March 22,

Up and about- Today is Baguio Exploration Day! We readied and had our Javas on our balcony. What a view! We overlook a hilly city with lots of trees- many are different pine trees. We have a sunrise view but I was not up early enough to see it. When we finished we went to a restaurant we saw last night for breakfast. It was near The Food Cartel- I love that name. (The Food Cartel was not opened.) The place we did eat at was called Cedap-Lah, the Best of South-east Asia’s Cuisine. We had on order of pancakes with syrup that came with an egg, hot dog and ham (I asked no hot dog and she offered extra ham); and corned beef with fried rice, an egg, and a sauce. I had a hot chocolate and Jeff had a ginger tea. We paid 545 PHP ($9.50).

Now we set out. The temperature is marvelous in the upper 60’s. Some of what we see from our second story balcony is a park. It is called Burnham Park and named after an American Architect, Daniel Burnham in 1925. We walked in the park and around. There is a man made lake that many people were out in peddle and row boat rentals. It’s Saturday and many locals are out here enjoying themselves. We also saw many food stall stands, a rose garden and an area for bicycle rentals and pedal carts- like go cart size. It was fun watching the locals enjoying themselves.

Then we left the park and found a local mall with many stalls. Jeff found some gloves. As we meandered back to our place, we saw many more of the Jeepneys that are public transport. But here the fronts are from Jeeps. The US left lots of military stuff here after WWII, and the Filipinos have repurposed the Jeeps. The Jeepneys are fun and all have different designs and names. Anyway, back at our place, we had a snack type lunch of crackers and chips and a relaxing afternoon.

Around 1700, we went back out for supper. We walked on the other side of Burnham Park and went in another entry through all the pine trees, some from various parts of the world, according to a placard. The walkway continued to a memorial, The Japanese Peace Tower. A placard here states the tower is to commemorate “peace and understanding through Lionism, a joint project of the Lions Club of Baguio and the Lions Club of Japan.” It was erected March 20,1973 – just over 52 years ago, almost to the day! We also found a public swimming lane pool here – we might use it(?).

Then we left the park and went to Makatata, a burger stand. Google had it with great reviews. When we arrived, we were enthusiastically invited to order. The one young man is an entrepreneur salesman. He asked where we were from. When we said USA, he and his fellow worker smiled in wonder. His name was Fidel. Fidel said his burgers where better than In-N-Out!! That sold us! We love In-N-Out Burgers. We both ordered a Smashburger, which had onions, American cheese, ‘house’made pickles and their own Maka Sauce. Then I had Dirty Fries which were topped with onions, pickles, and Maka sauce; Jeff had Naked Fries which had salt & pepper. The food was good – not better than In-N-Out – but worth it just to talk with Fidel and his co-worker! We paid 530 PHP ($9.24).

After we finished, we went to SM mall and just checked it out. It is a large mall and was busy. The mall actually has open-to-the-air layout. It is natural air conditioning!🤣  There was an ACE hardware! We stopped in it to by an adapter to use the plugin for our charger. Our apartment does not have the right plugins. We used to have this adapter but got rid of it a while back as we hadn’t needed it.

Anyway, we now went back to our place and watched some YouTube and relaxed. We like the feel of Baguio!