a long day with long walks in longwood gardens
...longwood gardens, kenneth square, pa. 1,050 acres of gardens, one of the best in the US. Bought from William Penn by George Pierce then by Pierre S. du Pont who made it a private estate. today, it has 20 outdoor gardens and 20 indoor gardens within 4.5 acres of heated greenhouses or conservatories. it has 11,000 (or more) types of trees and plants .... the list goes on and on ...
one of my favorite things in longwood are the flowerbeds .. they seem to be arranged by color and they're all in full bloom. we went in the summer, i could only imagine how this garden was like in full spring bloom!! another favorite part are the topiaries ... it's like being alice in wonderland ... they also have lots of fountains, secret gardens, meadows, gazebos, lakes, lilies, treehouses ... wonderful, wonderful ... tired, tired haha!! but this was one of our first trips to see PA and as you can imagine, every bit of the place just leaves us in awe!! also, don't forget to enjoy the illuminated fountain show at 9:00pm i believe, where lighted fountains dance to classical music .... lovely!! but you know what ... the walk was long enough, so, let's keep the talk short ... let's go see pictures :)
pictures or words are not enough to enjoy the beauty longwood gardens has to offer. and i've heard it's even prettier during winter ... i just didn't have the guts to go on a long walk on a cold winter day! well, maybe when i get myself a VERY good jacket, good boots and probably go on a not-so-freezing winter day ... we'll see .. till then!!
where dreams come true
... the wonderful world of disney. located in orlando, florida, it is the largest and most revisited resort in the world. it has 4 themed parks and 2 water parks. it is owned and started by walt disney, the resort opened 1971 and just keeps getting bigger and better...
we went to florida sometime october 2009, when the weather was good (no snowstorms like today) and the budget was available (haha). the trip didn't start out good, we missed our plane (no questions entertained, my day was bad enough and i learned my lesson) and had to leave at 6:30 pm instead of 6:45 am. well, we spent a day in marriot hotel (lobby) wasting away the time hahaha ... let's move on!!
**BTW, if you want good pictures of your family, get the Disney Photopass, you get your pictures taken at very good spots around the park, you will have to purchase your pics if you want copies of them... for a good souvenir, it'll be worth it :)
...appreciating God's wondrous paradise...
on the boardwalk at atlantic city
... atlantic city. is a city in new jersey famous for it's boardwalk (which is a good few miles), giving access to hotels, casinos, shops and more making a total seaside city resort. also famous for its casino gambling, view of Atlantic ocean, sandy beaches, shops, shows and also the site of Absecon Lighthouse ...
i only knew of the "boardwalk" from monopoly, it's that last lot before passing GO with a really high price tag (rent or purchase), good when you own it, bad when you "rent" it...o well, good it's only a game. we got to walk on a real boardwalk on atlantic city, columbus day of last year (oct 12, 08) was the first time and we've been back several times. the boardwalk basically is a long walkway made of boards with the beach and atlantic ocean on one side and hotels, casinos, malls, museums on the other side.
our first stop was to visit the Ripley's Believe it or Not museum, it's about a 30-45minute visit for a minimal fee (less than $20 i think). they have everything unusual (a hand-painted butterfly, a big picture made of jelly beans, carved miniature rooms and buildings with amazing detail are some examples). the city also has more than a dozen casino hotels (looks like it), the korean veteran memorial, a mall, an amusement park (steel pier). you can rent a bike and enjoy the boardwalk that way or you can ride their version of a sikad-sikad for a $5 fee i think. if you like lighthouses, don't forget to visit absecon lighthouse by rhode island ave, it's non active but then again still a good photo op.
they also host a lot of filipino shows, they've had eat bulaga, the divine divas (zsa-zsa, regine, kuh and pops) but we never got to watch those. we did watch the most recent one with gary and martin. i've never seen too many filipinos all at once (of course i've seen more when you go to church at home on a christmas day, but i meant here in the US). the show was so worth it...oh i love you gary .... oh, and you too martin (martin's my husband's fave, mine's gary) ... all i can say, as much as i love gary all by himself, the show AS ONE wouldn't have been as great as it was without martin, he has an amazing, amazing voice...
atlantic city...good to have it close by for shows and concerts but i'm not sure if i'd be a frequent visitor otherwise. i've seen their lighthouse, ate boardwalk fries, enjoyed the sunset by the ocean and i'm good ... no gambling for me, i couldn't afford it. ask me again in 5-10 years and we'll see, i'll have enough pennies saved for slot machines by then, hehe....let it snow ... let it snow ... let it snow ...
