Ayres Suites
21951 Springs Drive
Diamond Bar, California 91765 USA
April 21-23, 2006
TOP PHOTO Standing L-R: Noel, Jun, Vic, Ramon. Seated L-R: Caloy, Tita, Carmen, Tess, Mila, Dolly, at the Getty Center
BOTTOM PHOTO Standing L-R: Mila, Dolly, Vic, Tess, Jun, Caloy, Noel, Tita, Ramon. Front row L-R: Portia, Carmen, Armi at Ayres Suites
Beautiful California served as a backdrop to another memorable UP College of Veterinary Medicine Batch 1979 reunion, one year and four months after the 25th year reunion in Los Banos, Laguna in the Philippines. The main activities were held in Ayres Suites in Diamond Bar near Los Angeles on April 21-23, 2006. It was a gorgeous spring weekend filled with fun and reconnection with former classmates as well as spouses and friends of the good class of 1979. This get-together was organized and hosted by our wonderful California-based batchmates DOLLY RODULFO-DALUSONG and husband POL, VIC VELASCO and wife CHARISSE, and TESS PALLASIGUE-CALALANG and husband ED. JUN MICU of Woodbridge, Virginia as always helped organize the event and is now a contender for the title of “reunion classmate” (he prefers this title over “reunion king”) having helped organize and attended both reunions. We are very grateful to all of them for all their hard work to make this reunion possible, very successful and enjoyable. Also in attendance were TITA MESIONA-MANLAPAZ and her husband CALOY MANLAPAZ from Chicago, RAMON MOLINA from Boston, CARMEN LAVILLA and NOEL CALINGASAN from New York City, ARMI LUBRIN DIZON (who was with our batch during our freshman year), PORTIA CORTES and MILES FREEMAN, the ADDL staff member formerly known as MILA MENDOZA who are all based in California .
April 19
TITA and husband CALOY were the first to arrive at the Ontario International Airport where they were met by DOLLY’s daughter, GEM. They were brought to one of DOLLY’s houses in Chino Hills. They were later joined by VIC and DOLLY for dinner at a Filipino restaurant called Salusalo to kick off the reunion activities.
April 20
ARMI and Prada-sporting JUN arrived separately at the Ontario International Airport and were met by DOLLY in her Lexus with TITA and CALOY in tow. They proceeded to Ayres Suites and later shared a wonderful evening at the Salusalo restaurant where they feasted on grilled meat, fish, squid and shrimps following TITA’s recommendation. Incidentally, there’s a new movie coming out later this year called “The Devil Wears Prada.” Not that this has anything to do with the reunion...we're in DOLLYWOOD. I mean, HOLLYWOOD so movies come to mind. Speaking of DOLLY, the new Lexus is a 50th birthday present from her loving husband POL. It is hard to decide which is more depressing - the fact that most of us will turn 50 this year, or that not all of us will get a Lexus for our 50th birthday. Oh well, let's just choose to be happy and count our blessings as we reach another milestone! And this is one major reason why this California reunion was thought of when we had our planning in Los Banos - to get together and celebrate our golden year.
April 21
What made this reunion truly enjoyable was the opportunity to go sightseeing while reuniting with former classmates and rebuilding friendships. After breakfast at Ayres Suites, DOLLY, TESS, CALOY, TITA, JUN and ARMI headed to Griffith Park. Situated in the Santa Monica Mountains in LA, the Griffith Park is one of the largest urban park in North America. The park has a very good view of the city of LA and of the famous HOLLYWOOD sign. Later that morning, CARMEN arrived with VIC and ChARISSE to join the group. The next stop was Hollywood Boulevard to see the Grauman's Chinese Theatre, the most famous theatre in the world. Filled with exotic art from China, the theatre's jade-green bronze roof rises 90 feet into the air. The group also visited the permanent home of the Academy Awards, Kodak Theatre which is located in the heart of historic Hollywood. The 3,400 seat theatre opened in November 2001. The tour won’t be complete without going to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. While walking down memory lane recollecting our college days, batchmates also had fun looking down at their feet and seeing "stars" on the bronze plaques, embedded in pink and charcoal terrazzo squares on the world's most famous sidewalk: the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The group was later re-joined by VIC and CHARISSE who picked up RAMON and NOEL from Los Angeles International Airport , and MILES from the train station. After a brief but exciting time of hugs, handshakes and re-acquaintance, the group proceeded to Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Rodeo Drive is one of the most celebrated and exclusive shopping streets in the US. Not even Winona Ryder can afford to shop here (remeber the shoplifting scandal?), so the group did not bother to get off, missing an otherwise glamorous photo opportunity.
