Universal Studios

On our last day in the US, our hosts, Cindy and Noel, wouldnt let it go without taking us to a couple more stops - the Universal Studios and Rodeo Drive.

I wish my boys were here...

Feeling Julia Roberts and Richard Gere!

Our home for 3 weeks in LA...

Missing Mississauga

Picture above was taken by Junnie just after the subway took off... No editing done.


Last Night

We got to Mississauga, after the shopping tour, just in time to get us dinner and enjoy the finals night of American Idol. I was rooting for Kat Mcphee while Junnie was for Taylor Hicks. Hehe!

It was really cold even under layers of clothes and sitting in Junnie and Mitzi's nice condo overlooking Mississauga, having chicken and salad for dinner, and getting serenaded by Kat and Taylor on tv, I woudn't have any other way to cap the day spent mostly on the road.

American Idol TV Dinner

Today

It was my first time to see Mississauga at daytime and I marvelled at the wide expanse of the place and how clean and quiet it was. After seeing their newly acquired house and how near it was to the Catholic church, the school, the wet market and the mall, it certainly looked like the perfect place to raise a family.

I wish we had this kind of waiting sheds in Cebu/Manila.

This is just outside Junnie and Mitzi's condo, the perfect place for kids to run around and for families to just spend a lazy spring or summer afternoon after work walking their dogs or playing with the kids. You'll get plenty of these parks and open spaces in Mississauga.

Here are some pictures from downtown Toronto that I took. If you see my face, it's Junnie's handiwork.

The mall

The new city hall

The CN tower in the background

The view from the CN Tower

Queen Elizabeth stays here

Museum? Terminal? Terminal!

Though what was supposed to be a few days in Mississauga got shortened to a night and a day, Junnie managed to show me most of what this place was all about. Its beauty, the peaceful surroundings and the wholesome community I saw made me want to stay longer. I was leaving the place wanting for more time to be in it, to be with Junnie and Mitzi and to see more of its attractions. Funny, but even before I could leave, I was already beginning to miss Mississauga.

Shopping Tour

After spending an extra day in New Jersey due to the unplanned trip to Jackson Premium Outlets (where I bought myself a decent looking pair of Naturalizer slides and a couple of leather bags), we were finally on our way to New York for the road trip to Canada. I don't know what itinerary Junnie and Mitzi still had for me back then but I sensed that we had to skip one sightseeing destination to spend more time on yet another shopping trip - Woodbury Premium Outlets!

The place was a sprawling area where popular branded apparel, shoes and other stuff are sold. It is practically a shopaholic's haven. If we weren't pressed for time, we would have easily spent one whole day there just checking out all the neat stuff, and probably ended up damaging our plastics. Proof that we were too engrossed going about our business, I failed to even take a picture of both Jackson and Woodbury. Ugh.

I only got a few items for my niece and a nice big tote from Samsonite which was pretty surprising. I could have easily gone overboard with so many tempting goodies there for less than half of the prices in Manila - Coach, Kate Spade, etc. Thinking about it now... I sorta regret not splurging a bit more. Tsk-tsk. :P

Homey New Jersey

One thing about traveling aside from seeing new places and experiencing new things, it is also about being with family and close family friends. We had the pleasure of being shown around Las Vegas, Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon by Papa Rhante and Mama Nita a few weeks back.

Then, on our last week in the US, we were again generously accommodated by my 1st-degree cousin (Paparazzi's side), Kuya Reno and Ate Rowena's family in quiet New Jersey. I realize now what an intrusion we must have done by informing them of our visit just a few days before we arrived. We couldn't thank them enough for taking the time off to:

1. let us crash in their 2 (not just 1) bedrooms

2. drive us to and from New York

3. treat us to a very delicious and filling Mexican dinner

4. not only drive us to, but even buy things for us at the outlet stores (Jackson)

5. drive Jerry to Newark Airport

6. take us to see Princeton University

7. treat us to a sumptuous Chinese lunch buffet

It was also from Kuya Reno and Ate Rowena that Jerry and I learned how to let each moment count. After all, Kuya Reno is living proof that anything can happen in a blink of an eye, or a split second. I don't exactly recall the story, but he is one of the lucky ones who survived 9/11, his office (JP Morgan) was only a few floors away from where the plane hit one of the towers.

Chinese lunch buffet

At Princeton University

Inside Princeton

The "overgrads" :D

Campus beauties? ;)

Dazzling New York

Dazzling lights in the City that doesn't sleep...

I learned a few things on my less than 24-hour visit of New York City and for one who hasn't been there, these might be of some use:

1. If you picture cosmopolitan New York to be all crowded and busy and bustling with people and the ubiquitous yellow cabs, then it is an entirely different experience visiting the place on a Sunday. I think this is the best day to see New York and everything it has to offer.

2. Yes, the experience of going up the Empire State Building, which is now back to being the tallest skyscraper after 9/11, to enjoy a bird's eye-view of the Manhattan skyline may be exhilarating. But, for penny-pinching tourists with very limited time, seeing it up close, going inside the structure and having our pictures taken next to it, proved to be an equally awesome experience nonetheless. Some fellow kababayans might say it's different being up there at the peak ala Sleepless in Seattle. Well, yeah... next time perhaps when I could spare a few more days to explore the city. We didnt have the luxury of time queueing up for 1-2 hours just to get to the top. Hehehe...

3. We rode the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty, for free... This is also a good way to see the Manhattan Skyline from the Hudson River.

4. Gray's Papaya is yummers!

So... as the famous song goes..."start spreading the news.... ta-da-dada-da-dah!..."

The Philippine Embassy in New York

Saks 5th Avenue and the Rockefeller Building

Gearing up for Sunday Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral

The Trump Tower

Looking up inside the Trump Tower

Left: The house where John Lennon was shot. Right: Getting lost in Central Park.

Saying a short prayer at Ground Zero

Left: New York Stock Exchange. Right: George Washington Monument

Left: The house of St. Elizabeth Seton (according to our tour guide)

Right: Hudson River

The Statue of Liberty in all its copper glory

Manhattan Skyline from the Staten Island Ferry on Hudson River

Left: Staten Island Ferry terminal, Right: Wall St. sign

The Brooklyn Bridge

Inside the Empire State Building

Just being part of New York even for a day...
..."I wanna be a part of it, New York, New York"...