Hey guys, this will just be an overview of what I've been doing the past few weeks, coupled with some map photos to illustrate some points:

A Park in Lingayen, Pangasinan.

I've been away for quite a while, it was because we decided to visit relatives for the past few weeks. We had to travel a lot by land, and believe me, it wasn't easy. Especially when you have a 1-yr old on board. I'll drop details of our travel here in this blog post using Google Maps as our guide.

The 'measure distance' tool built into the web version of Maps is pretty handy, helps if you don't want to open photo editing applications or websites. Another plus in using this certain tool is you can get a rough estimate of your travel distance depending on how well you've traced your route.

The first ride was around a 200km travel (roughly, 125mi; see screenshot). This was the travel from Taguig to Mangaldan in Pangasinan. We only used public transportation for this: Uber + Bus + Pedicab. This cost us around 6 hours or more.

We stayed at my parent's place, they are fellow Steemians @dwightjaden and @mama-imee. My siblings are there too: @jeseemei and @drawingwithflare. We spent a few days here so that little Zion can bond with his grandparents and his aunt and uncles.

We did some 'gala' while we're here, in a nearby beach in Lingayen, and attended my sister's Completion ceremonies for finishing grade 10.

After a few days, during Holy Week, my father and I went to our Baryo in Zambales, where my grandfather hailed from. Travel wasn't easy by bus. At first, we rode at the back of a delivery truck and then on the seats in front before we rode a bus. We rode on the truck for around 3 hours, I think.

This journey went for more than 210km. We left at around 4am and arrived at noon (we stayed quite a bit in a nearby market while waiting for our relatives, we hitched a ride on their multicab instead of riding a tricycle. We stayed in the Baryo for 3 days, before heading back to Pangasinan. Roughly the same travel route and time.

We also went to Baguio for 2 days to spend some time there and go sightseeing. Take pictures some photos too. 2 days isn't enough though cause we had 2 toddlers with us so getting around was difficult. Taxis aren't easy to get by too. It was a pretty short trip, we head back to Mangaldan after this.

We also went for a swim in a nearby pool resort in the same town before heading to Bataan. This time we rode an SUV, so travel was a bit easier. It's farther but we drove through expressways so travel time was much shorter (around 4 hours).

This place down south is called Mariveles, Bataan. We were supposed to head home to Metro Manila however we were informed of my wife's grandmother's death and we had to attend her funeral. This happened Wednesday of this week.

After the funeral we head went to her Ninang's place in Bataan too, but this one's in Morong and we had to travel a bit to get there. Took 3 hours I think. Since this one is on the left side of the province and we had to drive around 2 mountain ranges since there's no direct roads to it.

We actually just arrived earlier after our trip to Morong which also took around 5 hours. We had to take our time since there's number coding in the metro and Friday's when our vehicle can't drive around most cities until 8 in the evening.

All in all, it was a fun experience traveling to different places in a span of a few weeks. It was tiring especially with all the baggage and a kid we have to carry around. It's not a very special trip though, since we mainly visited relatives and stayed in their place, coupled with a few side-trips to some places but it was time well-spent.

Next time, we'll make sure to really take great vacation to more 'touristy' places. We weren't able to have the chance to visit most places even if they're nearby since we didn't have a vehicle of our own and Zion is still pretty much all over the place. Maybe in a year or two, traveling will be much easier for us as a family.

I could consider traveling solo so that I could cover more place, take more photos, and spend more time actually taking a vacation but I don't want that. Usually, almost all my time is spent with my family and I want to keep it that way. I find it more enjoyable.

On the road.

So much for this blog post, which is basically a 'map trip' haha. I'll post more stuff when I get rested. I still have lots of stuff to organize, photos to edit and blog posts to make. Not to mention, @steemph is having an event this Sunday and I'm one of the organizers. I need to be there to take photos too. I guess my hiatus is up and I'm back to business. Come to think of it I haven't posted in a while and we were burning though our savings when we were traveling haha. Need to work harder.

Thanks for reading guys! Stay tuned for more details and photos about some places I've visited and a lot more. Cheers!