Rizal Park

Here are the 2 pictures of us on the ice slide in the penguin area.

Our friends had to leave but we went to Rizal Park to walk around for a little bit.  Here are some pictures of the park.

 More calessas-Ashley loves to watch them!

 Below is a statue at Rizal's tomb-reminded me a little of Kennedy's in DC but we couldn't get nearly that close.  There are soldiers and chains across the walkway

 I think the Philippine flag is pretty and it has been interesting to me how seriously Ryan took what he learned about respecting the flag in his Philippine unit in Social Studies-he told me once that when the national anthem is being played you do not squirm or fidget at all but stand still, put your hand over your heart, and look at the flag.  There is a great respect for country here.  At school before all programs the national anthem is played and even both times we have been to the Cultural Center.

 No one really wanted to look-oh well!

 The train we saw was labeled Thomas and friends-which made me smile and part of me was a little sad that no one was upset when I said we weren't going to ride-a little sad that they have "outgrown" Thomas.

 This is part of the park map-Maraming Salamat Po!  means thank you very much sir/ma'am-I think!

 Ryan and Scott were studying the map carefully-I had read somewhere online that in the park was a giant chess board with statues of the pieces.  We found where it was located on the map but the problem was that I wasn't certain how to orient the map because I wasn't sure which roads that bordered the park were which.  We walked around, saw a few of the areas on the map, some required an entrance fee and some appeared closed.  We never saw a sign for the chess park so we will have to go back another time and see if we can find it. Scott wanted to play chess on the big board!

 Below is an unusual calessa!

 There were MANY busts of national heroes throughout the park-some had nameplates and some did not

 This was the Chinese garden

 Here are the soldiers guarding Rizal's tomb

 This is the outside of the Cultural Center

 examples of our traffic-people tend to ignore lane markings and just squeeze in wherever they can make their vehicle fit-Ashley was also really excited about this very pink van we saw on the ride home.