... snow. a type of preciptitation in the form of white ice crystals ... to make it easy, it's frozen water falling from the sky, snowflakes have six sides and it is said that no two are ever alike. Snow comes during winter season, more so in northern areas (thankfully not so much in our place), it brings lots of fun things to do and more to experience...
the picture you see on top was our first ever FULL snow experience. We woke up early morning to get ready for work, heard the news that it snowed, looked through the window and this was what we saw ... BEAUTIFUL!! Of course we had to go outside and touch it, duh?!?! Lesson learned: they're really COLD haha, and they burn your hands, so use gloves when you touch them hahaha!! FULL snow I say, because just like rain, sometimes it just drizzles. With snow, it's called "flurries" and you wouldn't have enough to really paint as pretty a picture. We've had snow flurries the past days but this was when it really accumulated a few inches high.
There were things we needed to check off our list of things to do during winter time, and making our snow man was one of them. My boys had fun doing this right outside our apartment one snowy afternoon. We didn't have much snow, so our snowman was just as big as my little boy. He had a rudolph bell nose, reese's chocolate for his eyes, a cracker for his mouth, our cooking utensils for his arms with gloves, more chocolates for buttons, topped off with an elf hat and a scarf to keep him "warm" hahaha! it's hard work making a snowman, but i'll gladly do it again, it's fun! With whatever snow left, we just had to make our snow angels.
In the middle of winter, our friend brought us to a ski resort and we tried snow tubing, no skiing for me though. This is where you slide down a fairly high mountain slope using a tire tube. WOOOHOOOO, it happens fast and it's very fun. Be careful when you get to the bottom though, when you get up, be sure you're not standing on packed frozen ice or else you'll slip...like i did, haha!
Having snow is fun, but of course to have snow you would need super cold weather and that part is not so fun. I'm glad we live in an apartment because I'm sure snow plowing is not fun either. Snow gets to be very slippery when it gets frozen and icy so be extra careful when driving. They put salt to melt the snow on the roads. We haven't tried snow sledding yet, that we plan to this year since it's close to snowtime again. It's snowed in other parts of the US but none at our place yet. We're still at mid50s weather-wise, still wearing a sweater. But I've taken out my warm jackets out of the storage room ... it's getting colder and I'm just about ready, I think.
Kid snow sled $20-$40. warm jacket and snow pants $40-$80. Snow boots $60-$100. Playing outside with my boys and some friends on a nice snow day and rich, hot cocoa inside PRICELESS!! Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!
...appreciating God's wondrous paradise...
halloween 101 - things i learned
... halloween. it is celebrated anually on october 31, it includes activities as trick-or-treating, wearing costumes, carving jack-o-lanterns, haunted attractions, ghost stories, bonfires, watching horror films... coming from pinas, i've always celebrated this time of year without any costumes, no trick-or-treating and no pumpkins. all souls' day and all saints' day (nov 1-2) is mostly lighting candles for the dead, saying our prayers, offering and hearing mass, reuniting with distant relatives, painting mausoleums and of course spending a day or two in the cemetery. halloween is something i needed to learn, and here are the basics:
TRICK OR TREAT. this is where you dress up kids (and daddies) in costumes, they go knock from one door to another to get CANDY. I have to remind my son ... that though candy is good, chocolate is better ... and mommy likes BUTTERFINGER, so grab those, hehe! It's cold this time of year so choose costumes that still look good with long johns on and don't forget to bring glow sticks and a big bag for the goodies! be ready, some home owners dress up in costumes too ...
JACK-O-LANTERNS. first go visit a pumpkin patch, they would have different kinds of pumpkins for you, small ones, medium-sized ones and really big ones. get only what you can handle, they get to be really heavy. pick out and print an easy pattern, pin it to the front of your pumpkin, cut the top part out, take the seeds out and then start carving. when you're ready, get a candle, put it inside your pumpkin and voila, you've got a jack-o-lantern! btw, pumpkin patches can give you hayrides, ghost stories and other halloween activities your kids would love.
HALLOWEEN PARTIES. this time of year is not just for kids, they can also be fun for adults. you can wear costumes and have a party (just because!)... i'm not too sure of the idea of santa being in town on halloween though. what do you think? no doubt about it, halloween is fun but i also make it a point to celebrate it the old-fashioned pinoy way. i do my best to have a mass scheduled in the mausoleum of my parents, paint it once in a good while, keep it clean, and have it ready for visitors/relatives who would light their candles and say their prayers. It's good to have that pinoy part of me as a reminder that october 31-nov 2 is not just candies, pumpkins and costume parties...they can also be about prayers, families and getting together ... and both ways can be equally fun ....
** THIS IS IN MEMORY OF MY MOM AND DAD, I LOVE YOU BOTH! ... THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING, GOD BLESS YOUR SOULS! i'll always be daddy's little girl, and i never fail to go by mommy's life lessons to get me through every day ... I WILL BE MISSING YOU BOTH ALWAYS!
