelet from People Are People

Ps. Can I just say that I’m quite impressed at how comfortable my shoes were considering how high the heels were?  I wore them the whole day (from work to the event) — a total of around 15 hours   Not bad!  Not bad at all

It rained a bit at the start of the night (yey!!! for free umbrellas, hahaha!) but after that, it was just pure fun, free Lumia phones, great music by Jump Smokers and lots of food and drinks! Anything free is always great!

We didn’t really expect anything from the event but just to have fun and unwind after a long week at work and maybe, hoping, that we’d be one of the lucky winners who would get to bring home a brand new Lumia (whatever model that may be), haha!

Cool stage and amazing dancers with endless energy (I wonder how many calories they lose after dancing all night?!?)

The 3D mapping on the building nearby was simply unimaginably awesome!!!

How cool is this walking ‘photobooth’??? — which reminds me, we forgot to get our photo! Haha!

We may not have won any of the 8 Nokia Lumias given away but we went home with big grins on our faces for a well-spent Friday night Totally worth our time!

What did I wear? Check it out here

Ps. Have you checked out the Nokia Lumia? If you haven’t, YOU HAVE TO! I personally think they’re cool and it really has great potential. I’m no gadget expert but I have my own list of must-haves when it comes to gadgets (some of which are aesthetics, great camera, social networking sites connectivity and user friendliness or ease of use — which Nokias have been well known for). The Lumia Family might actually bring Nokia back to the top! I have been a happy Blackberry user for more than 2 years now and honestly, switching back to a Nokia was never an option. But after seeing the Lumia, oh boy! I might just go back to being a Nokia user! Check it out! You won’t be disappointed!

Check out Jump Smokers — They are a Chicago-based music group made up of two members – DJ Flipside (whom I know is a Filipino) and Reydon – the group has been topping charts recently around the world and they brought the house down with great great music during the launch.

* opinions found on this post is based on the writer’s own opinions/views

First up!  My Honeh‘s birthday!  Nothing grand, nothing expensive… just a day spent with each other <3 <3 <3 (and Lexi)

Lunch at Aria, BHS Central — since dogs are not allowed inside the restaurant (major BOO!), we had to stay outside under the scorching heat of Manila.  It’s a good thing the sun decided to hide behind the clouds after a few minutes, which made our dining experience really nice   The food was soooo yummy!

What we ate/drank : Salami Picante, Carbonara, Carpaccio di Manzo (oh-sooo-yummy!) and Frozen Iced Tea

Then coffee and dessert at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf (Lexi’s favorite coffee shop as she’s allowed to go inside.  Coolness to the nth level!  Thank you CBTL!  To respnsible dog owners, please stay RESPONSIBLE so more establishments will start allowing our little ones inside!)

What we ate/drank : Blueberry Cheesecake and Original Ice Blended Drink in Mocha and Caramel

Capping off the night with a yummy Japanese dinner at Omakase, Greenhills.

What we ate/drank : Spicy Tuna Salad, Salmon Sashimi and Oyseter Butteryaki

These are some of our simple joys in life.  Time together.  Eat.  Do nothing.   BURP!

Hands.  Such a perfect day for me to make a blog entry for this week’s photo challenge.  Here is a photo of our hands, together as husband and wife

May 21st, 2006.  The day I said “I DO”.  The day I married my best friend <3 <3 <3

Today, my husband and I mark our 6th year together as husband and wife (more than 10 years of being the best of friends).  It was the best decision I made in my life.

To my Hon, I can never ever thank you enough for all the things you’ve done for me.  You have provided me with the best of what life has to offer.  We may not have everything we wished and prayed for in life but I know that we are living a great life together.  Thank you for being my EVERYTHING!  I love you and I’m looking forward to eternity with you

Thank you Lord for everything!

See my 2011 Wedding Anniversary post here   How time flies!

See my past Weekly Photo Challenge entries

Weekly Photo Challenge : Unfocused

Weekly Photo Challenge : Together

Weekly Photo Challenge : Sun

Weekly Photo Challenge : Two Subjects

Weekly Photo Challenge : Journey

To join in on the fun, visit WordPress Daily Post!

A new batch of accessories to add to my collection As I always say, a girl can never have enough clothes, shoes AND ACCESSORIES!!!

* the colorful background in the photo is my H&M Fight Against Aids bomber jacket — which I loooove so much (will blog about it soon!)

So when we saw this sign as we got near to Mt. Samat, we knew that we have to just follow the road when we get back out

We left Mt. Samat at around 11:30am since the signages said “Pawikan Conservation Center, Straight Ahead”, we thought that it was going to be a short drive (and the security guard in Mt. Samat told us that it will just be a 30-45 minute drive).

To our surprise, after 45 minutes and 10-15 signages of “Pawikan Conservation Center, Straight Ahead” have passed, still no Pawikan Conservation Center in sight. Haha!

We obediently followed the signs and after an hour and half of enjoyable drive, we have finally reached our destination! Yahoo!!!

Inside, you’ll see a few pawikans which are swimming inside a pond and learn about the lifecycle of a pawikan (really interesting!). I don’t really like turtles (or any other reptile) but they were kinda cute They’re calm and really cute when they swim!

The ‘caretakers’ (if that’s what you call them) were really nice and they were willing to answer any question you may have My husband and I took our time (I think there were 2 groups who came and left and we were still there, haha!) in the center and asked all the questions we could think of, haha!

Some stuff we learned from this trip:

1. We know that pawikans are threatened for extinction — and the reason? Certain human activities which threatens the lives of these pawikans and other marine life like egg gathering, poaching, pollution, etc… Sad

2. We learned that the entire Bagac and Morong coasts are known as nesting grounds of three (3) out of five (5) sea turtle species. This includes the Hawksbill, Olive Ridley and the Green Turtle. (Information confirmed via this site) — No wonder we saw some newly hatched baby turtles by the Subic beach shoreline when we were there a few years back (Subic is just 45 minutes away from the conservation center).

by the shoreline of the Pawikan Conservation Center

It is really nice that we have centers like these. They operate on donations from people as they only charge P20 for entrance fee (which I really don’t think is enough). KUDOS to these people!

After an hour of staring at the pawikans and missing lunch (2:00 pm), we decided that it was time to go and head to Sisiman Bay (God knows where that is!).

Ps. We decided to skip lunch and just eat whatever chips and snacks we brought along with us — as we don’t know where we can stop and eat, eeeps!

Get more information about Pawikans here.

Don’t forget to check out Road Trip, First Stop!