3 January 2003
Breafast at Fort Ilocandia started at 6:00 AM, while most classmates
started arriving at the cafe at 7:00 AM after a good nights' rest. The
buffet breakfast spread was huge. There were
so many entre's as well as different deserts and tropical juices.
There was a build-your own omelette section. For the kids, this
could well be the best meal of the day. We had choices of pansit, fried
rice, itlog-maalat, as well as regular american fare breakfast of eggs, ham,
sauages and the like. Although this was a free event, classmates tabled
together with other classmates and with their families. Jess even had his
computer ready with slide shows of the pictures taken the previous night
for all to see. After breakfast, at about 9:00 a.m., we left for our
day tour. It was decided that parents be in one bus while all the children
be in the other - for the children to bond daw. The truth was the parents
just wanted to be able to say anything (the bus was equipped with a microphone),
tell jokes without their children hearing them.
From Paoay, we went straight to Vigan, first
stop there was at a clay jar (burnay) factory. We watched a demo, Nicole
and Michelle (Beulah's twin daughters) tried to make their own jars,
some bought jars and of course, we had to pose amongst the many clay
jars.
By 12:30 p.m., we were at Villa Angela, an old Vigan house that is now a hotel, for a lunch of burobudod (vegetable soup with mashed malungay fruit), bagnet, Vigan langgoniza, pinakbet (Ilokano style), etc. This is the hotel where Tom Cruise stayed while in Ilocus inthe early 90s. After lunch, we had a tour of the hotel (to see a typical interior of an old Spanish home) and off we went to Mena Crisologo Ave. known for its cobblestone road and rows and rows of old Spanish homes. Only calesas are allowed on this street and many took the ride, many shopped for abel (Ilocos weave), among others --- and endless picture taking.
We left Vigan shortly after 2:00 p.m. for Batac. First stop in Batac was at the Marcos ancestral home, now a museum, but unfortunately it was closed for renovation. The only thing to see was the Marcos mausoleum and a mini-exhibit of Marcos memorabilia. From there, we crossed the street to go to the empanada market. Here I ended my role as a tourist guide and Betsy took over as I had to attend to other chores.
I do believe they only had time to visit the Dingras church, before going to the Barangan residence for a dinner, hosted by the Barangan family. By the time I got there with BB and wife, and Panny and wife, who just arrived from Manila, the party was in full swing - with a lot of singing, (Heard that Torch scored a 100 but I was not there to witness it. Noy, for your information, I also scored a 100 later --- I should not be the one to say this since you may not believe me. I hope one of our classmates will attest to this.), chatting, and eating. Main fare for the night was roasted calf. We also had pinapaitan, grilled assorted vegetable leaves, paksiw na lechon, pritong lechon, etc.
We also used this occasion to formally introduce members of families and guests.
Highlight of the evening was a song by Gen. Barangan, Betsy's dad, who sang his favorite love song in the Tagalog and Ilocano versions. He did welcome the group and told us how happy and honored he was that we were there. Of course, we were happier that we were invited to the Barangan residence.
After more singing and dancing, Jess thought of having a serious discussion re our various funds. Don't know what was decided on since I had to leave before the meeting ended.
4 January 2003
By 8:30 a.m., the group was on its way to Burgos (I don't think they were able to stop at the lighthouse though since the buses could not go up the driveway.) and Patapat - before going to Pagudpud for lunch. I did not join the bus as I had to go to Terra Rikka ahead to check on the lunch which I hosted. Again, somebody has to fill us in on what happened in Patapat.
The group arrived in Terra Rikka shortly after 12:00. Lunch included tinolang native chicken (with malunggay leaves), insarabasab, grilled vegetables (this time the fruits, not the leaves), grilled fish, seaweeds, and for dessert, we had tupig and palitaw.
It rained that day and it was so cold! Nonetheless, some of the children were still brave enough to go swimming --- and the classmates still managed to pose for pictures outside with the China Sea for a background. (These pictures you have to see in our website.)
Eileen (Did I spell that correctly?), Jess' daughter, sang for us before we left Pagudpud. She has a beautiful voice, indeed. Wonder who she took after.
Returned to Laoag shortly after --- for the children to swim in Fort Ilocandia and for the mothers to go to the market. I made a quick stop at the Malacanang of the North, venue for our dinner-dance later that evening to check on the arrangements.
Between 6:30 and 7:30 p.m. we were ready to transport everyone from Fort Ilocandia to the Malacanang of the North.
Program for the evening: tour of the place; formal photo session of the children, the spouses, the ladies, the whole class, the gentlemen, the guests; invocation; dinner; dancing; games (inspired by the class '62 reunion games, with improvements), and more dancing ... Parting that night was quite emotional with a lot of hugging, kissing and tears of joy!
5 January 2003
On our last breakfast, the classmates decided to have breakfast together at 8:00 a.m. for a short meeting.
This was followed by free time --- some went shopping, some went swimming and enjoy the other facilities of Fort Ilocandia, others went to mass, etc. Check-out time was 11:30. It took time to load the buses and by 12:30, we all met at Villa Lydia in San Nicolas for lunch, our last reunion activity! As in all our meals, we had another sumptuous meal of pinakbet, tinolang manok, Ilocos Norte langgoniza, grilled hito, etc.
Tearful Betsy shared a poem written by Paulo, her son, expressing his desire to live in the Philippines rather than in the States (I do believe the poem will be posted in our website as well) and after more picture taking, hugging and kissing - we had to say our final good-byes to allow some attendees to catch their flights early Monday morning.
We left San Nicolas at exactly 2:20 p.m. ... per Jess, in his short e-mail in Korea, the busses arrived in UP 12:30 a.m. of January 6. Wawie was not able to attend the reunion, but was on hand to welcome everyone at the Bahay ng Alumni, waiting till after midnight on the UP campus.