Los Banos to Pampanga

Today we had to check out at 11 am, but Don's dad was not able to pick us up until 5. We didn't know this until this morning around 9, we just assumed he would be there around check out time. So we left our luggage at the front desk and had lunch here.

After lunch it was around 1230 so then we just hung out by the pool. The internet wasn't working. I mostly just read and relaxed. Don took a nap. I got in the pool a few times to cool off.

The internet did start working and I was able to check facebook. From facebook I learned about the Boston Marathon Bombing. It was so sad to hear of this. Who would think this would happen?

His dad and his dad's brother, Boni, arrived at the resort around 530. Boni brought his 2 grandchildren, Fiona and Sean. They were probably around 7 and 5. This made the ride to Pampanga really crammed and it wasn't comfortable. We were all sitting in the backseat. There was so much traffic when we got to Manila, it was unbelievable. We arrived in Pampanga around 8 and checked into our hotel.

His dad booked us a room at Hotel Gracelane in the city of San Fernando in Pampanga. We didn't stay long at the hotel though because we left immediately to have dinner at Tita Remy's. We have been hearing that people from Pampanga are known to be good cooks and this seemed to be true at the dinner.

We were really tired so we went back to the hotel around 9.  We watched a lot of news coverage on CNN about the bombing.

Los Banos 88 Hotspring Resort

Today I woke up around 8 and decided to get an early start on relaxing. So I went outside and read for awhile. I am re-reading The Hot Zone by Richard Preston. It's been a long time since I've read it and it is one of my favorites. I did a little swimming and then got cleaned up to go out to lunch with some of Don's family.

We went to lunch with Tito Boni and his wife, Tita Doree, Tito Mar and their kids Eunice and Jonas. We ate a very cool looking restaurant. All of the tables were on their own little floating room. I have a picture that can show it better.

The food was good. We just ordered a bunch of dishes and shared them all. When we came back Tito Boni talked to us about our relationship with Jesus. He is a Christian minister and has his own church. It was a good talk.

Then we went out and explored our resort more.

That water slide was very slow! The first time I went on it, it was fast and fun. But then I would always be dragging down it haha. 

Once we were done swimming we decided to go out for dinner. We took a tricycle to a Max's Restaurant. This time I had a chicken sandwich; it was pretty good. Don ordered breakfast. I then ordered a box of caramels. The way it was described I thought it would be like chocolates and caramel but it was more like a caramel brownie. Still good though.