I was born in the mountains. The mountain city of Baguio in the Philippines, to be exact. Although I was only there for the first decade of my life, it has indelibly stamped itself into my psyche as home. When people ask me where I’m from, this is the first city that comes to mind before I realize they really meant where do I live now as opposed to where I was born.

On September 1st, Baguio will celebrate its 100th year as a city and various celebrations are being planned to commemorate this event stretching into the end of this year.

For a short history of the city, here is the condensed version from the Baguio Centennial website:

Baguio city, Benguet prov., NW Luzon, the Philippines. Baguio is the summer capital of the country. Originally settled by the Spanish, Baguio developed only after the American occupation, when a modern city was laid out (1909) by Daniel H. Burnham and roads were built (the first in 1913) to connect it with the main highways. The city was captured early (Dec., 1941) in World War II by Japanese land forces. Baguio City was established by Americans in 1900 at the site of an Ibaloi village known as Kafagway. Baguio City was designated by the Philippine Commission as the Summer Capital of the Philippines on June 1, 1903 and incorporated as a city by the Philippine Assembly on September 1, 1909. There is a presidential mansion, as well as supreme court and legislative offices in Baguio. Baguio is the seat of government of the Cordillera Administrative Region. The name of the city is derived from the word bagiw in Ibaloi, the indigenous language of the Benguet Region, meaning ‘moss’. The city is at an altitude of approximately 1500 meters (5100 ft) in a moist tropical pine forest conducive to the growth of mossy plants and orchids.
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We were testing out my birthday present from my sister O this weekend. She gave me a new digital camera, a Canon Powershot SD1200IS. This is my favorite shot, which I didn’t take. My daughter Jade took the picture of The Clone.

This is submitted for the McLinky Tuesday Blog Hop for this week’s them: FAVORITE PHOTO(S). Everyone on the list below is posting their favorite photo today, so get hoppin’!

By the way, if you would like Brent, the owner of McLinky, to consider publishing your photos in SeriousLife Magazine (www.seriouslifemagazine.com), submit them here:
http://www.seriouslifemagazine.com/submit_content_forms.asp?c=photos

CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO SEE THE WIDGET AND EVERYONE WHO IS PARTICIPATING IN THIS BLOGHOP.
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I just found out about the Weekly Blog Hop today and it seemed like a fun meme I decided to join. What’s the Weekly Blog Hop?

Each week, on Tuesday, MckLinky will host a “blog hop”. All participants are invited to put up a post on the same day and post the SAME MckLinky list as everyone else. Everyone who participates is automatically registered to win $100. A winner will be picked each week after the blog hop.

This week TUESDAY, 7/7/09, the theme is: “Your favorite PHOTO and caption”

Since I just found out about this event this morning and today is Tuesday, I looked through my photo files and realized I hadn’t posted this picture yet. If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you know they’re my favorite subjects to blog about and to photograph. These are my daughters right after our haircut session early in the spring. Yep, we just got up one day and decided to cut each other’s hair. Well, I did most of the cutting. I think I didn’t do so badly, and look at the money we saved! They’ve got a lot of hair!
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Submitted for Wordless Wednesday. Click here to see other Wordless Wednesday participants.

Check out my other WW post In Our Backyard.