02 March 2011
When sis and I arrived in our place in La Union, I immediately asked my aunt if she has plans of going to Manaoag Church in Pangasinan because she's a devotee of Our Lady of Manaoag, and before traveling, I read a comment in my Facebook photo that the church had some renovations, and I wanted to visit the church, given the chance. When I asked aunt the question, she immediately responded with, "I will only take care of the fare, you take care of the snacks." Well, that was a quick "yes" from her. :)
Aunt scheduled the trip this day because it was a provincial holiday and my cousin Mhai and our niece Louianne was able to come with us as well.
We got there right on time (it takes about 4 hours getting there) and we were able to hear mass. It was the last mass for the day, and after, we went to the candle station to (obviously) light some candles and say some prayers. We had our lunch at the picnic area (another new attraction) and waited for the lunch break to be over because aunt still needed to offer a mass for the souls of aunt Dada and my Daddy who already passed away.
While aunt was in the the church office, we went to the Rosary Garden. In 2008, I went to take pictures here, but a typhoon just came that time and the place was a bit of a mess (too many fallen leaves and branches), so I figured I should go back just to have something new to blog about.
Before leaving the church grounds, we went inside the church one last time. What I liked about this church is that they have a space on either sides for people who wanted to take pictures of the image of Our Lady of Manaoag (the one in the main altar) so that they wouldn't interfere with the mass celebrations if there is any. I am liking the zoom levels of my camera this time because I was able to get real close to the image. A little trivia - those were real jewels in the crown.
After Manaoag, we went to the neighboring town of Urdaneta where we had snacks. Around 4pm, we went to wait for the bus going home, and aunt wasn't feeling all that eager to still cook dinner, so she asked if we wanted to eat Lomi (a noodle dish - the one in picture) at a food place just outside our neighborhood. She said it tasted good and quite cheap, too (p50 / usd1.15). It's free food, so we all said yes to it. The bowl was good to feed two people, and it might not look good, but it was certainly delicious!
Cousin Weng (Louianne's father) joined us for dinner, then we just rode this van going home. It was a great day, and I feel really blessed.
*** Jenn ***
