PART THREE

PART ONE, PART TWO.

PART THREE is our Calgary trip. I conquered my fear of heights again when we went up 191 meter (626 feet) standing observation tower in downtown Calgary, the Calgary tower (originally known as the Husky Tower; source).

That's the Calgary tower I believe.

I forgot to take pictures while waiting for the elevator that will take us up to the tower and the elevator is really crowded to even take pictures inside (there's info on the sides of the elevator and the other towers outside Canada).

I'm taking you now up the tower ;) [click the pictures for larger view]

Did you know?

Altitude sickness you feel yet? :p

The whole area was carpeted and there's only a small area, that instead of carpet you walk on glass floor so you can view  downtown. The bf dared me to step on the glass floor and have my picture taken, I tried but I couldn't! I wasn't even having butterflies in my tummy, it felt like my stomach, my small and large intestines were in panic and rearranging themselves inside and my heart was suddenly up in my throat. Ahm, please don't laugh, I wasn't even kidding ;(. It's a glass flooring so whenever I tried to step in and look down or even step on it for 2 seconds, I feel sick like I'm gonna throw up and pass out at the same time sick. I can't help but think of morbid things like the glass breaking and me falling down and boom! I'm dead. I was just on the edge and clicking the shutter hysterically and mom, dad and my sister were the ones whose been taking pictures and videotaping the tower (credits to them).

here's more

manngg! This is seriously one of the posts I would never ever try to read again out of boredom. I feel really sick like my heart is up in my throat again from looking at the pictures and seeing in my head the glass flooring. Even if I didn't had my picture taken standing on the glass flooring, I still succeeded in somehow defeating my fear of heights just by having the balls to be up there.

Just in case you're wondering what's still up in the tower, ahm, there's a souvenir shop and there's a revolving restaurant that goes on a full rotation at noon, I believe.

We have other destinations saved in our GPS, and one of them is a Filipino restaurant named Aling Rosing and we planned on eating our late lunch there. Our GPS took us to a dead end! Good thing we drove by the Pacific Palace 

and decided to find a place to eat in there and to our delight, there wasn't just one but THREE Filipino fast food stalls! I wasn't really hungry for any pinoy food but when I saw the TURON (banana fritter) sign, my sister and I had to buy them. They were really yummy so we decided to buy more.

I am Filipino food deprived! I only get to eat "real" food like honest to goodness home cooked meals whenever my parents are in town or when I go on vacation at my parents.

my sister had that halo-halo

/end part three

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Since I have all the pictures ready for this entry, might as well try to put everything up together for this part three post.

I'm not really a fan of flowers, but when I see a well maintained garden in the neighbourhood, I both envy and admire them at the same time for having such an admirable passion. The pictures I'm gonna show you next are the ones I took from a Banff park (I'm so sorry I forgot what it's called or maybe I wasn't really paying attention when we got there).

It's a park, it's a tourist destination so it's well expected that the park is presentable, still, kudos! to the caretakers of the park.

[click pictures for larger view]

aww at the fly ;)

the fly flew away :(

Sorry for not being able to put captions under each picture as I don't know what they are called, honestly. The pink ones I think are dandelions?

Hope you enjoyed this entry as well ;)

• Do you have fear of heights? If given a chance would you want to be 626 ft up then look down thru a glass flooring?
• Do you like flowers as well?Do you know what you call the flowers I just posted up?If you do, would you please let me know?Thanks!

I think this is a long entry and if you made it until here, HIGH FIVE! and HUGSHUGS!

THE PART TWO

Here is PART ONE. Well, uhm part one is the beginning, bragging everyone about my cooking skills ;) haha come on! For part two, it'll be mostly the places we went to see, and not being boastful here, but I am seriously proud of how my pictures turned out to be really pretty and could pass as postcards.

On our way to Banff

I seriously wanna go back to Banff in the winter and try to ski.

$19.60/day

BANFF NATIONAL PARK

So we drove in and I can't even imagine what I'll look like inside, the park, the mountains, I just can't picture it in my head tho I've been hearing a lot from other people that Banff is indeed a beautiful place. Here's more pictures for you ;)

some of the downtown

This I believe was on the way up to the hot springs

We didn't spend much time up here coz we were extremely excited to ride the Gondola. Most of you guys know that I have motion sickness and I have fear of heights, guess what? I CONQUERED MY FEARS and rode the gondola!

