Today I woke up and ate some more catering left overs. Then we left for Ohare around 9 am. We checked in and talked to the parents about how great the wedding was.
Our flight was on time to Montreal. The plane was so freaken small to Montreal that our carry ons wouldn’t fit above our seats! I made “friends” with an old couple from nearby Lake Geneva. They were going to Rome.
When we arrived in Montreal we had a snack and used their free wi-fi. Why does Canada have all this free stuff?! Our flight to Athens was also on time! It left around 3 pm and was an overnight flight. We noticed when they were boarding basically no one was getting up to get on the plane. The flight was freaken empty! It was awesome. We could lay down in the middle row and sleep.
We had a dinner, it wasn’t very good. So then I laid down and watched the movie that was on, Unknown. I fell asleep towards the end and woke up and the new Yogi Bear movie was on. I watched some of it but was so tired and fell asleep again and woke up to something about electronics on. This was boring and I fell asleep again and woke up and No Strings Attached was on but it was towards the end. So I fell asleep again and was woken up by a huge bump. I sat straight up and was kind of freaken out. It was bumpy and I started feeling queasy. The rest of the ride sucked and they fed us some breakfast but I couldn’t really eat. And it was bumpy. I was so happy to be on land in Athens. I was also surprised to see how desert-like Athens looked near the airport. Can’t wait to get our honeymoon started!!
For the past 2 years Don has made it a tradition that he takes me on surprise birthday getaways (Montauk, galena)…and this year he carried on the tradition.
Friday after work he picked me up and we started on our way. We got on 94 and started driving. About an hour into the drive we pulled into an Arby’s for dinner and got some gas. He told me we only had about 30-40 minutes left. I drove since he needed to navigate. We arrived at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin around 9:45 pm Friday June 24.
He had booked us a room at Maria’s Bed and Breakfast. It was a nice place and we were tired so we went to bed. The next morning Maria made us breakfast (stuffed French toast). Then we set out to take a look at the lake. It was a nice day. We saw many places you could rent boats like motorboats and wave runners. Don wanted to rent a speedboat so bad. I was a little bit nervous…Don: “Honey, I’ve driven boats hundreds of times..” Me: “Not in real life! Grand Theft Auto doesn’t count!” We saw a cute family of ducks!
After walking around more and discussing what we should do, we decided to rent the speedboat. We rented it for 2 hours…neither one of us has ever driven a boat. We got about a 10 minute lesson then they turned us loose. It was great!! So much fun. Don loved driving. I was a little scared to drive. The speed limit was 35 mph. We could barely get it up to 30…it just seemed so fast and when you hit waves the front of the boat would fly up.
After the boat ride we went to get lunch at a restaurant that overlooked the lake called Popeye’s (not the chicken place). It was pretty good. Then we walked around and looked at the shops. At 3 pm we had a 2 hour boat tour of the lake. It went around the perimeter of the lake and told about all the houses and the properties and a little bit of the history. It was interesting but we were both so tired.
After the boat tour we went back to the b&b and used the Jacuzzi. Then we went putt putt golfing. We ended the night by going to a small diner downtown.
The next morning we woke up and Maria had prepared a vegetarian omelet for us. Then we set out on the road. We wanted to go to a cheese festival we had read about but Don wanted to make one stop on the way there and of course it was a surprise. We arrived at a place to pick our own strawberries. We got a lot of them. Don fell in a hole when walking and I thought he broke his ankle! I got rashes on my hands and ankles from the weeds so all in all a successful trip. The strawberries were amazing. We even got to taste some wine that they make from all fruit except grapes. It was a little too sweet for my liking.
Then we got back on the road to head to the cheese festival. When we got there it was just a grocery store that had a few of the award winning cheeses for people to try. Not really a festival in our eyes. We saw an old fashioned train at the store and decided to see what that was about. The train went from the elegant farmer store to East Troy Wisconsin. When we got to East Troy we arrived at the original building for the train depot. Then we went to an old fashioned ice cream parlor and then back to the grocery store.
