Hello! Again, long time no see. Like, I have literally forgotten I have a blog? My inconsistency is astounding. Anyway, Happy Easter!

For this Holy Week – yes, yes, we are officially bad Catholics – we went to Baler, Aurora for our summer vacation. To be honest, we weren’t really sure if we should pursue this trip because of the gas prices and uncertainty, courtesy of the US-Israel War against Iran. But because our stay at Playa Azul Baler is non-refundable, Francis and I decided to go. After all, our Sprout has been looking forward to this trip.

We’re not really tourist-y kind of tourists. We don’t really have the energy to go around and visit different destinations when we go to vacations, and I think that’s a good thing for our Baler visit (again, given the economic situation). We mostly stayed in the hotel and swam in the pool and the ocean everyday for three days. Good thing the hotel’s swimming pool was really nice – there was a kiddie pool attached – and the beach was just across the street.

Meals

For our meals, we had lunch at a restaurant near our hotel – Taste Budz, or something – on the first meal at Baler. The tokwa’t baboy and ginataang sitaw and kalabasa were scrumptious (although I had an allergy scare since I am shrimp-averse). The amount of rice was sacrilegious for Holy Thursday, though.

Our stay at the hotel came with free breakfasts for Day 2 and Day 3. I had bangsilog for both days. Francis had bangsilog had tocilog. Sprout had pancakes and then omelette – which Francis and I ate. They were normal hotel breakfasts, although I was originally hoping for an unlimited buffet.

Lunch on the second day was courtesy of my brother Joey and my sister-in-law, who were staying around half a kilometer away with their dog. I think they were supposed to grill meat, but because it was Good Friday, they served us seafood instead. Sinigang, kilawin (my brother’s kilawin IS the bomb), grilled fish, and various vegetable salads. The lunch was really good.

For dinner (both on Day 1 and Day 2), we just bought food at the food park. Since our Holy Week vacation at Vigan last year, I have been obsessed with Ilocos empanada, so I had the no longganisa variant for both nights. Were the long waits worth it? Definitely. Sprout has 12 barbecues for both nights. And I don’t remember what my husband had. Hahaha.

Expenses

Here’s the breakdown of our expenses for this vacation: