The Cruising De La Cruzes' 2022 Newsletter

#TheCruisingDelaCruzes have been on a roller-coaster adventure for 2022 and we'd love to share our family milestones with all of you, our dear family and friends. We thank all of you who set up time to meet our little family and who have helped us on our US adventure, making it a trip for the books (the kids posted photos on our living room wall and often look at them with joy shining in their eyes!).

Our 2022 journey started in Sacramento in California (in 2021) and took us all over the Western United States.

Karen was especially happy to have finally shown her beloved alma mater Brigham Young University–Hawaii to Royce, Kendrick, and Charlotte.

From Sacramento we drove to LA (almost 1000 kms in a day) in our trusty Kia Forte rental. LA greeted us with pouring rain which made driving at high speeds (won’t tell you how fast ;)) very exciting for Royce. After spending a couple of nights in LA with friends, we drove to the edge of California over vast and endless deserts and rock formations until we reached Gilbert, Arizona, on New Year’s Eve. On New year’s Day, we enjoyed the famous Cactus ice cream of AZ, which inspired us to explore the state (we did not have time to drive the 400+ miles to the Grand Canyon for a day trip) and ended up driving hundreds of miles out to Sedona in a few hours. The popular bell rock greeted us as the sun set together with the various magnificent rock formations our Creator made for our pure delight. Red rock formations are new to our tropical eyes and it was a sight to behold! The giant cacti lining the freeway and the desert were the stars of this trip, if you ask the kids, Kendrick especially, who loves cacti the same way Royce loves rice. And from AZ, we drove back to LA to catch our flight to beautiful Hawaii.

Hawaii, here we come! First stop: Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor is another story itself: we reverenced the lives lost and the sacrifice for freedom as we saw first-hand records and artifacts of that infamous day many decades ago.

After learning about history, it’s time to eat! While driving in downtown Honolulu in a sudden heavy downpour, Karen spotted the famed Leonard’s food truck, and we had the sumptuous malasadas.

Kendrick and Charlotte, big Jurassic Park fans, finally fulfilled their dream of seeing the real-life Ko?olau mountain range featured so prominently in the Jurassic movie franchise. This is the first time Karen has been back to Hawaii since graduating from Brigham Young University–Hawaii . Karen enjoyed touring all of us in her university and we even got to taste some of the snacks and food she regularly ate while on a scholarship grant during her university days.

Apart from the gastronomic delight we had at the Lū?au at the Polynesian Cultural Center (where Karen used to work) where we were fed with local Hawaiian cuisine while being delighted by a short theatrical play about Hawaii’s last monarch, a real treat was the food at the Hukilau Café. Yes! This is the real-life Hukilau Café mentioned on the movie Fifty First Dates by Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, one of our favorite rom-coms ever. (Note: The real café was NOT shown in the movie; it just used the cafe's brand.) Plus, we were able to visit Sea Life Park Hawaii where most of the scenes from that movie were shot. The Dole Plantation was a delight in term of their refreshing pineapple drinks and ice cream. The “exotic” plants featured in the plantation merited the ohhsss and the ahhhhsss of tourists; but were the usual backyard plants we have at home. The Polynesian Cultural Center was an exceptional part of our trip that we came back a second time! Karen was able to tour the center as a guest, and not as a student-employee working at one of the shops. She proudly showed our kids how she would work and inspired them to be working students in the near future.

As we left Hawaii renewed in our love and commitment to our eternal marriage, family, and our family’s education, we had the time of our lives at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure! Our family is a Marvel Family – yes, we love the comics and the movies. Avengers Campus was a delight and the Sorcerer Supreme himself delighted us with a multiverse-kind of a show where we helped him fight off Dormamu! Charlotte and Kendrick had their first ever rollercoaster loop at the Incredicoaster! And Karen finally joined the three adrenaline junkies (Royce, Charlotte, Kendrick, in this particular order) for a very exciting ride at The Guardians of the Galaxy at DCA, where we were literally weightless and experienced free-fall multiple times over, while in an adventure with Starlord and the gang! Kendrick was so happy to ride the Millennium Falcon, although Royce and Karen both had no idea how it is important in Star Wars… we have only seen Star Wars movies after this US trip! Charlotte enjoyed talking to Anna and Elsa and the many different princesses and characters at both Disney parks.

