Unlike last Saturday, Nick came to the apartment before 8:00, and he brought his little sister, Rose.  I had advised him yesterday to come any time between 7:30 and 8:00 so that we could depart no later than 8:00.  I said that I’d arise at 7:30 and if they were to come early enough they could eat breakfast here — and perhaps look at Saturday morning cartoons while I’d prepare to go.  Last night I set my alarm clock for 7:20.  Wouldn’t you know it: Nick rapped on my bedroom window at 7:18.

So I went to the door and let in the kids.  I fed them breakfast, and they watched a cartoon while I ate breakfast, drank tea, then gathered my camera bag, umbrella, keys, wallet and sunglasses.  At 7:58 we hiked up to Tuding Road/Antamok Road to await a jeepney ride to downtown Baguio City.  Every jeepney that passed us trailing a cloud of poisonous soot was full of passengers, and every taxi driver returning to the city honked a horn at us hoping for a fare.  So eventually we boarded a taxi for a 65-peso ride toward Bayanihan Park.

We stepped onto Harrison Road’s sidewalk and hustled down to Gregorio Street to get a jeepney bound for P.M.A.  I don’t know how long the ride lasted nor what the fare was.  I had given money to Nick to pay for everything today. After 20-25 minutes, I suppose, the jeepney turned into Fort Del Pilar, home of P.M.A.  It’s a beautiful campus, and we enjoyed beautiful weather, as we had yesterday.  It’s “better in Baguio.”

At 9:00 the P.M.A. cadre and cadet leaders (appointed members of their classes) began a weekly inspection of the cadets’ parade uniforms and rifles on the boulevard in front of the barracks.  I suppose that this follows inspection of the cadets’ barracks rooms.

By 9:55 the inspection was finished, and the cadets trooped away to their barracks to doff their grey wool jackets, white trousers, and feathered hats with nose straps.  I assume that they’re at liberty for the remainder of today and tomorrow.

Several cadets’ families waited for the conclusion of the inspection to make family photos and pics of ‘their’ cadets posing with their roommates.  I’ll bet that the families were waiting to whisk their cadets away, to their homes or to Baguio City for lunch.

Nick and I had hoped to see the cadets parade – pass in review – following inspection, as they do some Saturdays.  But they didn’t today.  Good for them; they could go sooner into their dormitories to switch their uniforms for comfortable street clothes and high-tail it to the big city for leisure time.  But Nick and Rose weren’t treated to a dazzling display, and I didn’t get photos of parading classes and the P.M.A. marching band.

A mother of one of the cadets, watching and waiting in the shade of a pavilion, with several other parents and grandparents, had told me that silent rifle drills would be conducted at 10:00.  So I had thought that such would provide nice photo opportunities for me.  But the cadets, when dismissed, casually walked upstairs to their barracks. One class did march silently in a column of four abreast to their distant dormitory.

We rode a jeepney from a nearby parking lot on P.M.A. back to Baguio City downtown.  But we didn’t ride all the way to the Gregorio Street terminus; we hopped out onto Harrison Road at Abad Santos, because the kids wanted to cycle in Burnham Park as they did yesterday.  So I rented a bike for Nick and a trike for Rose and bought a newspaper to read on the grass.  After a while I realized that I could take photos, as I had a camera with me.  So I tried for some candid pictures of kids enjoying themselves then I resumed reading.  After an hour, when Rose and Nick had worked-up appetites, we went to lunch, picked up a few groceries, then returned to Tuding.