Panama Canal Cruise

On January 16th we set sail for the Panama Canal and a visit to Columbia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Mexico. We travelled on the Norwegian Star with my three brothers, their wives and Papa. We had many adventures on board ship and off! Papa organized a scavenger hunt on the ship on one of the days we were at sea. Brother Dick and his wife, Sandy, won. We ate dinner together every night so we could share all we had seen and done during the day. A Shuffle Board contest was always in the works, as well as several games of Bananas! Ask me sometime about being hypnotised on stage during one of the shows!!

The trip through the canal lasted all day. It cost our ship a little over $340,000.00 to go through; and there were dozens of ships lined up to travel through, too! The scenery was absolutely beautiful.....the jungle was right there!!

While in Costa Rica, Papa, Dick and I zip lined through the canopy. Didn't see any monkeys, but did see a caballero on horseback. (For those who zip lined with me in Puerto Vallarta, a special note: notice the double rope instead of the wire, braking was with the back hand, and we actually stayed up off the ground during all of the zipping. There were just little platforms about 24 inches wide to stand on before going on to the next one......it was quite thrilling.....you didn't want to have a bad heart!!)

In Huatulco, Mexico, Papa and I took a white water rafting trip. We saw two families doing their wash and thousands of birds. The river we were on, the Copalito River, actually took as right out to the ocean. You won't see any pictures of this adventure because we forgot our camera and borrowed Aunt Janie's (knew she would be faint of heart if she knew where her camera was going!!!)

In Acapulco, we saw the cliff divers. Now, there are some brave lads!! They actually have a union now and it's a big business. Girls are diving, but we didn't get to see any of them. You have to be descended from a cliff diver in order to perform.

Our last stop was Cabo San Lucas where we para sailed with brother Mike and his wife, Becky.
Weather for the entire trip was sunny, in the 80's and 90's, and, of course, pretty humid.

We started our trip in Portland at Kennedy School McMenamin's with Amy and her family for dinner, and ended the trip at LAX's Encounters with Jennifer and Danielle for lunch. What a way to travel!!

Papa is ready for an American adventure next.....Mt. Rushmore!!