QCMC 2007 Chicago Reunion
Monday, June 25
We checked out of Harrah’s, had breakfast, then met Luchie and her sister Ate Corazon at Wyndham Hotel in Oak Brook. She treated us for lunch at an Oriental Buffet. I think we were the noisiest in that restaurant. We then drove on out to Elma Labrador’s brand new house close to the town of Gurnee. I remember Gurnee because it’s close to my niece, Jen’s place in Lake Villa. I was told this is Northern Illinois, less than an hour to Wisconsin.
Elma’s husband Sam prepared a great dinner of grilled steak and fish. Watching the video brought in by Luchie, we practiced our rumba routine for the talent contest. For some reason Luchie can’t seem to understand that I have two left feet when it comes to dancing and included me with the group anyway.
Donna had an excuse, not to join, with her aching foot. When practice was over, Ed had a hell of a time hooking up their Karaoke but we were finally able to sing a little bit once he figured it out.
The highlight of the night however, was the card game called in-between. They were going to play mahjong but someone else suggested more people would be able to enjoy a game of in-between. This was the first time I’ve heard of this game which is based strictly on luck. There’s absolutely no strategy to it. When everyone felt that he/she’s had their fill of gas due to constant laughing, we called it a night.
Here are some pictures of us in front of Elma and Sam's beautiful home.
Tuesday, June 26
We passed by Fe’s Oriental store to have lunch and proceeded to their house in Plainfield where she prepared a lot of food for dinner.
I followed Patrick to Joliet afterwards where we checked in at Empress Hotel Casino for the night.
Wednesday, June 27
We all went to Wyndham Drake hotel in Oak Brook to check in. This is where we’ll have the Reunion. The gathering spot was at Luchie’s suite where they ordered a lot of Pompeii Chicago style pizza.
Thursday, June 28
A school bus picked us up from the hotel and took us to the Chicago Navy Pier. From there, we went on a double-decker bus for a tour of downtown Chicago. Dan, our tour guide, updated us on all of the interesting facts about Chicago, its historic parks and buildings. Everyone was complaining on how cold it turned out to be. This was summer in Chicago and it was supposed to be hot and humid. Yet here we all were, shivering on top of the tour bus!
Here are a few pics of the Sears Tower but we were too close so I can't get a good shot.
That night (or that morning, rather) Elma Labrador and I went to pick up Aris & Rose Laccay and family from Midway airport. By the time I got done helping them get settled in, it was almost 4 am!
Friday 6-29
It was nice to see everyone dressed in their formals. Ed and I started the program with Lupang Hinirang and Star Spangled Banner respectively followed by Anjie’s invocation. During dinner, a DVD of World Citi Colleges was shown. A nice roast beef and salmon were served. Quezon City Medical Center was bought by the Guico family and it got renamed WCC (short for World Citi Colleges).
Mrs. Elsa Castro, the Dean of Nursing of WCC got introduced as the guest speaker. After her speech was continuous dancing. As typical among reunions, there was a lot of story telling and picture taking.
Saturday, June 30
We had the luau party by the pool. Almost everyone was in some sort of Hawaiian outfit. For those of us who didn’t have any, a lei or some kind of shell necklace had to suffice. Aris’s younger daughter and niece performed a beautiful Polynesian dance. There was a funny game of ‘Grab your Banana’ and a QCMC version of Name That Tune. I won a coffee mug by guessing and singing a couple of lines of Don McLean’s American Pie. Once they’re done with lunch and the games, some people donned their swim suits and cooled around in the hotel pool.
Before lunch, we had Aris’s older daughter Rea hook us up with a mini van through Enterprise. She works as an account manager for Enterprise in the Bay Area. Ed and I picked it up from the Oak Brook branch at a nearby Renaissance Hotel. We needed the van for our Niagara Falls trip.
The evening talent contest proved to be a lot of fun. We were judged to be the winner with our rumba performance but since Chicago was hosting the reunion, Luchie didn’t feel it would be fair to the others. So we humbly bowed out of the competition.
They also picked out winners for the raffle ticket entries. Fe who won the 2nd prize of $200 donated the money back into the group’s funds since they were going to be short on their hotel bill. Not enough people committed to join the reunion. The first prize winner of $500 followed suit and donated her prize as well.
The three WCC guests from the Philippines were conspicuously missing during the Saturday event. When the party was over Luchie met them on the outside. They explained they went touring downtown Chicago and didn’t make it on time for the party. Certain ‘heated’ words were exchanged but it was all straightened out the next day.
Sunday, July 1
The hotel hosted the Sunday brunch and they prepared a nice spread for the group. There were people who delivered last minute speeches thanking the Chicago group for organizing and hosting the 2007 reunion. The choices for the next reunion were Australia, Philippines and the US East Coast.
There were the usual one hour goodbyes, pictures, promises to keep in touch, etc. Then everyone was off on their own destination.