Our next destination was a place to experience and enjoy art in a unique setting that boasts great architecture, serene gardens and spectacular views: the Getty Center. Batch mates filled one of the automated three-car tram that took passengers to and from the museum, which is located on a hill in Brentwood, LA. The obligatory group picture-taking started in front of the museum with the dramatic architecture in the background. And of course, all posed group photos included the Welcome Batch ’79 banner kindly donated by VIC. The group enjoyed the view of the Westwood skyline and downtown LA in the horizon, and the Cactus Garden perched on the edge of the Getty Center. Some members of the group visited an exhibition of the work of French artist Edgar Degas. In the middle of this art experience, the most commonly heard word by our batchmates was WOWOWEE which was given a naughty meaning by CALOY. From then on, almost all jokes included the use of the new term. After all these years, some things just don’t change.
Just before sundown, the group drove back to Ayres Suites. Newly arrived batch mates checked in at the hotel, and the whole group gathered at one of the function rooms for drinks and buffet style dinner. PORTIA first joined the group that evening, and it was a delight to see her. REY DOMIGUEZ (UP CVM Class ’80) and his wife ROSA also dropped by to say hello. As one of the hosts, VIC graciously welcomed everyone and buffet style dinner followed. NOEL shared his experiences from the 25th anniversary reunion in the Philippines. The most enjoyable portion of the night was RAMON’s animated picture presentation featuring nostalgic photos taken during our college days, field trips, parties, headshots of UPCVM faculty and staff (’75-’79, courtesy of LYNN), our college baccalaureate service and university graduation ceremonies, the Los Banos reunion, and all the mini reunions held in New York City, Chicago, Washington DC, California and Canada. Photos from the unveiling of the stained glass project which was donated by our batch to the UP College of Veterinary Medicine in Los Banos were also shown. The presentation was complete with background music that was popular during our college days including songs by the BeeGees, Basil Valdez and ABBA, among others. RAMON handed out DVD copies of the presentation to everyone. JUN then presented plans for the 30th anniversary reunion in the Philippines and our next donation to the College of Veterinary Medicine in Los Banos. After DOLLY’s discussion of financial matters concerning the California reunion, it was sharing time for some batchmates regarding professional and personal matters since graduation in 1979. Without going into details about who-admitted-to-being-what and how everyone spilled their guts, this portion of the program proved to be very jaw-droppingly revealing, inspiring and Oprahesquely emotional at times. But listening to our batchmates share their experiences in their careers, their private lives, as well as valuable lessons they learned in life helped us rediscover and get to know each other better and renew our friendships. It was midnight when we ended that night’s activities.
April 22
After breakfast, we took more group photos (of course) outside the hotel with the ubiquitous Welcome Batch ’79 banner. CARMEN had to fly back to Las Vegas that morning so she and PORTIA who took her to the airport, were not able to join us for the rest of the activities. Batch mates and friends then drove south in 2 separate vans to TESS and ED’s home in Oceanside, San Diego. We ate snacks of empanada and cassava cakes at TESS and ED’s beautiful home and celebrated ED’s belated birthday with a chocolate cake.
The group proceeded to Camp Pendleton, the largest Marine Corps base in the world. Located in southern California between the towns of
Oceanside and
San Clemente, the camp was established in 1942 to train U.S. Marines for service in
World War II. Today, it is the home of the
1st Marine Expeditionary Force and various training commands. TESS and ED lived inside the camp for 7 years. TESS gave us a tour of the housing area, the stable, and other amenities of the camp, as well as the recreation park and picnic area by Lake O’Neal. We then stopped at Camp Del Mar Recreational Beach, where we had lunch . It was a little too windy and cool for frisbee and swimming. Sorry, no swimsuit pictures of your batchmates (sigh of relief!)
From the beach, the group drove to Point Loma in San Diego. On our way to Point Loma, it was such a treat to see the famous “Flower Fields” at the Carlsbad Spring Flower Festival. In San Diego, where the weather's always perfect, people always look to the hills of Carlsbad for a sign that it’s springtime. It was awesome to see layers of multicolored Ranunculus blooms that painted a Carlsbad hillside. These Ranunculus bulbs vibrantly bloom for about two months each year, so it was exciting to be a part of these glorious rites of spring.
