Will's 11th Birthday!

For Will's 11th Birthday we decided to take a little sightseeing trip. We spent 2 days on the island of Corregidor in Manila Bay. As any self-respecting homeschooling Mom would, we prepared beforehand for this adventure by learning about it's history. Corregidor was a key pacific battle site during WW2. It is the place MacArthur left when he gave his famous "I shall return" speech. It was a crushing blow to the American Army in 1941 and a great victory when MacArthur fulfilled his promise of return in 1945. During the war, this small island was bombed so heavily that it was left desolate. No building escaped being hit and all suffered major damage, including the 1000 bed hospital.

The kids (and Al and I) had a great time stomping around the ruins and making history come alive. Our favorite part of the trip though had to be our expedition into the recesses of Malinta tunnel, a huge set of tunnels carved under a mountain to be used as a bomb shelter. The kids liked crawling through these tight spaces with hard hats and flashlights. This is only open to those visitors who spend the night on the island. Since most visitors just take a day trip, we were alone in our adventure. We had a great Filipino guide, who really taught us a lot of history.

While the kids loved Malinta tunnel, they weren't crazy about all caves. They have always loved exploring and I thought they would jump at the chance to explore other caves, but they decided they don't really like bats and therefore were hesitant to go too deep into "Bat Cave". We did enjoy hiking the 300 stair shortcut. (We chose to hike down) Our eyes were peeled for bomb craters, fallen structures, and monkeys.

In the afternoons we enjoyed strolling the coastline picking up shells. There were more beautiful, unbroken shells than anyone person could ever collect. The search wasn't for a perfect unblemished shell, but for which perfect shell was the most unique. We have brought home 2 bags full and we didn't even make a dent on the shell-filled shore.

We arrived home after 2 days of scampering over and through ruins, batteries, tunnels, mountains, and coastlines tired, but thrilled with all we were able to do. It is a birthday gift Will will long remember.