My favorite escapade then, now become my place #2

Summertime is escapade time for our family. It is the time when we get together for big break after a year long school and for my parents to give us great rewards from our school accomplishments. I have had great escapades year after year with my family but my first and favorite adventure was when I was only 4 years of age. We were invited to visit my mother’s birthplace, Iligan City for a wedding occasion one summertime. I was too excited for being a member of an entourage being a flower girl for the first time. We have to wake up early that day for a great preparation for our trip to Iligan City from Manila where we lived then. We took a big boat to Iligan and as I recalled it was Super ferry 5.

My father gave us the most expensive accommodation the ferry could offer for a family of four. It was surprisingly a suite room for us! What a superb accommodation, fully air conditioned with matching two queen sized beds, with T.V. refrigerator and hot and cold shower room with bath tub. We enjoyed staying there for two days and a night with special meals at the dining area. During daytime at the boat, we loved to sight see the islands around while the blue skies meet the summer calm sea. Perfect for us to take pictures for our memoirs. Then as kids, we enjoyed playing at the playground at the roof top of the boat, over viewing the sea. It was so fun for me that I didn’t realize, we were about to leave the boat.



Iligan was a strange place for me then. I thought only few people living in the place. We saw the city around and I had that kind of thinking how boring it is to live in a place with no mall at all! But when we toured around, nature tripping and spending at the cold spring of Timoga, my impression of the city was suddenly changed! I told myself, wow! This is an adventure! So we used to go at Maze Park, Timoga and those cold springs, Iligan City’s pride! There is no place like this in Metro Manila where traffic jam is all around, I told grand ma! How I wish to stay Iligan in my whole life long. The place was not only relaxing to live but the food was so sumptuous, native but fresh. So when my mother heard my simple wish, she promised me, one day we will be here again!

Wedding day began at the old church my mother used to attend since childhood. We meet our relatives and old family friends. I was in my flower girl attire , very timid and shy then that my daddy had to carry me in the aisle. But when I saw my cousins, we had great fun to march at the aisle while the photographers took pictures. Reception followed at a Chinese Restaurant. There I mingled again with my cousins and promised then to be back one of these days.




We went back to Manila reminiscing those simple living in the province. But it did not take long, mother’s promise to return Iligan someday became a wish come true for me. And this time it is for good. Now I live in my favorite escapade. Just a simple lifestyle away from a rat race world!






Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.
Helen Keller Let Us Have Faith