What happens when a Gen Xer and a Millennial go on vacation

It was going to be our first vacation together, just the two of us, my 27-year-old millennial daughter and Gen Xer me, and I was just a little bit anxious. I knew exactly how she’s like on vacation. She’s the type who’d research each and every must-visit spot of a particular destination, plotting her itinerary to squeeze in as many sights to see and activities to do as possible. Well, I’m nothing like that when I go on a real vacation.

I’ve gone to different types of vacations: the ones where I’m with my kids and I do all the heavy lifting, the ones where I’m with colleagues or friends and we follow a planned itinerary, and the ones where I’m with my significant other and we just do basically nothing. Needless to say that it’s the last that I enjoy best.

My daughter E, the bikini mogul in the making, had landed a consignment deal with a chain of stores specializing in swimwear. One of their stores was in Boracay, and she wanted to check out how her bikinis were being presented. So she decided to go on a store visit cum vacay with me as her companion. She was going to pay for my tickets and I’ll just take care of my drinks. Good deal!

Fortunately, E got so crazy busy that she wasn’t able to do any planning at all. A couple of days before we were to fly off, she asked me anxiously: “But what are we going to do there?” And I said, “Nothing!” Good plan!

In recent years, a lot of people had written off Boracay, saying it has become less than ideal. In some ways, I agree. There are too many resorts, too many fast food stores, too many tricycles. Too many!

Yes, Boracay may not be what it was once or, at least, what we remember of it, but it still has the most awesome sand and the most beautiful sunset. Like most anything, Boracay can be heaven or hell, it just depends on how you look at it.

So how did we spend our days? We followed our tummy!

food1-okay — Cocktails at the Beach Hut Bar with sticks of isaw as pulutan.

chori-x — Couldn’t leave Boracay without having a Chori Burger!

Here, E was the most efficient food guide. She’ll look up restaurants with good reviews so we always had a fairly good idea of where we’d end up. This is so unlike my old school impulse to just walk in a restaurant, and pray we’d get lucky. It was through her Internet savvy that we discovered the different sauces of Spice Bird, the Mati Sin of La Cozina, and the champorado of The Sunny Side Cafe. Because it usually rained in the mornings, we’d sleep in and discuss what we’ll have for lunch while eating breakfast. One time, I had beer with my Eggs Benedict. Another time, we had crepes for lunch. It was all good. We rode up the crazy creaking elevator up to Nami only to have rain wash out what was supposedly the best sunset view on the island. No worries, we comforted ourselves with pancit and inihaw na liempo. E insisted we have dinner at The Original Hawaiian Barbeque. The ribs were really tasty, but I think that E liked the fire dancers more than the grub. She was so happily entertained that she even stood on her chair just to get a better look at the dancers.

tibraz-eka — We always had dessert. This one at Ti Braz is crepe slathered with nutella and topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Yum!

mati-sin — In our book, the winner for best dessert is Mati Sin. Now, this is a lava cake – the kind that just melts in your mouth, leaving you smiling and speechless.

Which didn’t mean that we didn’t do a bit of work. We did.

On our last day in Boracay – because, of course, cramming – we went to Spider House for a buwis buhay shoot, with E walking up the dock with wild waves splashing behind her and sitting by the edge of a plank again with wild waves making a whirlpool below her. It was crazy! But it was fun!!

As it turned out, I shouldn’t have been anxious at all. Whatever they say about the gap been Gen Xers and Millennials, I believe that mutual respect will resolve anything, most specially when you’re on vacation! Mwahahaha!