A Night Without Kids

Ryan and I decided that it was time to get ourselves to Manila and go to the LDS temple. It's the closest one to us and is found an hour north by plane or a 20 hour boat ride. We were able to get a couple of kids from our ward to stay the night at our house with Brayden and Sydney and Ryan and I took off Thursday morning. Since we've done all our journeys with our kids I hadn't realized how wonderful and stress free everything was with out them.
Our hotel was across the street from the Manila Bay and the U.S. Embassy. We tried to take a picture but apparently that's not aloud and we got in trouble by the security guards. We were also a block away from a place named "Rizal Park" where the Philippine Hero Dr. Jose Rizal was executed in 1896 by the Filipino native infantry backed by the Spanish troops. He was charged with implication to the Philippine Revolution against the Spanish rulers and was sentenced to death which ironically the catalyst that precipitated the Revolution. Also at Rizal Park is a HUGE statue of Lapu-Lapu, a Muslim chieftain who was first national hero that resisted Spanish Colonization. We were able to take some great pictures but unfortunately most of our pictures didn't turn out! :(

The left is a picture of Dr. Jose Rizal guarded by 2 soldiers 24/7 and the right has a statue of Rizal being led to his execution but you might have a hard time seeing it through Ryan...

After our walk through Rizal Park we explored a bit until we found ourselves at the Manila Bay where we walked along the coast line. It was so disgusting! Where we started they were filling up this garbage truck with trash from the ocean and then only a little bit away were these kids swimming and washing themselves. Other then the trashy ocean it was a really beautiful walk with a breeze to help cool us down from the hot hot sun.