...appreciating God's wondrous paradise...
2009 New Jersey Lighthouse Challenge
and needless to say, we did the challenge and we completed it! all 4 meadowlakers woke up at 5:30am, left the house at 6:30am, had our breakfast in the car (mcdonalds pancakes), it was raining and it was dark.
we reached lighthouse #1: the sandy hook lighthouse at 8:30am; #2: twin lights (navesink highlands), one of the best, you get a good top view of the New York Bay, we reached this at about 10:00am; #3: sea girt lighthouse at about 11:00am, it was raining hard, we were hungry. so, we ate lunch in the car by the harbor (we have our rice (with the rice cooker haha), a bucket of KFC and gravy of course, YUM!); then off to #4: 1st Order Fresnel Lens at Barnegat Museum, this was at 12:00 noon, time running fast, challenge is only up to 6PM today...DALI!
continue to #5: Barnegat lighthouse, best harbor ever, very nice, very cold, brrrrrr!, we were here at ~12:30pm #6: tucker's island lighthouse at around 1:30pm (it's actually just a museum now coz the original lighthouse toppled into the water in 1927; #7: absecon lighthouse in atlantic city at 2:30pm?; #8: 1st Fresnel Lens at Cape May Historical Museum, it's getting dark, i'm not sure of the time anymore, maybe 3:30pm?
we're moving slow now, we were hoping to finish everything in a day but the lighthouses were not easy to find, so we got lost more than a few times. #9: herefore inlet lighthouse at 4:30pm? #10: cape may lighthouse at 5:30pm, we were here before so we took pictures just for documentation and then we zoomed out to go to #11: tinicum lighthouse at about 7:00pm, we did out night climb and we were done for the day...oct 18, we heard mass at 7:30am then off we went to #12: finn's point lighthouse at about 9:30am;
we reserved #13: east point lighthouse for last, not because it was special but because the GPS couldn't find it ... at finn's point there were a lot of challengers and so we followed their lead....and we reached the last lighthouse at about 10:30AM and it turned out to be pretty special anyway. it looked beautiful, the sky was clearing up and it was so close to Maurice River, the view was awesome!
and so, with the challenge done and our lighthouse passports complete, we head home, me with my cough and cold, my hubby all tired, the little boy exhausted but altogether excited and happy ... shall do we the maryland and the long island lighthouse challenge people??? READY, SET, GOOOOOO!
...appreciating God's wondrous paradise...
A is for apple
...apples. fruit of the apple tree, species in the rose family. the tree is small, they may reach a height from 10-39 ft, fruits fall to the ground when they mature. blossoms during springtime and fruits mature mostly in autumn. known to some as the "forbidden fruit" from the "garden of eden" or you've probably seen this fruit occupying that famous spot on fiesta food tables...the lechon's mouth!...
APOL or EPOL hehe? we've always seen apples in fruit stands back home (Pinas) and when we draw trees, we always draw red "apples" on them. but i've never seen an actual apple tree, and when I knew that we could actually do "apple picking" in the orchards here, i had to do it, i just had to....and to make the long story short, we did.
autumn of last year 2008, we went apple-picking in highland orchards, just a few miles from where we live. their place greets you with a play area for kids and a petting zoo. they have llamas, cows, ponies, goats (and mind you, goats are pets and not for kalderetas, so be nice to them, got it!) you have to go on a hayride (it's a truck ride with hay) to go to the orchards.
i was surprised to see shrubs. i was prepared to see something as big as a mango tree. but no, they were kinda small that my little boy can just literally reach for the fruits. it's amazing how many different kinds there are: green apples, golden apples, small red apples, big red apples. most have fallen to the ground coz you see the tree is not very sturdy, and when you pick fresh fruits, the tree shakes a lot and that makes the more mature apples fall, such a waste! you get to pay for a bag worth $8 or so, then you fill it up with any apple you want. we got three bags, ate 3 pieces and gave the rest to friends who baked apple pies, etc. i'm not a big eater of apples...we just wanted the experience, yah? and of course, now i know better when i draw "apple" trees :)
**My little boy had his own trip to the orchard this year (2009) as a school activity. They got to do the hayride, made a scarecrow, tasted apple cider, squeezed? the apples (or something like that) ... see i found a good school, they're training my son early to be the explorer that his mother wants him to be .... GO, GO, KULIT!!
...appreciating God's wondrous paradise...
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About Me
- pearl
- i am filipino, proud of my origin ... i have been blessed to be working in the US; i have my hubby and my little boy with me and every weekend (almost!) we try to do something interesting...whether it be in our town, a few miles away, more than a few miles, nearby states or (once or twice) even a plane ride away ....
my travel magnet collection
when the travel bug hits me...i go
my favorite travel buddies
home is where the heart is, miss u all
four parks, one world