When I showed the girls the picture of the pool area, they got super excited. We had an early start, because there were supposed to be strikes that Friday, so we left for the airport earlier than we really needed to, just to be absolutely sure that we didn't miss our flight. We got there smoothly, and then spent some time hanging out at the only sit down restaurant at the airport.
The coloring and breakfast eating wore the girls out.
The flight itself was less than two hours, and we had arranged for a transfer to the hotel. I'm really glad we did, because Mom said that they had to conduct some heavy negotiations with taxi drivers when they got to the airport, and I hate doing that. Our driver was really friendly and spoke great English. I think he was actually kind of disappointed that we spoke Spanish. Our hotel was on the other side of the city, facing the Pacific, so it took a little while to get there, but we found an enthusiastic greeting party awaiting us.
It was too early for our rooms to be ready, but Mom and Dad had their room already, so we went up to change, and then headed to the pool. It was pretty full, but with some patience, we managed to acquire some good seats in the shade.
Vivian and I also went for a walk to explore the beach area.
There were a lot of shells, so we had fun picking the best. We also found this really cool sign that someone had made with shells. We couldn't resist taking a picture.
Back at the pool, everything was relaxed until we were visited by a lizard that almost gave Mom a heart attack. One of the other guests scared it back into the bushes, but we took that as our sign to leave.
We had fed the girls poolside, so we cleaned them up and left them with a movie while we went to check out the club level.
They had quite a spread, including romantic mashed potatoes.
It was good food combined with a great view, so we were really glad we had paid the little bit extra per day for it.
The next day, our start was too early to check out the club breakfast though. We had to be at the marina at 6:30 for our Panama Canal full day crossing. We had some snacks for the girls though, and we knew we would get a real breakfast on the boat.
The marina at sunrise made a for a beautiful send off.
We could see Panama City waking up in the distance.
Even though we got to the boat at the time we were told, it was already quite full, so it took us a little while to find seats. We ended up finding a great space for us though. It was a big raised table near the front and surrounded by windows, so we set up shop there.
They had divided the passengers into color-coded groups and given us corresponding bracelets. We were purple, so we had to wait to be called for breakfast, but once we got it, the fruit and coffee cake were big hits with everyone.
While we were eating breakfast, the boat's captain was being given instructions on our canal crossing group. Because it takes so much water to operate the canal, they try to put as many boats or ships as possible in at one time. We were given two buddies, a big ship carrying wind turbine parts and another tourist boat. Once we had our group, it was time to enter the canal. First, we went under the Bridge of the Americas.
Our boat was going from the Pacific side to the Caribbean side. That meant we had to go up to the lake level, across the lake, and then back down on the other side.
While the whole day was fun, the first lock was definitely the most exciting. The big ship went in first, then our buddy boat, and then us.
Our buddy boat tied itself to the big ship, and we tied ourselves to our buddy boat. The big ship also had metal ropes tied to "mules" on either side to help stabilize it. We had a guide on board giving commentary throughout the whole thing, and he explained that without these precautions, we could potentially start spinning in circles with the force of the water entering the lock. Even with the precautions, you could see where boats and ships had left paint marks on the sides of the canal.
He also explained that when the doors to the lock opened, a huge amount of fresh water came and mixed with the saltwater. This stunned all the fish and sent them floating to the top, so it was a seabird "sushi buffet".
Once we were all in and secured, it was time for the doors to close.
We were amused by the canal workers who were calmly waiting for the doors to close all the way, so that they could walk across.
Slowly, but surely, we worked our way up.
We went back and forth between watching from the inside and watching from the outside.
Judy helped me check out the "mules" along the side of the canal.
Eventually, it was time to eat again, and the lunch was pretty good, with things the girls were willing to eat.
We had different canal pilots for different parts of the canal, and Jeff caught a photo of one of them getting off our boat.
It was definitely a long day, but we had brought devices for the girls, and they also found fun in unexpected places.
When they got a little stir crazy, we just took them out for some fresh air.
When we got to the other side of the canal and the locks taking us back down, the big ship came behind us, which was a bit alarming, but gave us a fun new angle for photographs.
When we got to the Caribbean side, it started raining pretty hard and we were bouncing around quite a bit, so we were very glad to arrive at the marina on that side and transfer to the bus which would take us back to Panama City.
It was definitely a LONG day, but I'm so glad we did it. Mom got to see the canal, and we all got to enjoy it with her.
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