April 3,

I know we have not been sleeping well due to the bed we have at this place… but I made up for it last night. Minus the fits and turns in the bed, I probably had nine hours of sleep! Jeff said his sleep was so-so, maybe about 7 hours. Anyway, we got about and had our Javas – I had my new coffee from Nest Coffee Roaster. It was better than I remembered! That is always a nice outcome. We have never been given another kettle so we boil water on the hot plate we have. For breakfast we had oatmeal. Our time in Baguio is winding down so we will be using the “last of’s” that we have or eating out more.

We went out around 0845 walking. Our destination is The Mansion. Jeff had called and three days ago and booked us a tour for 1000. He called again this morning and our tour was confirmed but we were asked to be there at 0930. My sleeping-in gave us a bit of a late start, so we ended up hailing a taxi for the last half of the way there. We almost snagged a Jeepney, but they were full, at least the ones that were going our way. I do find it amazing how much we see the same ones… Maybe there are not as many as we think, or maybe because we typically walk the same route? I don’t know, but they are fascinating. That is until they are right next to you and give the vehicle gas to go uphill! Big billows of black smoke then cough out of the vehicle and surround us, making us cough. That is not fascinating, nor pleasant.

Anyway, we arrived via the taxi right at 0930. I took photos and lost where Jeff went. The guard pointed to Jeff and said, “Is he your Neighbor?” I was puzzled🤔 briefly then realized what he was saying. I said, “My husband?… he’s my husband.” He corrected himself, “Sorry, mam, your… husban?” I nodded, not correcting his mispronunciation, and smiled. Anyway, we were directed into the information center to wait until our time slot. Here they reconfirmed our tour. They needed ID to make sure we were who we claimed to be… It is a governmental building after all. It was also a free tour, and we found out we were the only ones for the 1000 time. So it was a private tour to boot! There was a cool map of the Philippines from 1734 that was drawn by the Spanish. It was a replica – seems the original sold in 2014 by Sothebys for then 12,014,463.09 PHP, (which would have be a lot, and I don’t know the equivalent amount). We were then offered a golf cart ride the rest of the way up the drive if we could not walk it. We walked of course.

Some history of The Mansion. According to a placard:
“Mansion House constructed at the instance of William Cameron Forbes following the design of William E. Parsons, as part pf the Burnham plan for Baguio, 1908, inspired by the city beautiful movement. Venue of the special session on the second Philippine Legislature, 1910. Destroyed during the War, 1945. Rehabilitated, 1947. …Summer Residence of American Governors-General, 1908-1935 and later of Philippine Presidents from Manuel L. Quezon to the present.” (Quezon was President of Philippines from 1935-1944.)

We arrived at the entrance of The Mansion and directed inside the main lobby area to Patrick, our tour guide. He laid down some rules first – no photos, no videos, and no recordings, also do not touch any objects, no food or water consumption. He said we could take pictures in this room only and gave us time to look about, as it was still before 1000. Every Presidential Photo lined the walls from the first Emilio Aguinaldo (1899-1901) to the present one, Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos, Jr., who is the son of the former 10th president Ferdinand Marcos and former first lady Imelda Marcos. There were also two cases displaying gifts to the current Philippine President from various countries. Now Patrick started our tour.

We were lead through several different rooms with detailed timeline events of each of the 17 presidents of the Philippines. Patrick brought these people to life for us with stories of each one. He pointed out the good facts of each president, not going into the scandal that has unfortunately embodied so many of the Filipino Presidents, but these scandalous facts were listed under the leaders timelines with the good ones. Patrick had so many stories, I could not begin to list and remember them all, but a few stick out.

The first President, Emilio Aguinaldo, and longest lived person who was a president (1869-1964). He is recognized as the president from 1899-1901 having had lead forces against Spain in the Philippine Revolution (1896-1898), in the Spanish-American War (1898); and against USA during the Philippine-American War (1899-1901). His presidency was not recognized outside of the Philippines.

The sixth President, Elpidio Quirino, from 1948-1953. His wife was killed by Japanese troops, along with three of their five children in 1945– a gruesome part of the story that I won’t relate here. Needless to say, I teared up.😢  Anyway, when he served as president, he named his surviving daughter, Victoria, as his first lady.  Pres. Quirino then had some Japanese soldiers/POWs released back to Japan in 1953.🤯  An amazing action of forgiveness, not revenge! Quite an example!!!

There were other stories but I’m tearing up again, so… We ended the tour with Patrick taking pictures of us inside and outside The Mansion. He left us with a saying and I quote it here, “The true beauty of our country lies in the spirits of its people: resilient, hopeful, and united. And may you carry this sentiment wherever you go.” Wow! I enjoyed our tour and Patrick’s relating of history of the Philippines through its Presidents.

Finished we walked back to our place. We cooled off then made a Greek salad for lunch. We hung out – I blogged and Jeff read. It was 65% chance of rain (but never did, that I know of). Then we went to Shakey’s Pizza for dinner. This chain seems to be prevalent here, and it had been awhile since we have had pizza. I don’t think I have ever had Shakey’s before. We had a large Shakey’s Special- thin crust loaded with beef, Italian sausage, pepperoni, salami, mushrooms, green bell pepper, and onion. I had an A&W float and Jeff had a lemonade. The bill was 834 PHP, which is $14.63. I can say that I have eaten a Shakey’s now, but I probably don’t need to again. Jeff liked it, though. We went back to our place. I finished this blog and Jeff read. It was a good day learning some history of the Philippines.