Day 1 - Manila to Iloilo

We have been wanting to take a trip out of Manila and see some of the places Nate served and play on the beach. We spent a couple of weeks figuring out where we wanted to go and how to get there but things kept getting in the way of booking the flights. One Sunday we realized if we didn't do it right away we probably wouldn't get to do it at all so we booked the flights for Tuesday morning. We took so many pictures, had so much fun and saw so many places (6 islands in 8 days) that I am going to have to do a post for every day. Here is day 1 (September 29).

Our flight left at 8:50 am so we had an early drive to the airport. On the way Liam got sick and threw up. I didn't have any plastic bags to hand to him so I had to give him the rubber floor mat. We were worried this worried that this was going to be a long flight/day/trip if Liam was sick but that was the end of it.



We arrived in Iloilo at 9:35 am and caught a taxi to the Sarabia Manor hotel (you couild tell at one time it was a nice place but it needs some updating - it was fine though). After getting out luggage put away we caught another taxi to a museum in Iloilo.


It didn't take us long to look around and pretend we were soldiers and then we went next door to the tourism office to talk to them about what the best place is for chicken inasal (very important stuff), the different sites to see in Iloilo and Guimaras. Nate served in Iloilo but this was his first time there as a tourist so we weren't sure where to go. They recommended a place called Breakthrough for lunch.

We caught our first jeepney together to the restaurant (Nate has ridden them tons but this is the rest of our first time).

The restaurant was right on the beach and the food was good.

Next we went to SM mall. It seems kind of lame to be going to the mall on our vacation when we have so many malls to choose from in Manila but we wanted to get a few things before we went to Guimaras where we wouldn't have easy access to stores. While we were there we tried to find a play land or something for the kids to do to get some of their energy out. They had been pretty good all day and we figured they deserved it. We couldn't find anything so settled for some little rides. While we were getting tokens and figuring out which ones they wanted to ride (there was an area of about 20 rides) Liam tripped over my foot. His hands must have been in his pocket or something because instead of putting his hands out he landed right on his face. One of his front teeth was bleeding and felt a little loose. We got him calmed down, let them ride their rides and then got him some tylenol. After the mall we just went back to the hotel and went swimming, had dinner and then back to our room to relax and figure out what to do the next day. By the end of the night Liam's tooth looked a little better and didn't seem to be hurting him anymore. (I am still not sure if his tooth will turn that grey color or not. When I look at it it seems to be a different color to me but I could be imagining it. I read that it could take 2-3 weeks for that to happen).

Liam and Jonas ready for bed. The whole trip they had to share a bed. We had hoped they could have their own bed sometimes because a twin isn't really big enough for Jonas and anybody. We had to put chairs on either side of them to make sure they didn't fall out of bed.