Had a scrumptious dinner with Mark last night at Metrowalk. After going all over the place in search of a restaurant (which could cater to Mark's dietary needs haha!), we finally landed at Sanctuario. Our nice dining experience at Sanctuario started when we were greeted with a smile by one of the waiting staffs.

Mark and I both had a hard time in choosing what to order because every dish in the menu looked delectable! But since Mark is on a diet because he's prepping up for a competition, we decided to just settle for sandwiches, pasta, and shakes.

The drinks were served first. I got the Watermelon Shake while Mark chose the Lemongrass Tea Shake.

Sanctuario serves a variety of not the usual pasta dishes like the Bulalo Pasta, Bangus Carbonara, and Aligue Pasta, but being the not-so-adventurous-when-it-comes-to-food type that Mark and I were, we both agreed to just settle for their Classic Carbonara. :P

I was surprised to see a carbonara without the white cream sauce. Sanctuario's version of classic carbonara had olive oil as its base sauce. It was also overflowing with crispy bacon bits, green peas, and lots of cheese! It sure tasted like the classic carbonara that we all knew of, but I must say that this one is a lot tastier and healthier! :) It also came with 2 freshly baked pan de sancutario which Mark and I both loved!

Our attention were caught by the menu's "Super Sandwiches". Aside from a variety of mouth-watering fillings in freshly baked wheat bread, the sandwiches also come with generous servings of coleslaw and chips as sidings. We ordered the Buttery Beefsteak and Three Of A Kind sandwiches. We both were expecting a medium-sized sandwich, but we were served with "super" huge ones!

Mark and I both loved the super huge, super healthy, and super yummy super sandwiches! :D

I love the Buttery Beefsteak! The tender beef strips goes perfectly well with the mildly salted butter. It also has fresh onion rings and lettuce and tangy asian dressing. And the cheddar cheese?! I soooo love how it made the sandwich more delectable! Oh! What a mouth watering dish! *drools*

The Three Of A Kind was Mark's favorite! The 3 kinds of tender and juicy sausage slices were made more enticing by the cheddar cheese, fresh onion rings and lettuce plus the asian dressing. You may also choose to add in the coleslaw for a more tangy kick.

Mark and I both enjoyed our dining experience at Sanctuario. We were supposed to have a meal just enough to satisfy our hungry stomachs, but we ended up pigging the night out haha! I also commend how neat the staff were. The waiting staff, after cleaning the table next to us, washed her hands and rubbed in some alcohol before getting to us and serving us our orders. Nice! :) We will definitely come back to this place and try out their other specialties.

With a variety of tasty dishes at very reasonable price, a very relaxing ambience, and very friendly and neat waiting staff, Sancutario is surely a perfect sanctuary for family and couples who just want to escape from all the stress and exhaustion that the city life may bring, to relax, and to enjoy some quality time while having some tasty treats. :)

SANCTUARIO TAGAYTAY CITY
G/F Metrowalk Complex, Meralco Avenue
Pasig City, Metro Manila

After watching the dolphins and sea lions at Ocean Adventure, we headed to Zoobic Safari for another close encounter with some wild animals.

We had our souvenir photo taken with the native Aetas the moment we got into the place.

We had a short briefing on how the tour will go about.





We were then grouped and each group was assigned a tour guide.



After the briefing we watched some animal shows and then we're off for the tour!




First we had a walk along the forest where we encountered a lot of wild animals. Mark enjoyed seeing and feeding (and bullying) the animals. He just stopped his being bully when an ostrich bit his chest! Haha!

For our next stop, the others took the safari train while we drove to the tigers' den. We first went to their cages while the tour guide informed us about some interesting facts about tigers. Then we had a close encounter with them, and I mean really close! We rode in a caged jeepney and drove into a place where the tigers roamed around.

We also bought some chicken to be fed to the tigers. We were lucky to have caught the attention of one hungry tiger. He immediately went to our jeepney and munched the chicken which the feeder bravely waved with his bare hands!

We then drove to the bone museum and then headed to the crocodile farm.

We ended the tour with a souvenir photo taken with a python. :)

We completed the tour around half past 5pm. The tour was very long and tiring. I really wasn't ecstatic during the tour because it was just like the ones that I had in some zoos during school field trips.

I got to see some animals for the first time though, but I'm really not a fan of these kinds of tours. I was also very moody during the tour (sorry Mark *mwah*). Maybe I just got tired of the long walk under the scorching sun. But it was fun and I enjoyed it, really. ;p

We were up early the next day after a fun night. After around half an hour drive, we arrived at Ocean Adventure.

