El Valle

On Saturday the fourth, we headed out to El Valle for a 4th picnic/cookout with some of Stephen and Jen's friends of which they have a number of very nice interesting ones, several of whom are former Peace Corps Volunteers. Leave Panama City for about an hour on an interstate type highway then turn off the road onto a beautiful mountain road up and over the rim of an old volcano and into the valley, clever name huh - the Valley - little Spanish lesson here for you guys. "El Valle" now you know some Spanish. -- It pays to read this thing -- keep it up and you will be multi lingual.



The party was great, - of course loud and lasted far longer than Patt or I did. We had a room in a small 8 room hotel in town, or what there is of one.-- "The Valley" is not the biggest town you ever saw, - no stoplights for one thing.



The food was great, lots of it, and guests brought a mixture of things to add, mango cobbler for one, Patt made apple pies, and there were copious quantities of beverage of choice including Budweiser since it was the 4th and all.













Since it was the 4th and beverages were consumed, it was time to do the time honored US custom of riding in pick up trucks, so we secured drivers, (being in need of such) and went to the top of mountain top road reachable by 4 wheeling trucks, so we could see the Pacific. It was of course a lot of fun and very nice ride. I think I remember from Peace Corps Days activities of a similar ilk - though I think it may be typical of many young ex-pats on holidays.

trip down the canal

Here are the photos of our trip down the canal as we flew in on Friday. really nice, though cloudy in spots as you can see. great and thrilling to see the canal from end to end.

today the 4th we celebrated in El Valle, that will be another post. I am a day behind, but that is best I can do for now.






Bridge of the Americas and the Pan American highway -



cargo being loaded at west end -




Stephen with his future mother-in-law in our room at the Hotel. Fatima or Fa is such a fine and fun person to be with. Patt and I like her a lot and enjoy being with her very much. Stephen is once again -- a lucky guy.- and he knows it too.




the view from our "veranda" or whatever in front of our room -- replete with swim up bar under the thatch roof.




Our room is one of the middle ones just past the 3rd palm tree, - not so fancy, but nice location

Arrived for the event

We are here after a safe and nice flight via Continental Air. Flew right down the Canal. East to West, through the clouds saw about 70% of it out the left side of the plane, have a bunch of photos but the connection is so slow I can not load them, tried last night, and will try again later when I have a better connection. Had a delightful dinner last night, with Stephen and Jen, then Fa, Jen's Mom, joined us at our hotel and we visited late.

this morning we are headed out to El Valle for the weekend, I think Charles and Linda are joining us. El Valle is a small mountain town about 90 minutes east of here, where Stephen and Jen have a house. Fourth of July happens here too, It is just not as big a deal- and is not a national holiday - go figure.

more later and lots of photos, when I can

an early morning

When we were visiting Stephen and Jen a week or so ago, we had the opportunity to see the start of a somewhat regular day, (of course I use the word "regular" rather loosely here )-- but we have

Stephen on the way to work -- in this case I think it was Mexico - or El Salvador - or I forget, however it was not -- "the office"




then we have Deuce checking out to see if Stephen gets his ride





and Deuce continuing his vigil.




Jen and Deuce enjoying the morning sun. Deuce is helping with the note writing, or at least acting as if he cares, which he most certainly does if Jen is involved.

the school Spring Program

A few weeks ago Julianna school class presented a school dance choreography type thing that was a precursor for and training for the Olympics opening ceremonies. The class: Julianna is front row left.




It is possible to pick Julianna out of the crowd of students in her class of 40-50 kids, in the 3 year old class. She is the one in the dress with flowers on it and yellow ribbon belt.



A Grandfather thinks this is really special stuff so you all indulge me




so now you get to see them too. I think you will be able to identify Julianna, you may have to double click on the photo to enlarge in to find her, but she is there. (notice the intent following of instructions) (and the instructions were not in Spanish)

seeing Andrew

Last Weekend we visited Graham, with a crowd of Aunts and Uncles to see Andrew, home from the adventures of the magic kingdom as he called it. Andrew looked really good and like he enjoyed the command.



He had many stories to tell and we Uncles were a good audience and his Dad a proud listener too.

It seems as if wherever Andrew goes the President follows, go figure, but this time, the President did not get to see Andrew nor Andrew him as he did not come by the embassy - should have.






Also Aunts and Mom in attendance. and neighbors and parents of other Marines

it not the heat its the humidity

Patt and I did have a delightful time with the kids and our granddog. and getting back home was nice. and being back at work reminds me of why I work, -- so I can travel to see our kids again. We enjoyed our time visiting Stephen and Jen very much. Had an uneventful flight back, though on a different airline (that was a bit of a story) but we are back nonetheless and work and heat were waiting for us. You would have thought the weather came with us. This place too is hot. If you want to sweat, Just go outside. Heat index was into triple digits today. --felt like it too.

We did settle on a Hotel for our stay in the city . Hotel Panama. It is behind the Veneto and near a host of restaurants and Stephen and Jen's apartment. It also is in the midst of a lot of traffic. and it happens to be 1,609 miles from Raleigh -- Panama City that is. and will be a great place to stay, meet with people and so on while we are in the city, so youall come by. It has a quite famous and beautiful pool.

and if I were not going to be in Panama City I just may have to travel 8,233 miles to visit some grandchildren who read to us last night via web cam. Now that too was special !! You should have seen/heard it.

So Monday we will be at work bright and early getting ready to travel again.-- you can count on that.

Some of the last (but not last minute) details

Some of you have never been shopping with Stephen, -- keep it that way -- As both Patt and Jen have been shopping many times they went "shopping with Stephen" by leaving Stephen with me elsewhere. Later Stephen and I joined them for a speed walk through of "decision time". We bought the dress coat for wedding day, and a couple of other essential activities yesterday. For example:

one of the essentials-- the ring


that one (two minutes after entering)


the act of trying it on---- (of course to small so off to the size thingee)


Decision made----,total elapsed time ---6 - perhaps as many as 7 minutes


the brain trust --planning the Welcome event for Thursday evening


as we have mentioned the location will be beautiful


agreeing to the Peruvian Chief and menu and "stations" and an endless list of final details for the "Welcome " event


just a random view out Stephen and Jen's apartment window, that is the Pacific in the distance and the Canal Causeway Island, they do live in a large city with lots of construction still going on - and lots in pause mode too.

We meet the Granddog

This is Deuce, our Granddog, Patt and I have never had a Granddog before, but do now and this is Deuce, named for number two, (hence the deuce) clever huh?




Deuce has a toy she cares for, and also thinks many many other things in the apartment are toys. You know, furniture, magazines, anything in the trash can, clothing left carelessly close to dog mouth high, and so on.



Deuce is attentive to Jen no matter where Jen is or what she is doing.



and it is apparent that Deuce helps around the house (you got that right)



Jen walks Deuce through the neighborhood and is greeted by the doormen/security guards, vendors of various street goods and a host of others on their regular walks- so they are well known and well recognized (well who'd have thought it) and are obviously well thought of and cared for.


and I even took her for a walk - so I could sweat - I should mention, it is hot in this county

one busy weekend

Last Thursday Patt and I hosted Stephen and some of his groomsmen for dinner on the deck (storms in New England altered flight plans for some guests) . After dinner the guys headed to the coast for charter fishing.





these are the guys at the beach house, Stephen is in good company. We will see this crowd soon for a more significant occasion
left to right, Mariano, Brian, Charles, Doug, Stephen, Zach, Alex -- missing Andrew.



On Sunday we had a crowd for brunch and shuttle to the airport. Sunburned and happy and making plans for helping making Stephen and Jen's pending nuptials a rousing and memorable success.