i'm back from a very long vacation!

we flew to san francisco on friday morning. that London bombings sure made the airport busy and more crowded than the usual. my super-comfortable sandals delayed my entry to the security checkpoint. guess some nails that hold the heels or something inside it made the detector go off. i hate flying. i don't fear it but i hate it with a passion. i have thise disorder in my body called motion sickness. people who have that know what i'm talking about. those who don't, it's like eating a plate of good kare-kare and rice then spinning 248 times in a merry-go-round nonstop. that is really sad that i have to go through this type of problem whenever i fly or ride the backseat of a car or the ferry. but, i did not have any choice. might as well beat the problem. i bought enough dramamines to last me a lifetime. it makes me drowsy and sleepy so, before take off, i'm sleeping then, i get to tolerate the landing. next thing you know, i'm up and about walking at the airport like a model...

Rickey and I got all our luggages and drove our cute cadillac rental car to Holiday Inn. Our room is nice--to think that we only paid $46 a night for it. i got so many good deals in this trip--airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, tours. the beauty of internet!

my super bestfriend Karen went to our hotel room after work and took us to Fisherman's Wharf. we ate at Bubba Gump's. oh my! the food was really fantastic! we got a little view of the Alcatraz. Pier 39 was fun the way i remembered it when we went there in '96.

the next day, Karen and her fiance, John, picked us up from the hotel and took us to the Golden Gate bridge. celebrity picture taking, of course! we then went to the palace of fine arts. more pictures taken. the clincher of the trip was when John drove us up to see the crooked street. we took this uphill street to the famous crooked street. imagine getting stalled at the roller coaster ride and you had to stop in the middle of the ride upside down. i wanted to get off the car and just walk to the top and wait for them. and i thought the next plane ride is not due for a couple more days. whew!!! we then headed to Max's. i ordered lechon kawali. it was good, just the way i like it!

we then went back to the hotel and got us some drinks. it's just great to see Karen again. she has been my friend since senior high school. she was even my maid of honor. she is such a sweet, nice girl and i'm thankful that she's my super friend.

the next day, we drove to Karen's and John's house. they live like 25 miles away from our hotel. it was a nice drive. when we got there, John was barbecuing some good-looking ribs and chicken. karen and i just caught up with all of our chika. we spent the whole day with them and it was fun. rickey acted up at the last minute but i didn't let it ruin my vacation. he got into this very insecured sensitive jealous phase in his life that he can't think straight. my silence treatment killed him like poison form a snake and gave up. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

we flew to vegas monday morning and got to Monte Carlo Resort and Casino around 4pm. i thought mondays in vegas are slow. i guess i'm just not into this updated traveling shit coz the hotel was sure busy when we arrived. so busy that we got the last hotel room in this long hallway of smoking rooms. i wanted to complain but i thought, we won't be staying in the room most of the time coz we wanted to walk and see other hotels and watch some shows. i'll be damned! it was 105 degrees when we got there and the heat was just unbearable that you only have 2 choices--stay in your room or paly games at the casino area. getting out of the hotel was just not part of the choices. the desert was no joke during this time of the year!

we tried to make the best out of our vacation so, the next day, we got us a cab and went to The Venetian to get our tickets for the wax museum, gondola ride and lunch at this Italian restaurant. i had fun at the museum seeing Princess Di, Madonna, Elvis, Jordan, Lucille Ball, Frankenstein...it was so much fun to see the beauty of art in these wax images of celebrities.

it was too hot for the outdoor gondola ride so we just went to lunch. we got stopped by time share marketing people(and we were just ignorant about the schemes they have). we took the bait and went to this presentation and gave them $2,300 of our hard-earned money for a timeshare property right at The Marriott Grand Chateau. we're just 2 stupid people just trying to rake in all the investments that we can from these lousy marketing schemes. what's next? i don't know and i don't have the money! we're just in for the ride of our freakin' boring lives! it took us almost the whole day to make all the necessary arrangements with this company for them to release everything to us--papers and notarized contracts, etc. they gave us tickets to shows and dinner and what do you know, they gave us a limo service to drive us back to our hotel! my, my, my! i guess i can't complain. we were treated like royalty after they saw our credit cards and our ability to spend money on their nonsense schemes! what a difference a little plastic card can make!

we just kicked back and went to Boardwalk where i found a good slot machine that made me win almost $150. considering the amount of money i put in that machine, i had fun and the suspense was just unbearable everytime you hit that spin button...gamblers can win thousands but, we were passing the time and we were cashing in nickels! hahahahhahha! that machine was friendly and gave me that gambler smile!

the next day in vegas was terrible painful! it was 115 degrees outside the hotel and 135 degrees in the cars. it was outrageously HOT!!! we tried cooling off by walking inside hotels but, we needed to go out cross the street for food or some souvenirs, or just for some new environment. we agonizingly took the walk from Monte Carlo to Aladdin. it was nothing but half a block away but it looked like 10,000 miles because of the heat. i turned COAL BLACK when we got inside the hotel. and i noticed people atre at me and my "tan." one older lady even told me how beautiful my tan is. what can i say? we just walked inside the hotel and window-shopped at the Dessert Passage. we played some at the casino while waiting for the V show.

rickey got another attack of sever heartburn when we got our seats for our dinner at the Lombardi's. it was horrifying. good thing i got some pepcid from one store nearby and it relieved him of the hiccups and heartburn. we had a lovely dinner at the patio. after, we went to see the variety show we had reserved since yesterday. they packed the place with so much people that i couldn't even move an inch. it was so small and it was so terribly packed. if we knew it would be like that, we wouldn't even think of getting tickets for it. complains, complains! ayoko na!!!!

anyway, we spent the rest of the day taking pictures and staying in our hotel. it was extremely hot that we decided to go out in the wee hours of the morning. we just strolled in and out of casinos and played a little. Rickey wasn't feeling good because of the heeartburn so we stayed up as late as we can on our last night playing at the boardwalk and killing time with the slot machines.

then it was time to come home. we checked out thursday morning and headed to the airport. our flight is not until 5pm so we just laid back and anticipated the last flight we'll have together for this vacation extravaganza. we ate the best burgers in the world in ruby's diner. it was superb! i will definitely look for one in LA. sana meron para matikman ko ulit yong super sarap na mushroom burger. while waiting for our flight, i just walked around the airport and looked around the shops that they have there when i chanced upon this perfume store. i was so amazed with the prices that they have on the bottles of expensive perfumes that i can only dream of spraying. i bought 3 bottles for the price of one! i got my favorites--issey miyake, clinique happy and bellagio--all for only $120!!! it was a really good deal!!!

we finally got home around 6:30. i was so tired and went to sleep the minute i laid down. waht do you know? i woke up the next day at 10am!!! end of vacation. time to clean up, burn more dvds, cds and wash clothes!!! back to the usual!