The state we once called home.

We moved three times for the last 5 years, but our recent cross country move from Arkansas to Montana was what I considered the big one. Arkansas had been my second home when I migrated to the U.S. My early memory of U.S. comprises most of Arkansas. And I would say we did quite a lot of traveling all over the state while we still live there. Most of them are memorable but I am going to highlight in this post the beautiful places that we have been to while we were there. Before we had Caleb, we pretty much take short trips almost every holidays, especially Valentine's Day. We did visit other states as well but I'm going to focus on Arkansas places in this post though.

I miss Arkansas at times. My old friends were there, Jeff's family were there, my first job was there. You know, too many great memories to leave behind.  I am glad though that whenever I feel reminiscent of the good ol' days like tonight, I can always go through my albums and walk down the memory lane by blogging about it. Anyway, so let me share to you photos of some of the scenic and picturesque places of Arkansas.

Hot Springs, Arkansas

Pinnacle Mountain

Eureka Springs, Arkansas

Powerhouse (Dam) in Bull Shoals, Arkansas

Garvan Woodland Gardens

Never too late for self-improvement.

If you are thinking to pursue a career but undecided yet as to what field to focus on, I’d say getting a tourism and hospitality degree is your best bet. Being that it’s the fastest growing industry in the world, it would be a wise decision to equip yourself with skills relating to this field so you have a better chance to become a vital part of this fast-paced and growing industry. While the traditional classroom learning has been favored throughout the years, you have to realize that it is not the only way to acquire good quality education.

Online learning is becoming increasingly popular and has actually many advantages than you can imagine. This may not work for everyone but for people that want flexibility with their time and schedules, lower education costs, try to balance between a job, family responsibilities and class, get advantage of various specialized degree programs and of course try to earn a degree at their own pace, then taking classes online would be perfect for you. Since there are so many accredited online schools sprouting in the market these days, choosing the right one can seem to be a very daunting task. However, if you know this type of learning works best for you and you have decided which career advancement program you would like to get into, then I’m sure it will be pretty easy to pick the right online school that fits all of your criteria. The possibilities are limitless as long as you’re determined.

A glimpse of San Francisco.

Almost like a year ago, I had the chance to visit San Francisco. The sole purpose of the trip was to renew my passport but I also did a little bit of sight-seeing. I stayed there for 2 days, so I had like a day to take care of my passport and another full day to explore the city. I never thought I'd be able to set foot in SF, let alone travel there by myself. I was apprehensive at first but then I thought it could be my only chance to see the well-renowned The Golden Gate Bridge.

It was foggy and chilly that morning so I couldn't get a good shot of the bridge but being there itself was an adventure. It was indeed beautiful. Then I got to see some other famous places in town as well such as Chinatown, Union Square which is the shopping hub of the city, Fisherman's Wharf, The Aquatic Park. I also got to ride in a cable car, and a couple of their city buses. It was indeed a fun adventure for me. It's my first time to be in a big city like that and I enjoy the wide diversity of people in San Francisco. I wouldn't want to live there though but I really did enjoy my time there.

My recent Philippine vacation in a nutshell.

Late last year, I went back to the Philippines for a 3-month vacation with my 2-year old. Well, he wasn't quite two when we flew so I didn't have to purchase a plane ticket for him which saved us some money. The vacation was a bit long so I really had the chance to do fun things with my family and friends. At the same time, my folks were able to bond really well with my son which kinda backfired there at the end since it was very difficult for them to let us go. My mom was literally a mess when we left. Not a day had passed after we left that she won't cry because every little thing in the house reminds him of Caleb. I've missed them so much too but we know it was only a vacation. So instead of worrying about the inevitable, I reveled in the excitement of being able to enjoy the Filipino food and of course the beaches once again.

Because of the heat, whenever we thought about something fun to do, the first thing that comes to mind is going to the beach or swimming pool. So we went to three different places on three different occasions. I celebrated my birthday at Intosan Resort. When my cousin came home from Australia, we spent a day at Coco Palms Resort. We couldn't get enough of the water so I took my whole family to BE Resorts in Mactan.

Coco Palms Resort

Celebrated my birthday at Intosan Resort

Took my whole family to BE Resorts Mactan

My mom

Me chillaxin'

A week before we fly back to the US, we had Caleb's birthday party at Jollibee as he turned 2 years old.

The look on his face is priceless. He loves the Jollibee mascot. He's indeed a Filipino, lol!

Then of course the food bingeing happened right away, lol! I met up with a couple of old friends and colleagues and did some catching up while we enjoyed the scrumptious food in a couple of nice Filipino restaurants.

My family and I also went to a couple of fine dining restaurants. They don't get to do that a lot, only when I'm on vacation, lol!

I made sure Caleb gets to try all the different kinds of public transportation in the Philippines.

He's in a jeepney.

In a tricyle

In a sikad-sikad

And lastly in a taxicab

A Day in Missoula

Missoula is a city in Montana two hours away from where we live. Since it's not really that far away from home, there were no elaborate planning and packing made for this trip. After all, we only stayed there overnight. Obviously, I did some quick research about the place for our itinerary. Unfortunately, there's not really that much you can do for one day. But we still did have a great time. The drive there was very scenic and that alone I think was worth it. We stopped by Dragon Hollow Playground to let Caleb run around and go nuts, lol! Right next to the fun playground is a place called A Carousel for Missoula. It is a hand-carved 38-animal carousel adorned with dogs, frogs, zebras, and roosters as well as horses. The little man and I went for a ride and I had a sad realization that I am old already since the ride made me woozy, lol! For hubby's benefit, I included in our itinerary a quick visit to the Smokejumper Visitor Center. It was basically a unique and interactive tour of the facility. Smokejumpers actually are highly trained specialists who parachute into remote areas of national forests to fight the spread of wildfires. It was an interesting one. Then we concluded the trip with a dip at Splash Montana Waterpark. That was a weekend so a huge crowd of pool partyers was expected. My son had a blast in their wading pool. I wanted to visit their shopping mall but couldn't squeezed it in our hectic 1-day schedule. But anyway, we will visit Missoula again I'm sure and definitely malling will be part of our itinerary.