home again,
home again,
jiggetty jig

From Las Vegas we flew to Cincinnati and then took a small plane (operated by ComAir) to Buffalo, arriving at midnight. Poor Sage had to undergo another round of time zone recalibration since she had just gotten used to Vegas time.

We spent our last couple of days doing - what else? – eating and shopping. Our last fantastic meal was at the Colden Mill Restaurant where we had huge steaks stuffed with scallops, crabs, mushrooms, cheese plus grilled lobsters. If there’s one thing I know I’ll regret months after we come home, it’s all my bitching about the gigantic portions – because I’ll be back in Manila where small means really small and large means slightly bigger. Sigh.

Everything was over so soon. Before we knew it, we were headed to Buffalo for the first leg of our trip back. Mom’s friend, a wonderful lady named Paz, helped bring our expanded luggage to the airport (being Filipino, I came back with a hell of a lot more than I arrived with, of course).

We said our goodbyes to Mom and secret agent Max, giving thanks for an incredible stay and for their unending kindness and love. These two went out of their way to make our trip memorable and I can just aim to develop even just a smidgen of their generosity as I grow older.

bye, bye, america

Our flight was delayed and we scoured the entire Northwest section of the sprawling Detriot airport looking for a smoking section and found zilch. We chose to exit the damn place, smoke our last cigarettes before the long haul, and endure the security checks again.

Finally we got on the plane and thought we were about to take off when a medical emergency forced us back to the terminal. After another interminable wait, we were finally off.

Sage as usual behaved well and charmed everyone in her immediate vicinity – to the extent that people want her to sit with them (I guess boredom plus a lovely infant makes for a good combination to while away time).

Lousy movies, lousy food and no smoking made this leg almost unbearable, but thank god for the stopover at Nagoya. From there, we raced to beat the curfew at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (apparently, the terminal closes at 12:30am and if you’re late, well, there’s always Cebu) and made it with moments to spare.

Sage’s grandfather, General Go, was there to meet us with two cars and before we knew it, we were home.

there’s no place like it

Diovine, Sage’s yaya, was almost in tears – so happy was she to see her charge again. We began unpacking but I communicated with some of our friends and Vin and Carl dropped by and we talked until past 4am.

In spite of all the things we saw, did, ate, experienced, watched, bought, visited, took pictures of – there is absolutely no place like our own home.

Looking back, it all seems like both like an eternity that we were away and just yesterday that we left.

But we’re all delighted to be back.

Manila is hot, humid and somewhat rainy, but dammit, I love it.

Next year, we’ll make plans for a longer stretch and visit friends and relatives in California, Florida and wherever our wanderlust and budget allow us. Of course, knowing me, I’ll probably stress out about traveling with Sage at 2 years old (the terrible twos), but that’s for the future.

And so we are back to our regular programming and I can blog on my consistent connection, on my own computer. Ah, I giggle in delight.

There’s work on Monday and there’s a lot to do.

Thank God!