Pangasinan: Dagupan City

Finally we had arrived in Dagupan. We pulled up to Tita Karen's (Uncle Ramon's daughter) beautiful home. I wish I had a picture of it but I'll get one next time. Standing outside to open the gate were Uncle Ramon and his younger brother, Uncle Butch. Seeing them for the first time almost made me laugh. My first thought was, "Oh. Of course that's what they look like." You see, if there were one million Filipinos lined up and you asked me to guess which two men I'm related to, Uncle Ramon & Uncle Butch would be exactly the two men I'd pick. This part is for my family, who knows the people I'm referencing:

Uncle Ramon looks just like Papa. Except his muscles are big. To be honest, I haven't seen a 60 year old man look that good in my entire life. So pretty much, if you were to put Papa's head on a fit man's body, you'd have Uncle Ramon. And as for Uncle Butch, his voice is 110% Uncle Boy's but his face reminds me so much of Uncle Dennis. SO much. I love it.

They welcomed us with open arms and after meeting the uncles, aunts, and cousins, we sat down for the promised feast. And it was DELICIOUS. But the mangoes...oh my the mangoes. The sweetest, juiciest mangoes on Earth. Pangasinan is known as the Mango Capital of the Philippines and I now know why.

After digesting, Uncle Butch took us on a boat ride on the river near by. He works for the government and was in charge of a huge project to clean the river up, which he did a great job at because it looked wonderful. The boat was more of a pontoon made out of bamboo and on it were a handful of masseuses. We listened to relaxing music, floated along, and got our backs massaged as we went. It was as wonderful as it sounds.

Once the pontoon ride was over, we went to Uncle Butch's house, located right next to the famous bowling alley that I've been hearing about for literally my entire life. Yes, family, we still own this bowling alley. Contrary to whatever rumors floated back to the States, Uncle Butch did not sell it haha. He wanted me to pass that along and told me to take pictures as proof.

After hanging out at his house for a little bit, I went with Tita Josie, Tito Danny, and Josielle to check in at our hotel. I was able to close my eyes for a little before Uncle Butch picked me up for dinner. (At this time, Tita Jose & Tito Danny went out with Tito Danny's cousin and Josielle opted to stay back in the room because she was tired.) I met up with Lola and the rest of the family and we ate a lot of really good Chinese food.

We finished eating and we said our goodbyes to everyone. I promised I'd come back in a couple of weeks and Uncle Butch told me to call whenever that may be. I can't wait to see everyone again!