Tagaytay Getaway

Friday to Sunday was jampacked with activities for me. I spent the past 2 weeks planning an out of town trip for my family, in time for my mom’s birthday. Since I was in Tagaytay in February, I thought why not have the whole family stay in SMC’s facility there? That way, they will get to see where I stay every time I do team building programs in Tagaytay. Also, the last time we were there as a family was when we brought my two little nephews to the Residence Inn Zoo. The two boys are in the US now and a whole lot bigger than they were back then.

A couple of days before Friday, I was asked by a colleague for assistance to co-facilitate a teambuilding program for Magnolia Inc. I was having second thoughts at first knowing that I will be in Tagaytay a day ahead of my family and wouldn’t have time with them until I finish my program on Saturday. But then again, I love facilitating team buildings so I said yes.


Early Friday morning I was on the road to Tagaytay already. There were a couple of outdoor activities that morning but stupid me, I didn’t bring my sun block. Not even a hat to cover my face! The following day, there were again a couple of outdoor activities and of course, without sun block, I ended up toasted and roasted under the sun!! (Now the problem is I’m emceeing a wedding reception this Saturday and my skin is all ruined! Good thing Annie is loaning me some make-up that will blend with my skin better.)

As I was doing the first activity on Saturday, I saw the van my family is riding entering the gate with Joven waving wildly from the front seat. That was around 10AM. I thought I would finish my program by 12noon but a number of delays happened so I ended up closing the program at 2:30! Aaaaargh! So they had to make do with amusing themselves as they waited for me.


After my program, I just took a shower and we all went out for the zoo trip. We really want Jeff to enjoy the zoo the way Gabriel and Rafi did. But this little boy is a scaredy-cat; he was running away from the caged animals! Especially when he saw the fake giant gorilla (the size of KingKong) by the entry way, he took the opposite route just so that he won’t be near the giant gorilla.


There was also a giant snake out of its cage which you could take a picture with for P20. Nanay and Mae took the bait and had their picture taken with the giant snake on their shoulders. Cool! It took us around 10 minutes trying to convince Joven to do the same, No luck there. I guess Jeff took after him hehehe.

We went down several flights of stairs to look at the different exotic birds and I had great difficulty going up and down the steps. Since it was cold, my knees were killing me again, especially since I’ve been on my feet, running and walking and standing for the past 2 days.



After the zoo trip, we went someplace where Jeff can go horseback riding. He’s been pestering the whole family about it since morning. We went to Viewsite restaurant where they are charging P250 for 10 rotations around the perimeter of the area. The area was so small that the ride would probably end in less than 20 minutes. So we looked for another place and found one which was charging P250 per hour. Jeff and Mae took turns riding the horse and I guess they enjoyed the experience. Jeff even wanted to ride again after dinner.

Dinner was at a road side bulaluhan. We were supposed to have a barbecue dinner inside MTC (Management Training Center) while having karaoke numbers but all 8 of my family members forgot about the marinated pork chops and chicken. But dinner was still yummy! We ordered bulalo (this shouldn’t be missed when in Tagaytay) sizzling sisig, sizzling shanghai and grilled squid. Thanks to mommie’s senior citizen card, we got a 20% discount (ay si Brad pala ang nagbayad)!

After dinner we went back to MTC, took showers then geared up for the karaoke session. But then again Ate and Fel were too tired running after Jeff, Mommie and Nanay just preferred watching TV and Mae has some studying to do. So that left Joven, Dionne and I having the karaoke machine all to ourselves. What’s funny is, we got to use all karaoke machines set up in MTC. We first sang at the 3rd floor lounge of the Training building, then the multi purpose lounge at the lodging house, then the dining room. Beat that!

My two companions got sleepy already at around 12pm so we decided to head back to our rooms. We almost fell down laughing, talking about our driver whom we were imagining to be a vampire. He was sleeping in Dionne and Joven’s room so we were kidding Brad that he will wake up in the middle of the night to bite him in the neck.

I woke up at around 6AM and since my elder sister was already up, I asked her to come with me in touring the grounds of the MTC. We went to the helipad and from there we saw Joven and Dionne already playing basketball at the outdoor court. Soon after we woke everyone up because breakfast was ready. We feasted on garlic rice, danggit, omelette, tocino and bananas with freshly brewed coffee to boot.




After breakfast we showered and got ready for check out. We were going to Calruega for the 11AM mass. We reached Caleruega shortly before 11AM and were able to take some more pictures before heading to the church on top of the hill.



After the mass we got on the road again this time headed for home. We stopped by a roadside plant store because mommie has been wanting to buy plants since the day before. She's really keen on her gardening and very good at it too! We also had a late lunch at Max's and a stopover at Rowena's for pasalubong before finally heading for Manila.



I had to be dropped off in Makati so I can go straight home to Pasig since I still had laundry to do. Good thing when I got home Lyndon was half through with the laundry so I actually had time to just watch TV and relax. My body was aching all over with all the walking and running (after Jeff) and climbing I had to do. I was sooo stressed out, both physically and mentally.

But it was all worth it. Weekend getaways like these seldom happen in our family, but I want to organize another family get-together like this before summer ends. Hopefully I can pull it off.