My family members and I were so happy yesterday because, finally, it was a sunny day. It has been raining in the past days and weeks. We were planning another field trip this month, but we could not go to where we wanted to go due to the rains.

Praise God for the good weather, yesterday! It was the perfect time to go on a field trip for it was also National Heroes’ Day!

Traffic was light and there weren’t a lot of people in Makati because it’s a non-working holiday.

We were so glad to push through with our plan of going to Makati!

Since Ninoy Aquino Day was celebrated this month (August 21), it was my plan to visit Ninoy Aquino’s monument along Paseo de Roxas. Prior to this visit, we have already read children’s books about Ninoy Aquino.

We also visited the monument of Gabriela Silang, which was on the other side of the Ayala Triangle Gardens. We used to go to Ayala triangle Gardens yearly to watch the festival of Lights during the Christmas Season.

We parked our vehicle at Ayala Triangle Garden’s covered parking. There is open-air parking nearer the Gabriela Silang monument. But because we plan to go to Ninoy Aquino’s monument also and have a picnic at the gardens afterward, we decided it would be best for us to park there.

We walked to Gabriela Silang’s monument from the parking area. It was relatively a small sculpture and it can be quite a challenge to get a good shot with the monument as your background.

One of the things I love about Gabriela Silang is that she continued her husband’s fight after he died. She was not working in the Katipunan behind the scenes. She was also fighting on the battlefield. And she won many battles also!

I want my children to also know Filipina heroes and Katipuneras. I have introduced to them many Filipino heroes. They know many Katipuneros already. I bought a new children’s book about Gabriela Silang for my kids in preparation for this field trip. My eldest child who will be in Grade 8 this new school year finished reading it last week even before our field trip. He shared with us what he learned and discovered from the book on our way to Makati.

After taking photos at Gabriela Silang’s monument, we walked to Ninoy Aquino’s monument. It was good that there are covered walkways along the sidewalk because it was hot.

Gabriela Silang’s monument was more accessible compared to Ninoy Aquino’s monument. We had to walk single file along the main road (Paseo de Roxas) to get to it. It was also challenging to get a good shot since it is along Ayala Avenue and there are vehicles passing by.

After taking photos, we walked back to Ayala Triangle Gardens to eat merienda.

There are many cement benches in the area. There are also wooden and steel tables and chairs around where people can sit and eat.

There were kids riding bikes and scooters when we arrived. There were some kids running around as well.

We took more photos while resting and eating snacks. Our boys ran around also. They also answered some pages on their word search book.

My husband was inspired to ask the two younger boys to memorize the poem Tree since we were surrounded by trees. The boys were close to memorizing the poem completely by the time we were about to leave.

I’m glad that there is a big park like this in Makati and that there are monuments of heroes near it.

We will go back to Ayala Triangle Gardens again next time to have a picnic, to let the boys ride their bikes and run around and visit the monument of Sultan Kudarat.

On our way home, we bought fruit shakes and buco juice. It was so refreshing because we perspired a lot during our field trip and stay at the park.

Tips for Parents

Bring your own water bottles (to save money and be eco-friendly and to be sure you have water to drink even if there are no stores nearby that are open).

Bring extra shirts for the kids and for yourselves. Bring face towels, too.

Bring food.

Bring alcohol, wet wipes, and Lysol. These would come in handy when using the wooden and steel tables and benches.

Let the children wear hats and shades. We arrived at around 4 PM in Makati and it was still very hot.

I hope this blog post helps you plan your next budget-friendly field trip.

How did you celebrate National Heroes’ Day? Share in the comments. I’d love to hear from you, too.