Category Places | Our Journal

May 19, 2019 by Che Resubal

Tuzigoot Pueblo Ruins

Tuzigoot is an Anglicized Apache word for “crooked water”. Tuzigoot is an ancient village or pueblo built by a culture known as the Sinagua. The pueblo consisted of 110 rooms including second and third story structures. The first buildings were built around A.D. 1000. (NPS). The pueblo is situated on the hilltop 120 feet above the Verde River Valley. It is located in Clarkdale, Arizona. We were able to spend a little of our time in this ancient ruin. It’s interesting to imagine how people then lived here, like living in a modern condo with a magnificent view. The highest point here was occupied by the most important people in the village. Talking about VIPs, here are my VIPS standing on the hilltop pueblo.

February 19, 2018 by Che Resubal

Hiking: Mt. Gower

This hike deserves immediate posting to remember the pain it caused our bodies. 🤣 Though there’s a shorter route to hike Mt. Gower, we gave the longer version a try since it would only be a once in a lifetime (probably) hike. Why? Because there’s still so much to hike in Southern California. So we’d rather hike other trails than repeating a hard hike. A difficult hike for me is something that has not much shade that you have to bring lots of water to hydrate or you’ll be like a melted candy🍬.

Here, Laurence stands over some big granite boulders with backdrop of mountains we’ve already conquered hiking namely Iron Mountain, Mount Woodson and Palomar Mountain.

Along the trail you’ll see some interesting rock formations as this one below. We called it “The Fangs” of Mt. Gower. The next photo shows the base of the next challenge to reach the summit of Mt. Gower. The challenge was to look for the actual trail and how to get there without scratches.

Above picture shows the base of the two summits. What’s next? Scramble up the steep mountainside to reach the summit. Three teenagers went there fast and the two decided to sleep to recover.

That’s the middle summit people! I’m here at the real summit. Good job husband for taking a little “quiet time”.

Pictures don’t do justice as to how high we’ve gone up. If you just know how our hearts were exercised that day.

At the summit where we had our lunch were different species of 🦋 butterflies mingling happily. It’s so nice to be there and experience the breeze and seeing that extraordinary view of San Diego County. My Garmin watch was accidentally stopped when we’re more than 3 miles going up. So our hike was in between 8.4-9 miles @ 70s F weather. Going back was harder than we thought because we underestimated the need for water. We should have doubled our tank. The sun was up and draining us. That’s when we realized that this hike is not really moderate as what we perceived it to be.

Hiking list: Mt. Gower ✅

More hikes to conquer!

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December 20, 2017 by admire02

Enjoy Your Seoul

We chanced upon an interesting Korean drama called “Let’s Eat”. At first, we thought it’s a documentary show like the one in Arirang channel. We were drawn immediately as we saw the preview because the food looked savory. Since it’s about food, Mich became interested too. Any drama that shows food and pet, she’s in. It’s like egg and rice for her. We are fond of watching K-dramas, eating yummy Kfood, and hoping to visit South Korea again. Let’s Eat is entertaining especially the eating part wherein the actors would describe the food and show how to properly eat a specific dish and the reason behind. We always drool and dream about the food we see in the show and hope that when we go to Seoul we will be able to try the authentic ones.

If eyes are windows to the soul, then food is the clear window into the culture. When in Seoul, we ate at this authentic looking restaurant with no chairs. The waiters don’t speak English, so based our orders on the pictures in the menu. That time, we were not yet familiar with Korean food. So we copied what the others were doing. They gave us a plate full of onions and we didn’t even know what to do with them. Haha. We enjoyed our yummy food anyway.

The above dinosaur looking pancakes with red beans are a must. Below, was the yummiest street bought grilled squid I’ve ever tasted. Sooo good!

Pancakes deserve to be eaten again and again…

Matcha green tea hot chocolate from Hello Kitty cafe tastes like the sea. That’s how Mich would describe her drink.

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May 6, 2016 by Che Resubal

Arizona: Upper Antelope

Sometimes you’re in the mood to have someone take a groupfie photo, and you pose with peace sign unconsciously. It happened in a snap. Later on, you realized the camera belongs to the other group in your tour. Then the owner of the Iphone saw the picture, laughs at the outcome, thinks of how to send it to you coz she thinks you got a nice photo. And to break the embarassment, you let her send the picture but she doesn’t know what airdrop means. After that, everybody’s talking about airdrop. So there was a quick tutorial inside the 4-wheel truck ride to the tour site. What an ice breaker! Everybody’s laughing. Lesson learned: Know who owns the camera before posing.

