Puerto Galera with the Golds

Over the Chinese New Year holiday break, Paul's sister Delia and her husband Michael and our niece Jemma came to visit us for two weeks.  The first week of their visit they went to the Philippines to hang out with the extended family there.  It had been 20+ years since Delia had last been to the Philippines.  There was time spent in Manila getting together with various aunts, uncles and cousins.  Paul was there with the kids and I stayed behind for work and nobody really took any pictures with our camera, so you'll just have to believe me.

Once I joined them in Manila, then we drove to the coast to catch a boat to the island town of Puerto Galera for some R&R (desperately needed by Delia and Michael).

The first half day the kids enjoyed the pool and the grownups enjoyed sprawling around the apartment/suite and the pool deck and delicious vodka tonics with calamansi (tiny limes that are orange on the inside and sweeter and soooo good with vodka tonic).  The next day, rain.  Boo.  So we worked more on relaxation with lots of reading, getting massages, eating, and letting the kids veg with the tablet and a movie.  Thankfully, the next day (our last full day) was all sunshine.  We took a boat ride over to a good snorkeling area.

To do the snorkeling, we transferred into two smaller boats, which took us over the coral garden and pulled us around for "lazy snorkeling". They string a rope between the boat and the end of the outrigger (?) thingies, then you hang on like superman with your face in the water and they tow you around so you don't have to wrestle with the currents.

The kids had fun snorkeling and feeding some bread to smaller fish near the boat.

Paul is taking a nap he's so lazy.

After snorkeling we hopped to a local sandbar, which wasn't that exciting, but I wanted to see the view of ocean on both sides.

Then onto another local beach for some lunch and time in the sand and waves.

Paul and Michael enjoy the view and their rum and cokes with calamansi (it goes with everything!).

If you look really close, that's me in the bottom right hand corner laying face down on the chair getting a super cheap massage, which was more a body scrub given the sand and sunscreen already on my skin.

Our last day was a short one, with time only for our last breakfast on the terrace overlooking the bay and once last dip in the pool for the kids.

After a treacherous boat ride back to the mainland (seriously big waves, not sure if there were life jackets on the boat), we caught flights back to Hong Kong where the Golds stayed with us for another week.  They saw all of Hong Kong's top sights, but I don't have their pictures, you'll have to ask them.  But last night in town we had Filipino cousin Lizzie and Gary over with their kids for family dinner, always a good time.  

It was a great two weeks.  Thanks for coming, Golds!