The journey to Point Loma, the highest point in San Diego was long, but it was well worth it. It was at its southern extremity where the Portuguese navigator Joao Rodrigues Cabrillo and crew became the first Europeans to land in California. We visited the Cabrillo Monument and the Old Point Loma Lighthouse which stood watch over the entrance to San Diego Bay for 36 years. At dusk on November 15, 1855 the light keeper climbed the winding stairs and lit the light for the first time. What seemed to be a good location 422 feet above sea level, however, had a serious flaw. Fog and low clouds often obscured the light. On March 23, 1891 the light was extinguished and the keeper moved to a new lighthouse location. We took several group and individual photos near the old lighthouse. Serving as background was a spectacular view of the US navy port, and the downtown San Diego skyline right along the coast to Mexico. VIC, who was too exhausted from all the driving, had to stay in his car to take a rest and was not able to join us tour the lighthouse.
Continuing our tour of San Diego, we went to Hotel del Coronado, a national historic landmark. Built in 1888, it is the oldest wooden Victorian hotel in the US. Rising from water's edge on the quaint island of Coronado in San Diego, the Hotel del Coronado is considered one of America 's most beautiful beach resorts. Needless to say, everyone wasted no time to pose for a group photo in front of this classic historic hotel.
For dinner that night, we feasted on delicious Filipino food at the Manila Tokyo Restaurant. Some batchmates wanted to sing karaoke and dance the night away but there was a big 80th birthday party for another Pinoy at the restaurant at that time. The karaoke and the dance floor were of course dominated by the birthday party guests. But we had a lot of fun socializing with the birthday celebrant, although his wife was a little confused to see unfamiliar faces having pictures and video taken with her lei-wearing birthday-boy husband. And the birthday celebrant was just so amazed that some of his guests came all the way from as far as Virginia, New York, Massachussets and Illinois. Although MILA was unable to belt out her favorite tunes (wonder what American Idol judge Simon Cowell would have said) and DOLLY didn't get to use her dancing shoes, it was still a fun night!
April 23
We had breakfast at the hotel with the wife and daughter of RICO FLORES, who unfortunately was unable to attend. After hotel checkout, we headed to Palm Springs which is about two hours drive east of Los Angeles, two and a half hours northeast of San Diego. The group took the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, the world’s largest rotating enclosed tramcars which ascended two and a half miles to pristine wilderness, 8,000 feet above the desert floor. As we ascended, we craned our necks to enjoy a 360-degree view of the desert through the windows of the rotating tramcar. The 15-minute ride took us to the Mountain Station dock. The station was a 3-story facility, housing a cocktail lounge, dining facilities, gift shops and observation areas, as well as a theater showing a 22-minute movie on the history and construction of the Tramway. We took pictures outside the station dock where it was freezing. Snow was still on the ground. Immediately behind the Mountain Station, we had a good view of the Mt. San Jacinto State park and wilderness area. TITA and CALOY treated us to lunch inside the station dock where we continued our sharing time.
After descent, we drove to the beautiful and ritzy resort town of Palm Springs, breathing the desert air fragrant with wildflowers. It was a pleasant drive and it was fascinating to experience an eco-adventure tour of the world famous Palm Springs power-generating windmills.
We couldn’t resist stopping by an off-beat tourist attraction: two giant dinosaur sculptures on an arid plain surrounded by mountains in Cabazon. These are known as Claude Bell’s Dinosaurs which were media darlings in the 1980’s appearing in commercials, rock videos, and Tim Burton’s movie called Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. One of the dinosaurs is a T-Rex. And yes, T-Rex has a bathroom in him (upon insistence of Pee Wee Herman during filming). We opted to use the bathroom in a nearby Burger King instead of T-Rex. Although shopping was listed in our plan of activities, we all decided to skip the shopping mall outlets.
We then drove to the Pala Casino Resort and Spa to meet up with TESS and ED. We had buffet-style dinner there (thanks to TESS and ED) and enjoyed VIC and ED’s funny jokes as entertainment. After dinner, some of us played slot machines. Nobody won anything, except a unique experience to spend time with former classmates. We left TESS and ED at the casino and drove to DOLLY and POL’s home in Chino Hills. TITA, CALOY and JUN stayed at DOLLY’s house for the night while VIC took RAMON and NOEL to a hotel near the airport. DOLLY handed giveaways and souvenirs (including I LOVE NEW YORK T-SHIRTS donated by CARMEN), as well as food to take home, reminiscent of the Filipino family tradition. Indeed, after such a reunion, batchmates feel closer to each other and leave with a sense of belonging to one big happy (sometimes dysfunctional) family!
May we have more get-togethers and hopefully reunite with other batch mates who were unable to attend the last two reunions. Til next time folks!
Let's stay connected!
NOTE: RAMON posted some of the reunion photos which can be viewed at the UPVetmed '79 yahoogroup, or by clicking on the following URL (2 separate albums):
