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It was a misty, cloudy morning when I checked in to my motel at the Rockaway Beach off the coast of Pacifica, California. A damp mist dropped like a bridal veil over the SeaBreeze Motel Inn, and sea gulls soared and screeched for attention in the complex currents of air that surrounded the beach cove.

The motel is just a few feet from the pounding surf, leaving the sounds of ocean and sea gulls to my ears as I attempted to sort out the shifting surprises of the days ahead of me. There are faraway places in the heart of every dreamer that call to him across an expanse of possibilities, and Rockaway Beach is now among mine. Although the room was smaller than I expected, the inn's location made up for it. One could leave the window open at night and sleep to the lullaby of the Pacific, floating off to different places on different oceans.

I checked in to this motel, because the Vintar Academy Class of '60 is having their re-union, at Loida's house just a few miles up the hill in San Bruno, California. I just happened to be a member of the class of 1960.

Unlike other re-unions that happen in a day or two, this one was planned to last for 7 days! That's right folks, a full week! All of us were going to hole up in Loida's house for 7 days. It was unheard of, and never been done before. If anyone could do it, it was our .

Ben, Loida and their daughter Cheryl were hosting the party. From San Diego, California, was Celie who practically organized the event. From Hawaii, were Dante and Pilar who brought and spiced the event

with a lot of Ilocano goodies like, marungay, ilukon, bukto, palileng, kamoting kahoy, etc.. There was Ely from Guam who sang songs of tears and joy. From Sacramento, California came Manuel who made us relaxed after a hectic day with his nimble massaging fingers and hands. Elsa joined us early on from Los Angeles and provided an ecstatic, spontaneous musical entertainment never seen before at this side of the Pacific Ocean.

The ever-graceful Nella, who gave us tidbits of Canadian folklore, represented Calgary, Canada. And from the neighborhood came Edna who balanced our insanity with her exquisite recollections of our past childhood via black and white photos taken by her father half a century ago, and the reserved Elma who gave us a glimpse of her beautiful growing family. Edwin came all the way from Vancouver, Canada to make sure that we know our Ilocano, who bested everyone on the Ilocano of everything like insects, birds, plants and animals. Then there was Manning - although he was not present, he gave us constant calls from the Philippines keeping track of the festivities. We could tell his spirit was with us. Way to go, Manning!

We have never seen each other for over 40 years, and suddenly we are coming together again. This made me a little nervous and my anxiety was building up rapidly as the hours went by. But, when I got to Loida's house, I felt that I arrived at a place where everything seemed so right at this very moment of my life. And, I am sure the others felt the same way as they came thru the door one by one. You see, when we were growing up in Vintar, when we get together, it was always in Loida's house. Now, it was yesterday, once more. In Vintar! In Loida's House!

b'day the Sunday we first met and saw each other. The theme was the groovy years of the '60's - everyone tried to dress up like a Hippie. It was so appropriate, since we came of age in the 60's and that the Hippie movement was spawned just a few miles from here in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco.

The attraction of the day was a class graduation photo that was taken at the Rizal monument. Loida posted it on the side of her house under a gazebo like canopy on the way to the backyard where the

food and trinkets were nicely displayed. There's no missing it. Laughter erupts as we looked at ourselves... and re-discover one classmate after another. Those were the good ole days. It brought back memories, pleasant and poignant that were shared during those awkward and amusing teenage years. When one of us began yet another sentence with "I remember when . . . , no one yawned. They remembered, too.

Elsa banged the piano endlessly, and we began singing songs of our childhood years. The Ilocano songs evoked memorable moments that a few of us became happily emotional. The shining moment came when we crowned Loida and the crowd sang 'Happy B'Day'. Each of us got up and took our turn leading her to the dance floor. Then we did a one... two… three. step line dance, forming a snake like figure weaving across the living room. It was a blast! We were all laughing all the way to our '60s.

The casino is located at an Indian reservation, about 2 hours drive from San Bruno, heading north across the Golden Gate Bridge in the wine country of Mendocino. A regular bus was scheduled to run at 8:00 A.M. So we have to wake up early and be at the curb to catch the bus. Little did we know, that this was a day to flex our muscles a bit. It was a promotional day at the Casino, and it was designated as "Seniors" day and there were a lot of freebees that came with it. This

means that there will be a crowd waiting for the bus. Sure enough, there was a sizable crowd at the street corner as the bus stopped to pick us up. The bus seating capacity is about 60 seats. And the crowd was almost twice that number. Something has to give. The jostling, elbowing and pushing for position started long before the bus door opened. And, when it opened there was a rush to get into the bus. Upon seeing this, the bus driver blocked the crowd by standing at the door with a list of reserved names.

