Thursday, April 30, 2009

The Intrepid Traveler

One of the highlights of our trip was the day we escaped the heat of the city and headed up, up, up to Tagaytay, specifically to Tagaytay Highlands. My uncle was one of the architects for this project, and I think it gave him full access to everything. At least I think that's what happened since we...had full access to everything. There were a dizzying number of options: badminton, anyone? Bowling? Golf, spa, basketball, skating, tennis, squash...go-kart racing?! The kids were in charge, though, so the day's agenda became: fruit shakes, lunch at the Chinese restaurant, horseback riding, a visit to the zoo, and swimming.

I should make a correction: Vida was in charge. For whatever reason, she decided that this would be the day she would take life by the throat, look it in the eye, and say, "Hello. I'm going to LIVE you now." First, to honor her Lolo who was at home in San Mateo, she ate a fish eye. Here is the eye, being prepared by my Uncle Pudjo:


Here is Vida holding the eye on the spoon.


Here she is eating the eye.


Here she is saying, "Hmmm. Not bad."


Next, while her sisters showed a certain amount of trepidation in regards to mounting a horse, Vida basically jumped in the saddle and took off. Good thing she was accompanied by a groom, or who knows where she would have ended up?


At the zoo, she asked to hold some of the birds. Her sisters? Her sisters were all, "Um, no thanks." We could barely convince them to stand near Vida in this picture:


And, finally, in clear violation of stated pool rules, she decided she would cannonball into the water. When the lifeguard took her to task, she just flashed a smile and held up her hands as if to say, "How could I not?"



Vida does not take after me. But I'm thinking maybe I should take after her.

3 comments:

Shuboy said...

Way to go VIDA!!!! Looks like she may have taken after her Uncle Mike in the "not afraid to eat/try anything" department...

Jill said...

Go Vida! In 2 years of living in Japan, I could never eat the fish eye.

Carl said...

It must be grand to watch your Vida be so bold and vigorous. I like to think I would eat the eye, but until there's a bowl in front of me, who knows?

Cannonballing (is it ok to make this a verb?) reminds me of a trip to Singapore my family took. They had a fountain next to the pool which my sister and I found compelling. The staff tried hard to keep us out, going so far as to telling us there was glass in the thing (as we'd already been in it, this was hardly effective).