Lots of these photos were taken by either Kevin, Audrey or Bob.  I’ll just put my name by mine and the others are ones they took.

A view of the beach and the Bataan Peninsular

So here I am! 

I know Kevin took this photo because he was kind enough to go out with me.  I didn’t want to go alone and no one else seemed to really want to go.  Both Bob and Audrey have done lots of diving so this is not such a big deal to them.  I am wearing my flour sack shorts and also my keene walking shoes because I was too lazy to get my booties and Randal’s flippers.  But it made swimming harder and when we got really far out I got a bit scared when I started to have a hard time getting back in.  Even though the current was going towards the beach somehow because of the channel I was in the waves were going back out.  Kevin was with me so I wasn’t really worried, or at least not panic stricken.  Next time I’ll wear flippers.  When Bob and Audrey saw the photos they decided to go in, but both swam out much further than I would have felt comfortable.  I liked seeing the fish, but the shrubbery made me think of snakes and hidden stuff.  There were some spiky sea urchins, but you could see them so could avoid stepping on them.  I also saw sea cucumber, interesting but not so colorful. 

  This was out fairly far.  I did see lots of tiny brightly colored fish.  Audrey and Bob say that there are only small young fish because of over fishing and dynamite fishing where they blow everything out of the water and destroy way too much.  It is outlawed but still done illegally.

Ruel  Reminds me of those glasses with the fuzzy eyebrows and nose and mustache attached!

  Ruel and Christina ( I think)  Mariel and Carmela (I think)

Agnes!

Maria, Ruth, Mariel, Agnes, Christina and Carmela

This was a floating pavilion that was actually in the water by the time we left. The woman in the orange suit is Maria’s mom who is 2 years younger than I am!  My photo.

This past Sunday we were taken to White Corals Beach Resort in Morong,  a 45 minute drive south of Subic on the Bataan Peninsular by our friends Audrey, Bob, Kevin and Toby the dog.  Their friends Maria and Svend were there with their kids and Maria’s mom.  It was a fun day and I did some real beginner snorkeling.  Took lots of photos.  http://www.bataanwhitecorals.com/  is the web site for the resort.  Bob and Audrey sent some of their photos; they have an underwater camera.  I try to give them credit though I don’t know if Audrey, Bob or Kevin took the photo.

  About half way there we saw a man walking his waterbuffalo. 

Bob stopped the van, I jumped out and ran after them.  They kindly stopped so I could take my photo.  I made the mistake of shooting off the camera first and then trying to pat the buffalo which snorted in a less than inviting way.  I made a second attempt, but her owner looked a bit wary so I just said thanks and went back to the van. 

She (I guess) looks a bit wary and close up the horns look too scary to mess with.  Probably gentle as a lamb and followed her owner with no hesitation.

  It is very lovely countryside with a small population.  It is becoming more of a tourist destination because of its beaches. 

  We were greeted by the site of Maria, her mom and kids

coming in from exploring the exposed coral reef.

  Carrying in the prizes

Maria, Audrey and one of the girls

The kids had found a star fish, but put it back into the water so not to kill it.

  Lunch of traditional Filipino soup, rice, veggies and crispy pata which is a pork dish with the skins fried crispy.  You just pull it from the bones and enjoy. 

San Mig light and crispy pata remains.

  Some for everyone.  Toby, the dog’s father lived at the resort.  A very sweet dog I wanted to take home.

Bob washing the salt water off Toby.  Toby is a puppy that Audrey adopted on a previous visit here.  Audrey or Kevin took this photo

  This was the resort pool filled from the ocean so it is a salt water pool.  Shared by B, A or K

  The kids all really like Bob and Audrey and have a good time together.

  Sunset! 

This is Agnes the youngest girl. 

She and I went for a walk along the beach and collected so many shells I had to carry them in my hat. 

Nest set are the water photos

Hi Everyone,

  Here are some photos of the flour sack clothes.  Left to right, the scratchier shorts with the almost too short drawstring and no pocket. I wear them for swimming; the good shorts with the back pocket and the long enough drawstring, for wearing around and even into town; last the top which I am wearing right now!

“Good shorts”

The top, front and back.  I look like an employee of NBC!  I am wearing my thread necklace too.  The shorts and top cost 350 pesos; about $8.  I ordered them one morning and they were ready the next afternoon.

  The tread necklace with the Red Sox hat charm and the charm my niece Jess brought me back from Hawaii.  t think of it as my “America charms”  one from back east and one from as far west as you can get. The necklace cost 150 pesos, about $3.50 and took an hour to make.   I tried taking a close up of it on my neck, but that was not an appealing photo.  I looked like a distant relative of the bird on the shirt!

Our Roanoke neighbor Lucy Nace had sack clothes stories and so does Randal.  My mom made our clothes, and I remember remnant stores we would hunt through for material, but no sack clothes.  Too bad, they are really fun.