Now talking about Upper Antelope, personally, I like Lower Antelope better because it’s more challenging to be inside an underground canyon and cost-wise, much cheaper. But for this trip, we considered a senior friendly tour. Our nanay marveled at the sight of the terracotta like swirly formed slot canyon. It is formed by sand, wind and water over the years. Both Antelope slot canyons are located on a Navajo nation near Page, Arizona.

What was posted in Facebook about expectation versus reality of tourists in some of the most popular tourist spots in the world is true. See the people? You have to take selfies without photobombers in 1-2 seconds or else.

Here are some of the photos we took using cellphone:

Welcome to Upper Antelope Canyon! What do you see? I can see skull. Creepy! But yeah, that’s the narrow passageway that can only fit one.

Now, this is heart.

Teenage mutant ninja turtle mummified version? That’s just my observation.

I see an Indian chief here.

End of the hike. Time to hop in to our rugged ride. Til next time!

The funny thing here is, they learned how to do the peace sign. Look at the grandma on the right.:) Below is selfie with our Navajo tour guide. Then airdrop everyone! I bet he got some good gratuity that day.

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July 30, 2015 by admire02

Camping: Lake Powell

This is what camping on a 100 F weather in Arizona looks like. Everything is bright and clear till 8:30 p.m. Welcome to Wahweap Campground in Lake Powell, Page, Arizona! This is Lake Powell Resort’s campground area. The view is amazing & relaxing. It was a busy season. Glad we made a reservation just in time. Given some more years and the trees will grow much more, providing bigger shades and it will be perfect.

Here we pitched our tent carefully because it was super windy that time. We saw some flying tents around! And while it’s still 100 degrees, we went to the resort’s lounge to have dinner and avail of their wifi. How can I survive with my GPRS cellphone signal?

At 9:30 p.m. we were swimming under the stars. Cool! Yes, we needed this to relax our tired bodies from the long drive. Resort amenities are also open for campers. Yay! But the problem with swimming, you have to take a shower, dry up before you go back to the tent and sleep. Complex task!

Our first night was awesome. The night sky was clear and stars were very visible, we even saw the Milky Way! For the first time, I saw a shooting star. It was nice to just lie down on a beach chair under the bare sky and watch the stars till you get sleepy. Adrian was busy with his telescope that night.

At 6 a.m. I woke up to this calm view and prepared our breakfast composed of baked salmon, pork tocino & quinoa multigrain rice mix (wow fancy! fancy leftovers 😉 )…Everybody was able to sleep well. Thank God for camping fans. It’s rare that we get to use fans in camping. Yes, because it’s summer and we’re in Arizona.

This is Lake Powell. The gorgeous Lake Powell. We went exploring the area, in the next blog coz it’s too much in one blog. See yeah!

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August 7, 2014 by admire02

St. Regis Monarch Beach

St. Regis is love ❤! This premier resort in Laguna Beach, Dana Point has so many to offer for the entire family. Named after the Monarch butterfly, St. Regis Monarch has championship golf course, private beach, kids activities, spa, butler service, and more.

Refined. Luxurious. Private. This resort is also popular for weddings and honeymoon.

This massive fountain is magical at night, romantic for a night walk.

Chocolates with butterfly wrapping, teas and cookies with gold dust were some of the welcome treats that we enjoyed!

It was summer when we stayed there. St. Regis boasts of more fun activities for kids than any luxury hotels. They held this “Butterfly Release” every Saturday that summer. It was to commemorate the breeding ground of monarch butterflies which is within the resort’s property. It started with a little procession from lobby to the ocean terrace. Then the butler read the story about the legend of monarch butterflies. Then butterflies were released. Some kids are afraid like this little boy. Some kids want to catch all. Another butler walked around giving butterflies in envelope to kids. He told Michelle to make a wish and then release the butterfly. Welcoming the adults to the venue, there were unlimited champagne offered by the servers. Cheers!

At night, kids and parents alike are treated to some storytelling and unlimited s’mores. Awesome night for guests!

Pools are big, warm and has music underneath the water. Really cool! Mich didn’t want to go home.

To go to the private beach area, you have to schedule a golf cart service. It’s quite a drive going to the beach and one can’t just go there by foot. It’s so nice that even toys and sand buckets are provided for each child guest. St. Regis, one of the best! Till next time.

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