For some reason, he did not read the list, which prompted the crowd to surge some more. Courageously, with the presence of mind, Loida grabbed the list of names and stood at the top of the steps and read our names one by one as we entered the bus. Atta girl, Loida! Show them we are from Vintar.

Once inside the bus, we settled in our seats for the 2-hour trip. We brought with us snacks and bottled water to quench our hunger and thirst. It was a safe and beautiful drive going across the countryside and famous vineyards of Mendocino. We arrived on top of a hill where the casino stood like a giant tent with a green canvas rooftop. The sign says, "River Rock Casino". It is nestled along the Russian River between Healdsburg and Cloverdale, the Alexander Valley of Northern California that has a rich history of growing and harvesting grapes for wine. The Pomo Indians, who are not one tribe but rather a group of more than 70 different tribes, have ties to the Alexander Valley that date back as far as 12,000 years ago. Descendants of these early inhabitants are now members of the Dry Creek Band of Pomo Indians who operate the casino.

Inside the casino, there was a line of humanity, packed like sardine cans queued to receive their gambling cards. We were in for the adventure, besides we already hustled vigorously for our bus ride. So, what's new? We got in line, and sure enough, we were hustled again. A few enterprising people wanted to cut in our line, but we stood our grounds. A shoving and shouting matches ensued, until Edna came to the rescue with verbal staccato and Edwin's threat of physical abuse to the offenders. That settled the matter, and left us alone.

We went on to our gambling spree and some of us were busted, and some of us got lucky. Dante made big bucks playing the baccarrats. Loida and Elma got a few dollars playing penny slot machine. Edna was playing even at the tail end of her slot machine. The rest of us had a bad day. But, the star of the moment was Pilar. The minute she cranked up her slot machine, her credits just kept piling up. I saw something in her game that I thought was improbable. In a span of 5 minutes, she hit 3 sevens, 3 times in a row! Her game was something to behold. The people in her alley stopped playing and stood frozen, watching in awe and wonder. From that slot machine alone, she cashed in over $500. She then moved to another slot machine, and lady luck followed her wherever she played.

The only way to tour classy San Francisco is by a limousine. And that's exactly what we did. We saw the "city by the bay" in style. In front of Loida's house, one early morning, we boarded a white limo that was luxurious and screamed, "MOVIE STAR."

First stop was Twin Peaks. There's no better place to see the city than atop this hill. We saw a 360-degree view of the city with all its magnificence and splendor. Windy? Sure. We expected it. What is San Francisco without the wind? It is like New York without skyscrapers. No wonder, the natives just simply call it, "The View." At the summit, was a sidewalk that curved around a portion of the hill. We lingered here and leaned against the railing

and admired the city. There was also an area with telescopic viewers, that for 50 cents, you can get a close-up look at various city landmarks.

We could see the Mission district and Mount Davidson to the South. We looked over the Sunset district and the Pacific Ocean. We saw Haight-Ashbury to the west, the Presidio and the mouth of the bay with the spectacular Golden Gate Bridge to the north. Looking towards downtown, we saw Telegraph Hill, Transamerica Building and the SOMA area.

Next stop was Lombard Street, America's crookedest street. It is sandwiched between Hyde St. from the top and Leavenworth St at the bottom. The steep, hilly street has sharp curves that switchback down the one-way hill past beautiful Victorian mansions. The street was paved with bricks and alive with color, as the chrysanthemums, and other well-tended flowers were in bloom.

The Coit tower was just a few blocks of Lombard Street, so we proceeded to stop here. The brushes and trees were a little bit overgrown, and it was tough to see the Embarcadero down below. But, the other landmarks that were visible were Alcatraz Island, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Financial District and other parts of San Francisco. We missed the murals inside the tower because of limited time.

We saw the bridge at a vantage point where not too many people have the privileged to see. We parked under the bridge close to the first tower that supports the Golden Gate Bridge at the side of San Francisco. We realized the staggering feat that went into building the bridge as we saw how massive the based of the first tower that rises over a height of 500 feet above the roadway.

A BART roundtrip ticket from San Bruno to Powel St, San Francisco is $7.00. We bought our tickets through an automatic ticket machine that accept nickels, dimes and quarters as well as $1, $5, $10, $20 bills and credit cards. You can buy it individually or by group. We decided to get a group ticket and I readily inserted a $20 bill into the machine, pushed the PRINT TICKET button and waited…waited… and waited. But, no ticket came out, nor was the $20 bill. Luckily, there was a lady attendant at the station who grudgingly helped us obtain a group ticket.