There were a lot of us who took advantage of Fe’s ‘despedida’ party invitation. They prepared quite a lot of food including one whole lechon. After lunch, more Karaoke, picture taking, boat rides around the lake and more goodbyes.
Donna and I went to nearby St Mary Immaculate for Sunday mass.
Monday, July 2
We woke up early Monday on our trip to Niagara Falls. Luchie was going to go with us. In fact it was her idea but something came up on the last minute and she couldn’t go. So it was only Cecille, Ed and wife Tess, Donna and I who went. It was 5:45 am by the time we got all of our stuff loaded into the rental. Luchie lent us her GPS to make sure we don’t get lost on the way. We passed by Indiana and Michigan. It took us around 9 hours including a couple of gas, meal and bathroom stops. We checked in at Red Carpet Inn at Niagara Falls. After checking in, we took them around the Falls area since Donna and I have previously been here in October of 2001 right after the Twin Towers attack. Although it was drizzling a bit and a tad chilly, there was still enough light to take some pictures.
Afterwards we looked for a restaurant to have dinner. We chose a TGI Friday and sort of regretted it later. First of all the bill was astronomically high ($18 burgers!) and 2nd of all when I complained that my meal was way too spicy, the pretty waitress suggested for me drink water!
Tuesday, July 3
Tuesday promised to be a great day because it was warm and the sun was shining bright when we woke up. It helped that Donna and I have been here before so we suggested for them to take the bus tour which included the boat ride to the falls, Maid of the Mist. Before the tour, we went up to the Skylon Tower for lunch at its buffet. The view on top was utterly gorgeous.
After the bus tour, Ed can’t stop talking about the boat ride to the falls. Of course we took a bunch of pictures. We had dinner at the Fallsview Casino buffet.
Wednesday, July 4
The night before, it was decided that since we’re already in Canada, we might as well do a side trip to Toronto to visit Chinatown. We asked around for some directions and it looked like we only need an extra hour or two added to our trip back to the US. I was asleep through most of the way and by the time I woke up we were in downtown Toronto. We found Chinatown without much difficulty. After visiting a couple of stores, they immediately noticed the much sought after lanzones and atis! They bought some right away. We went to a nearby Chinese bakery, bought some pastries and started eating our loot. You can tell they haven’t eaten lanzones and atis in a while. Since we came from the Philippines, we didn’t have the same level of craving that they did.
Once they were satiated, we shopped around for some souvenirs, had lunch and left for the US. When we were getting closer to the border we noticed we had some leftover fruit so we had to finish most of them knowing they will be confiscated at the US customs inspection. We stopped by the duty free shop at the border and bought a couple more things.
On our way back, we observed quite a bit of fireworks display today being the 4th of July. When we got to nearby Plainfield, our GPS stopped working and we had to call and wake Luchie up so she can navigate us over the phone. It was way past midnight when we finally arrived at Fe’s house.
Thursday, July 5
We went back to Wyndham Drake and waited for them to settle their account with the hotel. It turned out they had a bit of a surplus on their funds so we got treated to Maggiano’s, a nice and famous Italian restaurant in the area. There was more shopping after lunch followed by a huge dinner at Claim Jumper for dinner.
We spent our last night at Fe’s. Donna called Ate Pie and apologized for not being able to take her out. She didn’t even have the chance to go and visit Kong Orling. But we found out that he was recovering quite nicely so we didn’t feel too bad about it.
Friday, July 6
Patrick had a round of golf in the morning so for our trip to the airport; Fe had to contact a transport service. In the afternoon, they had tickets to watch a Wowowee taping in Chicago. We learned the day before that Rudy, Jane’s husband, was chosen to be one of the contestants but found out later on that he didn’t win.
Eph was waiting by the gate at LAX when we got there sometime in the afternoon. We proceeded to have a late dinner at Ten-Ten restaurant in Artesia then he dropped us off at Emy and Nido’s place in La Mirada.
Thursday, July 7 - Donna's Birthday, Yay!
Nido and Emy woke us up early and treated us for breakfast at IHOP for Donna's birthday. They were going to go to a friend’s wedding in Palm Springs that day.
We were joined for a late lunch at Sushi Gallery in Cerritos by Theresa (Girlie) and friend Erline, Dan, Eph and Rach and Adrienne.
Giancarlo went to practice somewhere with his friends. Donna and I went to church at 5 at our old parish church St. John in Norwalk. Then we drove on out for dinner at Pechanga where she played while I watched the new movie The Transformers. Great movie! I intend to buy a DVD for my home theater before we go back to the Philippines. Hopefully it’s available by then.
Sunday July 8
We went on a last dinner together at the Samurai; I and Donna, Eph and Rach and Daniel. The next day we started packing for our European trip. And finally Tuesday July 10 Emy and Nido dropped us off at LAX.
