The Panama City Temple ~ Dedicated in 2008

One can see the Panama Canal from the temple grounds.

Miraflores Locks ~ Pacific Panama Canal

Bill and Alice toured the facility at the Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal, arriving just in time to see the last vessel of the morning transit from the lower lock to the higher lock and then out into the open channel leading to Gatun Lake. Bill took video and Alice took still photos of the amazing process!

Then we enjoyed a stroll through the museum and watched a movie presentation regarding the current expansion project which will allow the world's supertankers to transit the Panama Canal. Currently, the locks will not accommodate the largest tankers.

Following our visit to the Canal we drove to the Panama City Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which sits on a hill above the right bank of the canal. It is a beautiful building in a beautiful setting. Corozal American Cemetery lies at the base of the temple site and is the resting place for American military and their dependents, one of 24 American cemeteries on foreign soil around the world.

The Panama City Skyline from Grey Wolf

We have moved a little closer to the city and have actually had clearer days lately for picture-taking. She is still "The Gray Lady" most days, with the steady stream of storms that pass through here in the summertime. There are more skyscrapers to the east, but these two shots show the bulk of the skyline of this city of 2 million!

Alice Visits Atlanta!

On her way from Indio to Panama City Alice deliberately picked an 11 hour layover in Atlanta so she could visit with her sister's family who live there. Sister Ann and her husband and granddaughter also drove down from Chattanooga so they had a grand day together. The family continues to grow, mainly in girls, as shown in the photo above. Left to right- Ann's daughter Darla, her great granddaughter Anna beside her mother Carissa who is expecting another daughter Ella, Ann's granddaughter Kayla, and Ann, Alice's older sister.

Fresno Update~

Now that it is time for Alice to return to Panama City, Panama she finally got in to see an orthopedic specialist! He diagnosed her shoulder problem as a bruised and possibly slightly torn rotator cuff, but with no time to obtain an MRI he simply gave her a cortisone shot- oh, and another in her arthritic knee, then told her not to strain the arm at all for a week... hmm, a fifty lb. duffle bag of boating supplies to take with her... well, all ablebodied men will be recruited to help out.

Alice spent last week in Clovis, CA, a suburb of Fresno, with daughter Alison and son-in-law Rod and the eight children at home. It was a busy but happy time. She got to take Jacqueline and Andrea to gymnastics and FIVE of them to piano lessons. She also helped with a bridal shower for Rod's cousin and tried to keep the kids on track with their jobs around the yard, as the wedding reception was held at their home last Saturday! The shots above show 17 year old Blake and Grant, 10 with John, 2.

And now she bids adieu to all the challenges she has had with house and car repairs and the concerns for her brood, even though they are all grown. A mother's heart is always tender when it comes to her children and grandchildren. There will be lots of prayers for their welfare while she enjoys being back on Grey Wolf with her Honey!

A Sailboat on the Rocks...

On Friday August 7, 2009 a terrible storm hit Panama City. Bill was alone on Grey Wolf and had to battle the wind and the waves for quite a while, trying to raise the anchor that had begun to slip. When he finally got it up it was tangled in a cable, a fish net, and a flotation device!! The next time Bill was on shore he spotted the remnants of a sailboat someone had left on a mooring. The above photo shows what happened to it when it slipped in the storm and blew onto the rocks... devastation like we have never seen before. We have seen boats beached, but never destroyed like this one...SCARY!

Happy Birthday, Justin!

Since Alice was home in July, she decided to have a little birthday party for Justin, who turned 28 on July 11. Owen and Melinda came to the desert for the weekend and Eric and daughter Kaeli came over to help celebrate. Arlene had to work, unfortunately. Justin's friend Sandy Montez joined us, too! Football season is gearing up at Palm Desert High where Justin will again be one of the coaches, keeping a hectic schedule between there and Big Horn Country Club where he now works.

Panama - Part Two

After we left Costa Rica we took our time going to Panama the second time. Alice misunderstood the writeup on Coiba National Park, located on and around Isla Coiba. She thought the place we anchored was free- NOT. We had pulled in and dropped anchor at 3 AM, only to wake up and find a patrol boat bearing down on us, informing us that we must go to park headquarters and pay! (See photo above.) So Bill put the dinghy in the water and we took off to pay up- only to learn they wanted $60 a day for the boat, PLUS $20 a person! We didn't even have that much money on us, so we paid them what we had and promised to leave immediately~ We made sure the next anchorage was free!

An overnighter then took us on to Panama City, where we decided to anchor on the city side of Isla Flamenco rather than the canal side. It is calmer there, even if it is dirtier. We hooked back up with our faithful cabbie, Roosevelt, and managed to get checked in and do some provisioning before it was time for Alice to fly home, as she had fallen on the pilot house steps and wrenched her right shoulder. Poor Bill~ alone for two whole months.

Just before Alice left, we went to Punta Culebra, a lovely nature park within walking distance of our anchorage. It is run by the Smithsonian and was loaded with interesting flora and fauna, as well as educational displays. As we were viewing the shark exhibit the skies opened up and it POURED rain for about 40 minutes. We got to know the sharks and the park guide really well while waiting for the rain to stop! The starfish shown above was one of many breathtaking displays we saw there.

Costa Rica: Part Three

We arrived back in Costa Rica after a five day adventure traveling westward and stopping three places to anchor and rest along the Panamanian coast. We were able to visit with our friends Ray and Paddy before she flew to England for three weeks. In the time we spent here at their dock we were keeping a watchful eye on Ray and their place. Bill assembled and tried out our new, lightweight dinghy complete with beach wheels. He also painted the top of the boat and all the decks, so Grey Wolf looks mighty spiffy again! The salt air is a killer on anything on the boat's exterior, including paint. Rain is now a daily event here, if not two or three times in one day! The air temperature is rather moderate now and life would be wonderful here if not for the humidity. It could be worse, though!

Before Paddy left, she and Alice had the opportunity of visiting Bob Beatham's Finca (farm) in the highlands about an hour from Golfito. What a beautiful collection of plants he has and what a delight to listen to him describe their uses, both culinary and medicinal! The pink torch ginger shown above was photographed there. The birds turned out nicely and provided a marvelous opportunity for photos, too. One of the workers tried to direct our eyes to a long-tailed fowl in the top of the trees, but we missed it. Another day Alice saw a red-beaked toucan but she was without camera- darn...

By the time we were ready to head back to Panama Alice had developed some strange malady that affected her joints, especially in her shoulders and hands. In spite of the fact that she really did not want to leave Bill alone again, Bill insisted she book a flight home to get medical care. She will fly home from Panama City on June 24 and will be home two months. Bill will get to enjoy Islas Las Perlas without her, unfortunately. He will have to take lots of cool photos~