The Panama Canal: Locks n Crocs

Wren and I saw the Panama Canal. It is absolutely amazing how the locks work. You can check out a great description of how they work here.

Or for visual...

 Super top view.

We toured the Panama Canal museum/information center. This photo is from a virtual crossing station they have in the center.

This nice guy called in Joe Biden for us to see.

And there he is center-ish, Joe Biden, the smaller of the two guys in the blue shirt. That was pretty cool.

 Also pretty cool? This sign. Especially because on our train ride, Wren questioned my croc sighting... but now he knows, now he knows.

Pretty cute sign for such a crazy, snaggle-toothed, dangerous reptile, eh? Yah for locks, spontaneous celebrity sightings, and crocs!

The Panama Canal Railway

We rode the Panama Canal train! It is a railway line that links the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The rout is 47.6 miles across the Isthmus of Panama from Colon (Atlantic) to Balboa (Pacific). Construction started in 1850 and took 5 years to complete. It was integral in the construction of the Panama Canal.

It took us through towns,

 And across waters. Oh, and in those waters I saw a Crocodile... that was cool.

Trains are fun, they come with so much history and romance.

 We had a great ride.

Panama, La Isla Grande

After a 3 day cruise, Wren and I land in Panama. It's sweaty, wooey! We must travel from Colon to La Isla Grande, and we do so by catching a cheap cab (only $2!), to a retired and pimped up school bus, where we meet a couple who are traveling house-sitters!

We take a teeny boat the 8 minute ride across the water to La Isla Grande, where we will be for two nights.

We find a quaint place to stay, then move on to more important things... batidos (milkshakes)!

We explore a bit and find a cute restaurant with swings for chairs! I love it!

Though the island is called Grande, it is small enough for us to hike across. Though along the hike, we saw the Grande-est spider we've ever seen! Yowza!

 Once safely on the other side, Wren puts his "deserted island" skills to use by opening us a coconut!

It was so delicious!

 One of our surprisingly favorite things about the island (and as we noticed further into our trip) were the leaf-cutter ants. This is a poor photo, but the path you see there is actually made by them, going on for quite a while, many times we would follow the trail and not find the end.

Here's an online photo and some fun facts! These ants can carry up to 50 times their weight, they travel several hundred meters in search for the right leaves, the leaves they bring back to their nest is to fertilize a special fungus which is their food, their nests contain over 5 million ants and be the size of a small car! Neato!

Speaking of bugs, being that it was so hot, and our room's window screens were ripped, we were kinda devoured by mosquitos...

Regardless, the quaint, mellow island was a great start to our Panama experience, and we both agreed that we really like it here.

Cruise to Panama

This year I had a two week adventure/job in California, and halfway through, Wren says, "Wanna take a 3-day cruise to Panama? I've got everything worked out, all you need to do is say yes." So what's a girl to say, right? So I drive from California to Portland where I leave Vince (my van) at my friend Pauls house.

Then I take an overnight flight to Miami where Wren and the boat await.

Once on the boat we went straight to the buffet for our first "free" lunch of the trip. Then it was time to tour the boat, and what better way but as certified tourists, complete with these SWEET Hawaiian shirts I was gifted in Cali.

There was a welcoming celebration where the captain spoke and they handed out champagne! Wren doesn't drink, so I got two... then one more somehow... free drinks are fun!

 The shows were fun, a juggler, singers and dancers, and a few aerial acts with really fun apparatus' like these chandeliers here... 

 And these bungee-ers were super fun to watch.

Another favorite was the buffet! Check out this huge cheese!

After all the fun shows and buffet-ing, we were thankful for the on-board gym.

 Some other notables over the 3 days were: watching part of the Wizard of OZ from an outdoor hot tub, witnessing the pilot board the pilot ship while we were crusing, seeing Cuba, being warm, killing it at shuffle board, and reading my book in the sun by the pool. This so beats flying... thanks Royal Caribbea-Wren!

Halloween in California

This year I was in California for Halloween. Here are some ridiculous outfits from the adventure.

Hmm.

Ok, yes, good one there.

There we go, that's better. I finally decided on this gem. I ended up being a Pound Puppy Princess. Wren (with only an over-the-phone description of the costuem) shortened it to the Bitch, which I thought was funny.

Annie was the artist behind the dog-bones on my chest. I absolutely loved them.

This was part of a crazy circus-ish Halloween show I saw that night. Complete with performer spankings! 

Chloes post-Halloween eating technique. Good times!

Moisture Festival Benefit Show

I feel pretty lucky to have been invited to perform for the Moisture Festival Benefit Show (Here's there facebook page). It was so much fun, and I'm really getting to know more of the folks involved in this and loving the whole thing. There was a huge auction that raised over $30,000 for next years festival. Wow. 

MC'd by Kevin Joyce.

 I did the chair dance.

 Dancing ='s eating.

 Henrik Bothe.

 Jay Alexander.

  Lori and Graeme of Duo Rendevous.

Lori and I together with our love of nose-decor.

What a fun night. Thanks Moisture Festival!

Claire

I recently cought up with an amazing friend: Claire Hillsinger. I was coming through Portland and she and her awesome BF Paul put me up for the night, had a fun and hilarious care package for me, and treated me to breakfast in the morning. I've had so many good times with Claire, and think she's just the best. One of the items in the care package was a high school photo of herself that you can get a peek of in this photo. What a gal.