We checked out of Harrah’s, had breakfast, then met Luchie and her sister Ate Corazon at Wyndham Hotel in Oak Brook. She treated us for lunch at an Oriental Buffet. I think we were the noisiest in that restaurant. We then drove on out to Elma Labrador’s brand new house close to the town of Gurnee. I remember Gurnee because it’s close to my niece, Jen’s place in Lake Villa. I was told this is Northern Illinois, less than an hour to Wisconsin.
Elma’s husband Sam prepared a great dinner of grilled steak and fish. Watching the video brought in by Luchie, we practiced our rumba routine for the talent contest. For some reason Luchie can’t seem to understand that I have two left feet when it comes to dancing and included me with the group anyway.
Donna had an excuse, not to join, with her aching foot. When practice was over, Ed had a hell of a time hooking up their Karaoke but we were finally able to sing a little bit once he figured it out.
The highlight of the night however, was the card game called in-between. They were going to play mahjong but someone else suggested more people would be able to enjoy a game of in-between. This was the first time I’ve heard of this game which is based strictly on luck. There’s absolutely no strategy to it. When everyone felt that he/she’s had their fill of gas due to constant laughing, we called it a night.
Here are some pictures of us in front of Elma and Sam's beautiful home.
Tuesday, June 26
We passed by Fe’s Oriental store to have lunch and proceeded to their house in Plainfield where she prepared a lot of food for dinner.
I followed Patrick to Joliet afterwards where we checked in at Empress Hotel Casino for the night.
Wednesday, June 27
We all went to Wyndham Drake hotel in Oak Brook to check in. This is where we’ll have the Reunion. The gathering spot was at Luchie’s suite where they ordered a lot of Pompeii Chicago style pizza.
Thursday, June 28
A school bus picked us up from the hotel and took us to the Chicago Navy Pier. From there, we went on a double-decker bus for a tour of downtown Chicago. Dan, our tour guide, updated us on all of the interesting facts about Chicago, its historic parks and buildings. Everyone was complaining on how cold it turned out to be. This was summer in Chicago and it was supposed to be hot and humid. Yet here we all were, shivering on top of the tour bus!
Here are a few pics of the Sears Tower but we were too close so I can't get a good shot.
That night (or that morning, rather) Elma Labrador and I went to pick up Aris & Rose Laccay and family from Midway airport. By the time I got done helping them get settled in, it was almost 4 am!
Friday 6-29
It was nice to see everyone dressed in their formals. Ed and I started the program with Lupang Hinirang and Star Spangled Banner respectively followed by Anjie’s invocation. During dinner, a DVD of World Citi Colleges was shown. A nice roast beef and salmon were served. Quezon City Medical Center was bought by the Guico family and it got renamed WCC (short for World Citi Colleges).
Mrs. Elsa Castro, the Dean of Nursing of WCC got introduced as the guest speaker. After her speech was continuous dancing. As typical among reunions, there was a lot of story telling and picture taking.
Saturday, June 30
We had the luau party by the pool. Almost everyone was in some sort of Hawaiian outfit. For those of us who didn’t have any, a lei or some kind of shell necklace had to suffice. Aris’s younger daughter and niece performed a beautiful Polynesian dance. There was a funny game of ‘Grab your Banana’ and a QCMC version of Name That Tune. I won a coffee mug by guessing and singing a couple of lines of Don McLean’s American Pie. Once they’re done with lunch and the games, some people donned their swim suits and cooled around in the hotel pool.
Before lunch, we had Aris’s older daughter Rea hook us up with a mini van through Enterprise. She works as an account manager for Enterprise in the Bay Area. Ed and I picked it up from the Oak Brook branch at a nearby Renaissance Hotel. We needed the van for our Niagara Falls trip.
The evening talent contest proved to be a lot of fun. We were judged to be the winner with our rumba performance but since Chicago was hosting the reunion, Luchie didn’t feel it would be fair to the others. So we humbly bowed out of the competition.
They also picked out winners for the raffle ticket entries. Fe who won the 2nd prize of $200 donated the money back into the group’s funds since they were going to be short on their hotel bill. Not enough people committed to join the reunion. The first prize winner of $500 followed suit and donated her prize as well.
The three WCC guests from the Philippines were conspicuously missing during the Saturday event. When the party was over Luchie met them on the outside. They explained they went touring downtown Chicago and didn’t make it on time for the party. Certain ‘heated’ words were exchanged but it was all straightened out the next day.
Sunday, July 1
The hotel hosted the Sunday brunch and they prepared a nice spread for the group. There were people who delivered last minute speeches thanking the Chicago group for organizing and hosting the 2007 reunion. The choices for the next reunion were Australia, Philippines and the US East Coast.
There were the usual one hour goodbyes, pictures, promises to keep in touch, etc. Then everyone was off on their own destination.