We then headed to the stadium where the Sea Lion show was held. Here's Sam, the sea lion, doing her tricks.

What an intelligent sea lion! And, oh she's just so adorable!

Next we went to the Seaside Staduim for another entertaining show, the High Dive show.

The divers were simply awesome. They showcased jaw-dropping dive stunts.

Next show was the Tour to the Wild. I was so amazed seeing some wild animals doing some tricks.

And last but not the least, and definitely my most favorite among the shows, was the Dolphin show. The dolphins were all cute and very intelligent.

Our morning adventure ended after we roamed around the Ocean Adventure Aquarium.

We all enjoyed our stay at Ocean Adventure. There was one thing though that ruined the experience, the pricey rice topping (which was kinda short on the toppings) and iced tea (which was more like iced-tea-flavored-water) that we had for lunch. If the we weren't really hungry and if the sun wasn't scorching that time, we really would not settle for this pricey lunch.

After pigging out at Meat Plus Cafe, we headed to Le'Manns Go Kart. There were a lot of people when we got there so we had to wait in line for our turn.

We actually waited for around an hour. Good thing our long wait was worthwhile. For around Php 500, we got to race down the track for 10 laps. Not bad, right? :)

Plus, we got to take a photo with Vina and Shaina, who were in the crowd that night.  They, too, tried the go kart ride. :)

It was still early and we still didn't want to get back to the hotel and call it a day, so we decided to chill out first. We drove back to Subic freeport and headed to Willis Bar. We drank a few shots while being serenaded by the live band.

After a few hours of chillin' we headed to the hotel to get ourselves energized for the next day's adventures. :)


UPDATES:
April 2012: Mark and I went back to Subic together with his family for a Holy Week vacation.  We found out that Le'Manns Go Kart is already non-operational.

Had a great vacation at Subic with Mark's family. We headed to Subic last Thursday afternoon and got there around half past 6pm. After checking in at the hotel and unloading our stuffs, we headed to the freeport zone to search for a place for dinner.

We wanted to get away with the usual fast food chains so Mark's uncle suggested that we try it out at Meat Plus Cafe. We placed our orders and then took some photos. :)

Mark's mom loves steaks. She actually knew what to order that she didn't even have to look at the menu. She ordered the classic Tenderloin Steak.

Mark's uncle opted for the Spaghetti and Burger meal.

I believe both dishes tasted good since both Mark's mom and uncle seemed to have enjoyed their orders hehe..

I didn't really settle for steak since I'm on a diet (haha!) and knowing how huge the serving could be I thought that I might not be able to finish my plate. But oh well, I think I was the one who got the biggest plate! *blushes* I just love how the steak sauce which was not too salty jived with the tender pork marinated in sweet barbecue sauce.

I just didn't enjoy the rice though. I first thought it was java rice, but it's was more like the Dolmeh, with bell pepper, spices, and onions, but a lot tastier. :)

My dish came with the soup of the day, the Hearty Vegetable soup, as what the waiting staff claimed. But it was more like the usual sopas without the macaroni hehe..
Their mashed potato was what I loved the most (next to Red Coconut's mashed potato of course haha!). It was actually Mark's order hehe..unlike the usual gravy on top of mashed potato, Meat Place's mashed potato was swimming into steak sauce! *drools*

He also got fresh watermelon shake.

Mark's order came last. We were almost done eating when his order was served. Mark's dish was not just healthy but sumptuous as well. The generous serving of pink salmon grilled to perfection was made more delectable with the sauce which consist of the steak sauce, olive oil, and pineapple salsa. I guess good things really come to those who wait! :)

We all enjoyed the dinner. We had a few chit chat before heading to the Go Kart track. :)

MEAT PLUS CAFE
Bldg. 6 Sampson Rd., Subic
Olongapo City, Zambales

By now I'm sure you all know about my dad's passion for cooking. He also loves it when the family is complete and he would always make it a point to cook luscious dishes for us.

In as much as he enjoys and loves cooking for us, he also enjoys and loves seeing us as we devour his tasty treats.

Since it's the Lenten Season, meat should be out of the menu so my dad cooked pancit canton minus the meat with cauli flower, carrots, baguio beans, pechay, cabbage, kikiam, and squid balls.

But I guess he really can't resist having at least one main course of meat, so he still cooked this sinful bulalo haha!