A bit intro about the Gondola ride. The ride will climb up 698m (2,292ft) to an elevation of 2,281m (7,486ft) at the summit upper terminal -- the departure point for a mountain top of activities [source].

Our Gondola ride tickets.

My dad was the only one who didn't ride the Gondola. Tsk! We didn't know that they take pictures before your ride back down, the picture must admit was one of the unflattering I have, but whatevs, I didn't really care, I still think the picture was cool and it will forever remind me that once, I defeated my fears.

OUR RIDE

On our way up

see, I'm braver now, I can even look behind and take some pictures

[some pics from my fb were taken by my sister].

I honestly almost crap my pants every time we pass this metal thing. The sound it makes felt like it's gonna crash and we're all gonna die tragically. wow! Paranoia! haha

This is the stop.

From the mountaintop, there's that view, ahm I'm not sure if there's also a restaurant, but there's a souvenir shop and there are flags hanging in the ceiling.

There's OUR flag right there! 3 stars and a sun.

THE TOP VIEW

AND THIS IS THE BEST, BESTest SHOT EVER!!

This, honestly could pass as a postcard, whacha think?!

You're a stone if you don't think this picture isn't breathtaking.

On our ride back down was when our picture was taken. Sorry. I don't have the balls to post that picture up here haha

The ride back down

That's it for our Gondola ride. Next stop for us was the Bow Falls. It wasn't as attractive as the Niagara Falls, hearing the water calmly (comparing to Niagara) falls and flowing, it's so peaceful that I can just seriously sit there until sunset.

I don't have our pictures from Niagara trip 3 summers ago in my laptop so I'll just use the ones I found on google.

NIAGARA FALLS

Nighttime at Niagara is the best! It is probably one of the romantic places to be at.

See, I told you :p

I remember there was a band playing when we were in Niagara 3 summers ago (not sure if they have different bands every night) plus the fireworks that to me is really romantic. Watching the falls and the fireworks all at once. 

credits: The Niagara falls pictures aren't mine, I got them from google images.

THE LAST PART FOR PART TWO.

FOOD!!

After our Gondola ride and the Bow Falls we then headed to a Japanese restaurant which btw is located right in front of the inn we stayed in for the night.

Yes. That is the only picture I can provide. We were so hungry that every time our food is served, we almost literally inhaled them.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures ;)

WONDERFUL

I feel wonderful, I feel blessed and I am feeling guilty right now that I've been trying to write something in the past hour only finding myself hitting the delete key. Why am I feeling guilty? No. It's not because of too much eating or spending too much money today, it's because of my father's day entry. I am abashed of myself that I didn't get to do this on mother's day and it felt like the only reason why I am doing it right now for father's day is because The Lessons from my Father is the topic of the week for the carnival and I don't wanna miss it. If ever one day my mom will see this post, I don't want her to feel "jealous" coz I love my mama and papa equally, infinity.


Wow! I think I feel much better now and I can carry on.

Before I even get into all about my father, I am taking this opportunity to thank this special man, if it weren't for him my dad won't be here on earth and I also won't be. ;)

and this person is

my grampa!

My lolo and lola died 10 years ago now I think?I am not even sure if he's here beside me now and can read this but I still wanna express my gratitude to both of them for raising all their 7 kids right. ;)

So what are the lessons I've learned from my father?What kind of father my father is?What are the "qualities" a man should possess to be considered as an outstanding father?

I bought a card a week ago to send to my papa for father's day and this is what the card says:

A special dad gives his family.. room to grow, courage to try, faith to believe, wings to fly.


You show your love in so many ways -- in your strong values, your quiet wisdom, and above all, your devotion to your family and home..

