Valley Springs, Central California
January 2003

Rosemary Abad-Evans, Lui Treyes-Gabriel, Caicai Teotico-Moreno, Maribet de Ubago-Ware, yours truly, and of course Ditas got-together at the vacation home of Alex and Ditas (da Silva) Albana in Valley Springs, Central California.

It was a fun weekend where we did nothing but catch up with our stories, ate to death, sang along with Karaoke machine, watched DVD movies, had a belated holiday gift raffle, and ...did I say we ate to death? Those crabs, prawns, kare-kare, manggang hilaw, spare ribs ala Lui, and lechon kunyari. We even had atis (aka custard fruit) from Canada! =)

Ditas' vacation home is125 miles east of San Francisco. It's a beautiful 2,600 square-foot house sitting on 3.6 acres of property atop a ridge. It has a 180 degree view from the back and front sides of the house. The neighbors are friendly and the neighborhood in general is quite safe for kids to play around. About a mile away is Lake Hogan where one can enjoy the vistas from the roofed picnic tables and benches. Valley Springs has a small-town feel to it. There is a plan to build a mall in the area in the not-to-distant future. It definitely has lots of room for growth.

Wish you were all there. Here are some of the moments we captured.