Beach and Pork Yum Yum

We were up at 5:55 trying to catch the sunrise. Not quite early enough. I quickly got ready and we headed out to the beach to take some pictures. We walked around the resort taking pictures. We went out to the wedding gazebo and the security guard came and told us we couldn't be there. Todd was off the path and he told him he couldn't be there. He apologized and we continued on our way. The guard continued to follow us until we got back on the other side of the gate. We are thinking we weren't suppose to be over there at all. Oh well. More pictures. The water was much lower in the morning than it was at night. It looked pretty cool with water going out of the sand and from under rocks.

View from our patio.

Beautiful morning.

The Wallace's were blinded by the sun.

Island overlook.

Our part of the resort is behind Cameron.

Todd was up on the overlook.

Tide was low. 

Love my kid.  This was the wedding gazebo.

We went to breakfast. We sat outside. It was a beautiful morning. The boys grabbed juice and took them back out to the table. We got our plates of food. When Cameron and I walked outside towards our table we noticed that it had birds all around it. They were sitting all over the backs of our chairs. There had to be 20 of them. Thank goodness we didn't leave food sitting there.

Where we stayed.

Breakfast time.

Pancakes and watermelon juice.

Up to the room to get our suits on. We hit the pool. The boys swam and played a little basketball. I was an observer. We played pee wee golf next. It was fun. I won of course. Clyde met us out there to check up on us. We asked him some questions we had and asked him to line us up a car for Monday. We also asked him about a restaurant we wanted to go to for lunch. He told us how and where to go.

Happy New Year in China.

Back up to the room. We took a little break and then went to the beach. Cameron wanted to try a paddle board. Non-motorized sports are free for us so we didn't have a problem letting him try. There were some waves so we weren't sure if he would be able to do it. The life guard asked me how many times Cameron had paddle boarded before. I said "Exactly none." He looked at me funny and said "He has never done it? First time?" Yep. He then told me it might be hard with the waves. He was probably thinking 'great, I'm going to have to help this kid'. He explained what to do to Cameron and helped him on. Cameron looked like he was a pro. He stood and paddled. He went for about 5 minutes before he fell the first time. He got right back up and continued on. He paddle boarded for at least 45 minutes. I kept asking him if he was getting tired but nope. He finally went back in.

Getting his shoes on.

He got right up on the board.

Doing great.

Oh, he fell down on his knees.

We hit the shade and Cameron had another banana smoothie. He loved them. At 1:00 we were on a snorkel tour at our resort. They have a protected sanctuary right off the beach. We had a guide and he had food he was feeding the fish. We saw gar fish, sea stars, sea crabs, and all kinds of colorful fish. I had my camera with and was snapping pictures. It was kind of hard to see what I was taking pictures of but we got some good ones. As we were swimming back towards the shore I started yelling underwater. I grabbed Cameron and told him to look. I thought it was a sea snake. I was so freaked out. Todd came over and said it was an eel. Didn't matter, I was still freaked out. He was slithering through the sand on the bottom before finding a rock. Ick.

Tons of fish to watch.

Todd going underwater.

Our cute snorkel boy.

Back on the beach. We grabbed our stuff and went to the room. We quickly changed and went to the lobby to get a cab. We went to Zubu Chon. This restaurant is famous for its pork. Anthony Bourdain went there and said it was the best pork...EVER! The cab dropped us off and we walked inside. The restaurant is literally in the lobby of a hotel. It was so bizarre.

We sat down and looked at the menu. One of their menus had pictures which was helpful since some of the words we didn't know what it was. Todd ordered the pork, crab, stuffed squid, pig blood soup, and an eggplant salad. We could see the chef behind glass cutting the pork. As he was chopping it up it was flying all over. Kind of funny. When we got our food we looked over to where the chef was and there was a lady with a scrub sponge cleaning the window getting all the meat and juices off of it.

The place mat at the restaurant.

The boys watching the chef chop the pork.  On the window it says
"Best pork...EVER" by Anthony Bourdain.

The food came out. The pork was awesome. I sampled the eggplant salad but did not like it. I didn't try anything else. Cameron and Todd loved the stuffed squid. It was stuffed with the pork. They also really liked the crab. Overall, it was a fantastic little place with great food. All the people (as with everyone in the Philippines) were so nice. We even bought Cameron a souvenir shirt just like they wear in the restaurant.

Our food.  Some delicious...some not so much for me.

Outside the restaurant.

Back in a cab and back to the hotel. Todd stayed in the room while I took Cameron to the Adventure Zone for 15 minutes of play time. That is just enough time for him to run around and hit the slides. After that we went down to the beach for 20 minutes. He tried to build a castle but it didn't work so well. He didn't mind. He just sat at the edge of the water and built a blob. He jumped in the pool to rinse off on the way back up to the room.

Cameron quickly changed and we all went to the lounge. Cameron and I almost barfed when we saw Todd get a plate of food. We weren't sure where he was putting it. Back to the room to watch Here Comes The Boom. It was pretty good.  Cameron decided he was hungry so we ordered him a burger from room service.  Off to bed.

Enjoying dinner in the room.