We stayed on-site at the Royal Pacific Resort, which allowed us an hour’s early entry into the park every day, and Express Passes (or as Kate put it “cut to the front of the line passes”).  We stayed at the parks from opening at 8 a.m. to closing at 7 p.m. and enjoyed every minute of it.  We ate at the Three Broomsticks, drank butterbeer, took a separate tour of Hogwarts Castle (twice).  Kate rode Forbidden Journey 13 (!) times — three with me, and 10 on her own using the single rider line.

We also went through Ollivander’s shop 6 times, and Kate was chosen the second time around.  Video of that is below.  It’s a little dim, but you can get the gist.

I’ve also got pictures below.

Pretending to wave to an adoring crowd:

Posing with their workbooks:

And just a normal picture:

I’ll post details later but here’s a picture from tonight’s party. Just a small one, and they are eating dinner at a Mexican restaurant before heading to a movie.

Update: they went to coldstone after the movie.

Now these don’t look very much like chocolate, but in the dry season, the grass turns brown and they really do look like chocolate drops. There are over 1,200 of these geological formations on the island of Bohol, and they are actually grass-covered limestone formations. Local legend claims that they are formed from a giant’s tears. The vista from the viewing point is quite beautiful, with these hills all around, and the occasional rice paddy or two.

Next stop, a local butterfly preserve. We learned about the various butterflies on the island, and held some caterpillars and butterflies. It was a short stop – maybe 20 minutes total, but pleasant. We also saw some specimens of giant moths. I don’t have a picture, but one moth was probably 8 inches tall, and 5 inches wide.

After the butterfly preserve, we headed to a tarsier preserve. Tarsiers are nocturnal primates (not monkeys). Their most prominent characteristics are their very large eyes, which are apparently bigger than their brains, and very long fingers. The poor things are endangered, and don’t breed well in captivity. The preserve we toured, however, is having some success. Unlike other places on the island, this preserve does not allow you to touch the tarsiers or take flash photography, and they are in a semi-wild environment. If you visit Bohol, do not patronize any “preserve” that allows you to touch the tarsiers! It distresses them and they can become suicidal. Don’t they look a bit like Yoda?

We ate lunch at the restaurant.

The kids thought it was great fun to be so close to coconuts growing on trees.

And here is my obligatory picture of my view from the lounge chair.  Looks remarkably like the ones I’ve posted from Mexico and the Dominican Republic!

We flew Cebu Pacific Air, whose main claim to fame is when they choreographed their safety instructions to Lady Gaga. Much to the kids’ disappointment, however, the instructions were delivered in quite ordinary fashion for our flight.  The flight took just a little over an hour, and we had soon landed in tiny Tagbilaran airport. One building, one runway. We walked out and I quickly spotted Ted’s name on a sign held by the driver from Anda White Beach Resort, where we would be spending the next few days.

The drive to Anda was quite interesting, especially for the kids. It was night when we landed in Manila, so they didn’t see much, plus Manila is a big city, so it’s got the tall buildings, traffic, and other things you would expect to see in a city. I will tell you that the rest of the Philippines is not like that at all! The road was a modern, paved two lane road, but there were rice paddies and mini rice-terraces on the side, with farmers still planting rice by hand and tilling the paddy with water buffaloes. People meandered down the side of the road carrying goods on their heads (without hands), goats tied to the fences nibbled on grass, and lots of tricycles (like motorcycles, but with a covered side car) and jeepneys were on the road as well. Small townships had strung up parols (rice paper lanterns, although now they are mostly made of plastic) and other Christmas decorations all along the roadside. Palm trees and banana trees swayed in the breeze, and there were still traditional nipa huts (houses built from palm trees with thatched roofs) around.

We arrived at the resort after about 2.5 hours of driving, the last ¼ mile or so down a bumpy dirt road. The resort doesn’t look like much when you first pull in, since you’ve just come in off a dirt road, passing by a few small huts nestled in the surrounding deep vegetation, and all you see when you arrive is a gate and walls. But once you get inside and go past the reception area you are greeted by an infinity pool and a stunning view of the ocean.

We were greeted with fresh coconut water, from coconuts harvested just that morning.

And when I say harvested, I mean chopped down from those coconut trees you see in the background.  We actually saw a man climbing down from one of the trees with a bunch of coconuts the next day because some new guests were checking in.

We wasted no time changing into bathing suits and checking out the pool and the beach.

After hugs & kisses all around, my dad took Ben to the Smart kiosk to add money to his SIM card (100 pesos, which is about $2.50) and then we headed out to meet my Aunt’s driver (we were staying at her house in Manila). We texted him as well, and he showed up in just a few moments. We said goodbye to my parents and my mom’s cousin, then piled into the car and headed to my Aunt’s house.

It was a quick 15 minute drive to my Aunt’s house in Ayala Alabang using the newly-built Skyway. My aunt and uncle don’t live in the Philippines, but make frequent trips there, so they keep a house in Manila. This trip was the first of many times where Ted declared, “This is a nice road!” Manila traffic is notorious but the Skyway has made certain trips much much better. It’s expensive, even by U.S. standards (approximately $4 toll each way) so it’s not heavily traveled.  But as short-term visitors, we were all for it!

Once we arrived, we all took quick showers and got organized for our flight to Bohol the next day, and then happily stretched out on beds and fell asleep in a hurry.

The house in Manila:

December 17: We began our trip to the Philippines Saturday morning by leaving the house at 4:30 a.m. Total travel time was going to be 27 hours gate-to-gate, but since it’s international we had to be at the airport super early. Luckily we were flying a combination of first class/economy plus, so it wasn’t as uncomfortable as it could be, but it’s still a haul. We checked in with no issues, and then headed off to security. We had just gotten to the checkpoint when Ted realized he left our passports at the ticket counter! He rushed back to get them, but luckily the ticket agent realized we had left them behind and met him before he had to trek all the way back. Everything went smoothly after that little hiccup though. We boarded the plane and settled in for the first of our long flights.

First stop –San Francisco, where we grabbed a quick lunch in the international terminal (Japanese food) before boarding a plane to Tokyo. The SFO-NRT leg was the longest, but not too bad. Thank goodness for all these electronics. The plane had individual movie screens, but we also had our own distractions –games & books (as well as movies) on our various iPads, Kindles, Nooks, iPhones, etc. I had also packed a little survival kit, which included snacks, eye masks, ear plugs, and melatonin so we had no problems getting sleep.

We landed in Tokyo on time, made our way through security, and got to our gate for the MNL leg of our trip in plenty of time. We found outlets and plugged in (although I had a battery pack with me just in case) and took advantage of the free Wi-Fi to catch up on emails, Facebook, and the news. Before you knew it, it was time to board again. The flight from NRT to MNL seemed very short compared to the trans-Pacific flight we had just finished!