The card was specifically made for my papa. ;) If I didn't moved out a year ago, I don't think I'll have the same perspective or even appreciate, I mean he'll always be the world's number one dad to me and my sister but I am talking about the message from the card. My dad is a strict one, he's overprotective but he gave us room to grow, enough courage to try, strong faith to believe and wings to fly and I am wicked thankful for that. I am thankful that he trusted us that we can do it or try our best to be "independent" and not being stoopid. The old man has strong values and he stand to what he believes in, and I think I got that from him. My dad is actually more of a "nagger" than my mom, he's a loud one =)) but when he's serious and quiet you'll be amazed with his wisdom and that wisdom that he shares are from his own experiences. I adore how my father is devoted to us, to our home, to his siblings, to his nieces and nephews and his devotion in helping people in need. I am proud to be my father's daughter and I honestly can't imagine being a daughter of other people. I am aware that my dad is not a perfect person, just like the rest of us, he has his own flaws, but it doesn't matter. MY DAD IS THE PERFECT FATHER in his daughters lovely and loving eyes ;)

I spent most of my childhood with my father especially the time when the family decided to settle in the Philippines and my mom at that time I believe, just can't leave her career abroad so I was raised majority by my papa. There are a lot of things I've learned from my father and I wanna share that to everyone.

FINISH SCHOOL
this is the one lesson we just didn't learn from our family, I mean just by watching tv and hear stories from other people, we know how important it is to finish school so I'm really not gonna include this one.

REBEL

is it just me or the picture is really "loud?"

My father taught me on how NOT to be a rebel. I grew up in the old fashioned pinoy way, palo sa butt. Of course that time I thought I am not being loved. All I wanted was to wear that red Simpsons shirt while playing patintero, but too bad my papa saw me wearing that shirt WHILE playing patintero so he called me home and I got palo many times. He told me NOT to wear that red Simpsons shirt because that's the shirt I'm gonna wear the next day when we go to my other tito's house since laundry's not done yet, that's the only decent shirt I have to wear for that occasion. Why didn't I see this as an "abuse?" because looking back now, I actually don't remember or "feel" the pain of getting hit anymore, all I could remember was my dad being sorry for hitting me and trying to explain to me that I need to obey rules. If it weren't for that important word -- sorry, I don't think I will understand why I was getting hit, I think I'll be a rebel and compare myself to other kids who was just sent to face the wall instead of getting palo sa butt.

NOT TO KISS ASSES

The relevance of the picture?Our papa taught us NOT to kiss asses even if it's your own blood, you don't have to sugarcoat the truth just to impress, because according to him and I also believe that no matter what you do, no matter what you say people will find fault in you so just be yourself. *arggh! I just lost my train of thought dayyumm!* "Kaya mo kaya?" I remember him uttering those words 2 years ago when I was asked/volunteered myself to sing the solo first part of the song The Prayer for our concert, it's not that I don't have the talent, but I remember now that I wanted to, but I am really nervous so maybe he felt that nervousness too, I know deep inside he wanted me to have my "shining" moment but he's afraid that I might forget the lyrics or go flat because of too much anxiousness and ended up humiliating myself on stage. Like my sister said, not because he is our father he will sugarcoat the truth, it's not like he is not confident that we can do it, like I said, he is overprotective, so he is just protecting us from getting hurt.

TREATING YOUR FRIENDS AS FAMILY

I've asked friends around on what are the things they appreciate the most about my father as their tito. I know what my friends had said are not bullshizz because I saw and felt how much my dad love them as his own daughters.

Steffi

Stephanie


Elaine


Jay

My papa taught me how to value friendship and treat them as a family not just FRIENDS, love them unconditionally, and you will be treated the same. And just loving your family, because in the end your family is all you've got. (:

PATRIOTIC

credits to google

You can tell it from some of my entries right? I love being a filipina and proud of it! And even if I stay here in Canada for the next 30 years of my life, I don't think I will ever forget my roots. (:


I know it's such a long post and maybe some of you decided to just not finish this entry,

BUT

TO

THOSE

WHO

MADE IT..

HIGH FIVE!!

I am actually surprised that I got my sister into doing this, so I am gonna semi-end my entry with what she's gotta say.

Last words: I LOVE MY PAPA, I LOVE MY MAMA AND I LOVE MY SISTER with all my heart and I am so lucky that I am part of THE family and I will never fail them. ;) I feel wonderful. I feel blessed. And my father is the perfect one for us. ;)

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO ALL THE FATHER'S OUT THERE ;)

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Thank you to all my wonderful friends who participated in such a short notice. YOU GUYS ROCK!!

And yes, this is my entry for Team Carnival