BART is primarily a commuter train that serves the Bay Area. This morning, we were a little bit late and found ourselves at the tail end of the morning rush hours. As expected, the parking building was full and we have to park on the street, but we were able to get

A cable car turntable was rotating as we stood and waited our turn to board. There were 2 lines, the Powell-Mason and Powell-Hyde lines. We boarded the latter. The group sat inside, while I decided to hang on outside the tail end of the car, primarily to shoot videos, and to watch how the gripman maneuver the car by shifting a lever mechanism for stop and go.

Once past the car barn, our ride continued across Taylor, Jones, and Leavenworth Streets until it reached Hyde. Here, the thirteen-block stretch of line on Hyde Street was the most scenic and exciting part of the ride. It ran through the colorful neighborhood of Russian Hill, passing restaurants, shops, venerable apartment buildings and homes along the way. At Lombard Street, we saw tourists admiring the 'Crookedest Street in the World,' which twists downhill to the east. From here, a roadside signal tells the crew when it was safe to descend the steepest grade in the cable car system, a loooonnnng two blocks from Chestnut to Bay Street, while we saw a soaring vista of Alcatraz, Angel Island, Mount Tamalpais, and the Golden Gate Bridge. A spectacular view, indeed.

block straight ahead to Hyde Street Pier, where an automobile ferry is preserved along with other historic vessels as part of San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park. One block west is Ghirardelli Square, the first-ever set of historic buildings (chocolate and mustard factories) converted to a shopping center.

It was overcast and a little chilly, but a walk along the shops would warm us up. We by passed the Cannery, and headed directly to the unique shops and restaurants of the famous trendy Pier 39. It has a number of quality stores with a variety of gifts, gourmet foods, and handmade items. There were pedicabs and horse drawn carriages ready to take us around the venues. Street performers adorned the sidewalks. We saw a live human statue covered with silver paint, frozen still. There were musicians, magicians, jugglers, clowns and they made us feel welcome to the Pier.

We lingered beside a famous carousel, taking a break from the walk. A strange thing was happening to us - we bonded while taking that walk in Pier 39. After 40 years without seeing each other, that walk made us one again. Like Alcatraz, just looming at a distance at the middle of the Bay, we became the Rock. So much so, that we agreed to have a reunion every year in different places of the globe.

On our way back to the cable car station, we stopped by Ripley`s Believe It or Not, and like high school kids once more, we ventured to guess whether or not a lady figure was real or fake. The first one who uncovered the truth was the winner. It was a toss up.

larger Aquatic Park. Again, there was a line waiting to board the cable cars. As we approached the entrance gate, a young musician provided live music, tirelessly singing and strumming his guitar, entertaining the crowd. He was within arms length from us. Our group was already in his music, especially the girls, humming and tapping their feet with each song. When he sang, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco", it became so irresistible that Ely and Nella began singing with him. Soon, our group was singing, and the whole line joined in. At the end of the song, he said, "My background group has finally arrived. And we responded by telling him where we came from.

We got back to Powell St. and retraced our footsteps down to the subway. We were in the middle of the commuter evening rush hours, and the train was packed. It was standing room only. Above, inside the train, there were bars to hold on to, but we were a little bit undersize reaching it without tiptoeing. So, we huddled around a vertical pole, because we needed something to grab balancing ourselves as the train speeded up or jerked to stop. However, beginning at the 6th stop, people were getting off the train, and some of us were able to grab a seat.

After half an hour ride, we got off the train in San Bruno. Our walk thru Fisherman`s Wharf, was not about tourism, but more about ourselves getting together. The Wharf provided a background for an endless possibility to us as friends forever.

"No saan mo ammo ti naggapuam, saan ka makadanon iti papanam." Indeed, it seemed so fitting that the last night we were together, we decided to look back and paid homage to our roots, the Ilocano identity. The night asked for Ilocano colorful attires, it got barong tagalog, Maria Clara gowns, Patandiong and Kimona. The night asked for Ilocano gourmet, it got tupig in banana leaves, dinengdeng with mushrooms and clams, saluyot sariwagwag, ginatan bilo-bilo and kilawen. It was a night of festivities, Ilocano style.

After 7 days together, it really took courage to say goodbye. There were many questions answered, and yet there were many more questions to ask. Does it have to end? There were so many beautiful moments made, and there were so many memories regained. Where do we go from here? Why not do it every year? And so, it came into being that the reunion will go on, in Hawaii next year, in Calgary the next, in Guam, in Vintar, and so on. So, there's no goodbye!