Home Away From Home

December 18, 2008 (Sorsogon, PI): On Thursday and Friday night we stayed at the Sta. Clara Ridge Inn in Sorsogon. My parents call it their home away from home because they stay there at least twice a month when they are in the Sorsogon area to do missionary and district interviews.

When we checked into our room, we had an unexpected visitor (or three). Okay, I did zoom in a bit on the photo below...but I had to since I was clear across the room when I took the picture. I was not getting any closer to the thing than I had to! Victoria, the hotel receptionist grabbed a Walis Tingting (broom), and smashed the first two. Then we discovered the third (and biggest one) in the bathroom after she left. Let's just say I had the creepy-crawlies all night long!

Our room was on the top right...you can see our room window in the off-white section.

It was a room with a view! Coconut groves in the far distance. Rice fields in the middle distance, and a beautiful ornamental garden with a Carp & Tilapia fish pond. The building to the left is a home being built by the brother of Tony--the Sta. Clara Ridge Inn owner.

Was the Sta. Clara Ridge Inn OUR home away from home? Well, maybe not the first night (with the spiders) or the next morning either. Terri has a story to tell about her shower.

Friday morning I woke up about 4:00 am (going to bed at 8:00 pm may have contributed to that). About 5:15 I decided to take a shower and get ready for the day since I wasn't able to go back to sleep. The showers here have hot water on demand. Well, THIS shower DIDN'T have hot water at all! It had the hot water unit, but no matter what nob I turned or which button I pushed, I could not get hot water. Sheesh! This was going to be a chilly way to start the day. I warned Amy of the situation and climbed into a cold shower. Attending Zone Conferences and meeting the missionaries had already brought back a lot of memories. A cold shower would be one more reminder of my own mission way back when! While Amy was showering I heard a big laugh from the bathroom. Then she shouted out, "I HAVE HOT WATER!" No fair! Apparently, Amy wasn't happy with the little trickle of water coming out of the shower head so she changed the setting and voila! She had hot water. When we told her dad about the shower he said that the water won't heat if the water pressure isn't high enough. Now we know!!!