Of particular note that showcased our kids’ love of Disney happened on our first few days during our 5-day Disneyland/DCA adventure. While sitting at a café eating our home-(hotel)made cold cuts sandwiches (Karen decided it was economical to just get bread, cold cuts and dressing at Walmart and take it to the parks), the kids suddenly yelled: Oi! Si Oswald! (Hey it’s Oswald!). Karen and I, both dumbfounded at the sight of an ugly, very skinny Mickey Mouse look-a-like character, gave them permission to go take photos. Literally no one paid Oswald any attention. Both ecstatic they got great selfies, K&C explained who Oswald was. Royce googled Oswald and yes, our kids taught us something that day about being a real Disney aficionado.

Exhausted from our Disney parks adventure, we drove back to Sacramento (with an overnight pit stop in a very small military town; driving from Sac to LA and vice-versa offered Royce the fulfillment of a childhood dream of seeing and driving alongside cargo trains of the Union Pacific Railroad, something he had read in one of his childhood books), where we were staying until it was time to head home.

Our flight home was marred by mechanical issues: we had to come back to SFO two hours into the flight to Manila. For the first time ever, we witnessed how the plane jettisoned fuel as we headed back into SFO after the plane somehow lost power (total blackout!) in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Another 4.5 hours in the tarmac (yes, Philippine Airlines never deplaned us) and various engineers later, we were back in the air. As we crossed into Russian airspace, an older man on our flight suffered a stroke: we had to do a medical landing in Alaska. A couple hours later, we were back in the air: total plane time was around 23-25 hours (we lost track, but it was supposed to be about a 15-hour flight). When we landed in Manila, it was quarantine time. The kids were vaccinated at CVS Health last year, but still we all needed to go through a 5-day self-paid quarantine; and then, we were free!

Coming home after such a long trip meant our dog and cats and birds missed us (not sure about our fishes). Once our home is up and running again, we took a break from work in September (to celebrate Karen’s birthday) and went to Panglao and Bohol islands. We saw the world-famous tarsiers, ate worms for snacks, swam with whale sharks (a big one bumped into Royce!), went caving and swam inside the pure waters of a legendary cave, saw the smallest shell in the world, been to centuries’ old cathedrals, went to the usual tourist spots, held a reticulated python as a family, finally saw the Jesus lizard (Philippine sailfin lizard, which walks on water) endemic to the Philippines, and enjoyed great food with family and friends.

As we are set to close our 2022, God blessed Royce De la Cruz Jr. to have a new job as an HR Generalist Senior (Assistant VP) in 花旗 . God blessed Karen to get accepted at Online Master Class in Teaching Research from De La Salle University . She is also blessed to finish her post-graduate degree in Language and Literacy Education from University of the Philippines Open University with very high grades. She is set to march during the graduation rites to be held face-to-face (the first of its kind since the pandemic) in the second week of December 2022. Finally yet importantly, God also blessed her to be a voice coach for a beauty queen. God blessed Kendrick to finish 4th grade (he is now almost done with the 5th grade in school) and to keep on rocking his piano and being able to play hymns at Church (and to be so close to mastering Beethoven’s Für Elise). God blessed Charlotte to complete 3rd grade in school (she is now half-way through 4th grade) and to continue to hone her skills in the violin (she can now do the vibrato!) as she continues to play at Church meetings.

God has blessed us with your love and friendship – and we couldn’t be more fortunate! Thank you for being a HUGE part of our year and as we move on to 2023, we pray that you and your families are safe, happy, and healthy. We love you and thank you for the love!

Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy new year!

Love,

#TheCruisingDelaCruzes

Royce Jr., Karen, Kendrick, and Charlotte