Simply Kendz: La Union

It started with a casual invitation from Frankie while we were jogging with some of our teammates one fine afternoon.

Frankie: Mag-su-surf kami sa La Union next month, baka gusto mong sumama?

Candy: Ah talaga? Kelan ‘to saka sinu-sino kayo?

Frankie: Baka 2^nd or 3^rd week ng February, sina Bary, Omar, Jule at mag-i-invite pa.

Candy: Ah ok, sige balitaan mo ako pag final na. I like the idea.

One of my goals this 2008 is to explore more places, try more things that I haven’t done or even tried before. So when I got the invite, I considered it right away. Though I had hesitations ‘coz I’m afraid of huge waves (which is the primary character in surfing), I still wanted to join because I haven’t been in La Union.

Few weeks after, I just found myself preparing my stuffs. I couldn’t hide my excitement for some reasons: 1) I’ve never been to La Union; 2) It’s my first out-of-town trip with Lawson officemates (some of them are my teammates and some are from other teams); 3) never been to surfing.

Friday, Feb. 8: We stayed overnight in the office for the 1 am departure time scheduled tomorrow. Had dinner with Lia, Giles and Arcy at Mcdonald’s and spent the rest of the night blogging, friendster-ing and chatting with friends. Before midnight, we had another set of meal, left-over food from one of the teams here in the office. Hehehehe…. Frankie noticed those at the pantry and I immediately texted JJ to ask for permission to get some. Thanks, Jay!

Satudary, Feb, 9: We left the office at around 1:30am riding an Innova which was borrowed from Ms. Noemi, Jay's teammate, thru Frankie. Thanks, Ms. Noemi! :) Frankie was in charge of the wheels the whole journey and George was kind enough to keep him company while the rest of us had our share of sleeps during the travel hehehehe....

Reached San Juan, La Union few minutes before 7 and we were all just excited to see the waves. By the way, my good friends Peng and Rose Marcelo were also there with their family and 2 Lawson Expats, Marie and Hans.

While waiting for the first room which we can occupy at this time, we had photo shoot and my gosh!!!! the waves were huge and the wind was freaking cold... brrrrr... Good thing, Frankie reminded me to bring a jacket before we left Manila. I didn't have plans of bringing it because my bag was already full (but he was kind enough to put it in his bag), what I had was a pair or jogging pants instead which I did not find useful after all.

View from Room #17

Had breakfast at the adjacent resort and after about an hour, we prepared ourselves for the next big thing :) Aside from the peeps I've mentioned, Ailyn and her friends from Citibank were also there. Actually, it was them who invited us to join surfing, thanks Ailyn!

On the way to the Surf Area, I got the chance to take some pictures of the road. And I'm so proud of myself 'coz I was able to use the manual settings of my digicam and had these shots while the van was moving.. hehehehe... So satisfied with the outputs :) (Pareng Sherwin, if you're reading this, need your inputs regarding my shots.. hehehehe.. alam mo namang idol kita sa photography e.. :) what can you say? ano pang need kong i-improve?)

I did not have the guts to try surfing. I just enjoyed myself taking photos of my friends while they were having fun on the boards. But they were not so successful at this point in time, maybe because they lack sleep. So, we just took more pics instead.

We had lunch at the Seafood Restaurant and took a well-deserved sleep afterwards. Frankie's friend Niño, was introduced to us just before we had our dinner at Midway Grill which the latter recommended. We went back to the resort and the rest is history :D.