There were a lot of us who took advantage of Fe’s ‘despedida’ party invitation. They prepared quite a lot of food including one whole lechon. After lunch, more Karaoke, picture taking, boat rides around the lake and more goodbyes.
Donna and I went to nearby St Mary Immaculate for Sunday mass.
Monday, July 2
We woke up early Monday on our trip to Niagara Falls. Luchie was going to go with us. In fact it was her idea but something came up on the last minute and she couldn’t go. So it was only Cecille, Ed and wife Tess, Donna and I who went. It was 5:45 am by the time we got all of our stuff loaded into the rental. Luchie lent us her GPS to make sure we don’t get lost on the way. We passed by Indiana and Michigan. It took us around 9 hours including a couple of gas, meal and bathroom stops. We checked in at Red Carpet Inn at Niagara Falls. After checking in, we took them around the Falls area since Donna and I have previously been here in October of 2001 right after the Twin Towers attack. Although it was drizzling a bit and a tad chilly, there was still enough light to take some pictures.
Afterwards we looked for a restaurant to have dinner. We chose a TGI Friday and sort of regretted it later. First of all the bill was astronomically high ($18 burgers!) and 2nd of all when I complained that my meal was way too spicy, the pretty waitress suggested for me drink water!
Tuesday, July 3
Tuesday promised to be a great day because it was warm and the sun was shining bright when we woke up. It helped that Donna and I have been here before so we suggested for them to take the bus tour which included the boat ride to the falls, Maid of the Mist. Before the tour, we went up to the Skylon Tower for lunch at its buffet. The view on top was utterly gorgeous.
After the bus tour, Ed can’t stop talking about the boat ride to the falls. Of course we took a bunch of pictures. We had dinner at the Fallsview Casino buffet.
Wednesday, July 4
The night before, it was decided that since we’re already in Canada, we might as well do a side trip to Toronto to visit Chinatown. We asked around for some directions and it looked like we only need an extra hour or two added to our trip back to the US. I was asleep through most of the way and by the time I woke up we were in downtown Toronto. We found Chinatown without much difficulty. After visiting a couple of stores, they immediately noticed the much sought after lanzones and atis! They bought some right away. We went to a nearby Chinese bakery, bought some pastries and started eating our loot. You can tell they haven’t eaten lanzones and atis in a while. Since we came from the Philippines, we didn’t have the same level of craving that they did.
Once they were satiated, we shopped around for some souvenirs, had lunch and left for the US. When we were getting closer to the border we noticed we had some leftover fruit so we had to finish most of them knowing they will be confiscated at the US customs inspection. We stopped by the duty free shop at the border and bought a couple more things.
On our way back, we observed quite a bit of fireworks display today being the 4th of July. When we got to nearby Plainfield, our GPS stopped working and we had to call and wake Luchie up so she can navigate us over the phone. It was way past midnight when we finally arrived at Fe’s house.
Thursday, July 5
We went back to Wyndham Drake and waited for them to settle their account with the hotel. It turned out they had a bit of a surplus on their funds so we got treated to Maggiano’s, a nice and famous Italian restaurant in the area. There was more shopping after lunch followed by a huge dinner at Claim Jumper for dinner.
We spent our last night at Fe’s. Donna called Ate Pie and apologized for not being able to take her out. She didn’t even have the chance to go and visit Kong Orling. But we found out that he was recovering quite nicely so we didn’t feel too bad about it.
Friday, July 6
Patrick had a round of golf in the morning so for our trip to the airport; Fe had to contact a transport service. In the afternoon, they had tickets to watch a Wowowee taping in Chicago. We learned the day before that Rudy, Jane’s husband, was chosen to be one of the contestants but found out later on that he didn’t win.
Eph was waiting by the gate at LAX when we got there sometime in the afternoon. We proceeded to have a late dinner at Ten-Ten restaurant in Artesia then he dropped us off at Emy and Nido’s place in La Mirada.
Thursday, July 7 - Donna's Birthday, Yay!
Nido and Emy woke us up early and treated us for breakfast at IHOP for Donna's birthday. They were going to go to a friend’s wedding in Palm Springs that day.
We were joined for a late lunch at Sushi Gallery in Cerritos by Theresa (Girlie) and friend Erline, Dan, Eph and Rach and Adrienne.
Giancarlo went to practice somewhere with his friends. Donna and I went to church at 5 at our old parish church St. John in Norwalk. Then we drove on out for dinner at Pechanga where she played while I watched the new movie The Transformers. Great movie! I intend to buy a DVD for my home theater before we go back to the Philippines. Hopefully it’s available by then.
Sunday July 8
We went on a last dinner together at the Samurai; I and Donna, Eph and Rach and Daniel. The next day we started packing for our European trip. And finally Tuesday July 10 Emy and Nido dropped us off at LAX.
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