Then we headed on the road again towards home. We made a stop at the Cheese Castle to pick up some Wisconsin cheese. And we stopped at the fantastic Big Ed’s Barbecue. So good. It’s funny because at the beginning of the trip I said to him “Remember that time we went to that restaurant and we were the only white people…well except you’re not white.” That was Big Ed’s and we ended the trip by going there.
Today we woke up and walked around the University. Then we walked around Los Banos and we got foot massages.
rice fields at the university
Later in the day we went to Tito Boni’s church and house and to celebrate Lolo’s birthday. It was his 94th birthday. Both of his sons, Boni and Rom, also celebrate a birthday soon. Here are some pictures from the party.
Tonight is our last night. We are going home with Don’s dad and then early in the morning he will take us to the airport to go back to the states.
This has been an amazing trip. It was awesome to be able to meet Don’s family and help his grandpa celebrate his 94th birthday. We are also leaving this trip engaged! Can’t wait to tell all of our friends and family.
Today we woke up and had breakfast then came back to the room because it was raining and we really didn’t know the plans. We packed our stuff to go to the new hotel and good thing we did because soon a hotel worker came and said he was there so we could check out. He wanted to take our bags to the van. So we went out to the van and got in.
We went to Don’s grandfather’s place where he grew up called Pigdig…I think that’s how you spell it. Basically just drove around and he got to see some old neighbors and family. Then we took pictures of a church. Mostly just drove around all morning. Then went to a restaurant for lunch.
Luckily this restaurant had some normal foods haha. I’m just getting kinda tired of Filipino food. So I ordered a grilled cheese and fries…except they said the grilled cheese will just be a cheese sandwich, not grilled. Carol, from Australia also got this. The sandwich turned out to be not so great…it had mayo on it and some cheese like velveeta. The fries were okay though. I also ate some of the other stuff they ordered I just wanted some comfort food haha.
I’ve pretty much noticed though, here, any food I would normally eat in the US is never cooked the way you would expect it. It always ends up having some weird sauce on it or just not tasting right at all haha. I like Filipino dishes but I miss the food I always have haha. And I miss my Dr. Pepper, there is none here.
After lunch the sun came out! We started to head towards the new resort. As soon as we got here we swam. I had some Pineapple juice with Vodka. We were in the pool all afternoon. It was great. Then we came back to our room to get cleaned up for dinner. We took a lot of pictures while swimming with our underwater camera…here’s a few.
Some people wanted to go out for dinner but some people didn’t. No one could agree really and I didn’t see why we couldn’t just eat at the hotel. So Don, Jonathon, Regan and I decided to stay here. We ordered food from the hotel restaurant and were able to eat it in one of the little huts. Surrounding the huts is a pond with fish in it and when we were done eating we starting throwing rice at the fish. They were eating it like crazy. There were tons of fish at the surface waiting for food. We fed them pretty much all the food we didn’t eat. Rice, bread and meats hahaha. These fish were going crazy.
After dinner we decided to swim again so we came back to our room to change. Our power in our room would not work, nothing would work so we had to switch rooms. Then we went to swim with Jonathon, Jonas, and Eunice. Reagon found a crab by the side of the pool and it grabbed onto his flip flops and he brought it over to show us. When he sat the flip flop down the crab got off and just ran into the pool. Jonathon was the closest to it. We got kinda freaked out cause now there’s a crab in the pool. So we got goggles and started hunting it to get it out. It took a long time but finally we got it cornered and used part of folding chair to lift it out. It was also pouring down raining when we did this. When we flipped the crab out of the water Jonas saw where it went but then seconds later we couldn’t find it. So who knows where it went. Hopefully it’s ok.
Since it was pouring we were getting kinda cold so we came back to the room and changed. Then Don decided to go play poker with his cousins. Hopefully he doesn’t lose.
