Panama: The Old City

Just months before a global pandemic, Gretchen's Girl Scout leader proposed that we take an international trip as a troop. An educational trip, to visit somewhere we wanted to learn more about. After considering the available options, we set our sights on "An Adventure in Panama", and proceeded to sell cookies and fall products over the next couple of years to help assist with the cost. Last Monday, we returned from this incredible trip.

Panama is such an interesting country. Far more than "that country with a canal", it has coastline on the Pacific and Atlantic (Caribbean) oceans, mountains, lakes, jungles, wildlife and a beautiful skyline! It was industrialized and safe and fascinating; surpassing my expectations in every way. 

Panama is geographically important in a few different ways. It was the final piece of the puzzle connecting North America and South America, which by all accounts happened pretty recently. Somewhere around 3 millions years ago a whole bunch of volcanos exploded a whole lot of material and connected the two massive continents. This allowed for anything that wanted to walk across the continents to be able to do so without having to cross water. It also meant that a big ol' land wall was put up where the oceans previously connected. More on that to come. 

A the beginning of the 1500s, Rodrigo de Bastidas left Venezuela and sailed west looking for gold. Fresh off of his voyage from Spain to the Caribbean, Christopher Columbus decided to continue traveling west and landed in Panama about a year later. These fellas lead to Spain learning all about Panama and alerting the European world that there was a skinny, 50 mile strip of land that was a whole lot easier to cross than going all the way around the continent of South America. So, the Spaniards took over and the native people fought back, died of new European diseases and then retreated into the mountains and jungles around the country. 

The Spanish ruled for the next 300 years, during which time they built towns, squares and, of course, churches. We explored the remnants of Panama Viejo, the original site of Panama City, which at its peak had a population of 10,000 but crumbled after fire, earthquakes, pirates and privateer Henry Morgan pillaged the city. 

The cathedral still stands, and you are able to climb up to the top for a really great view of both the original Panama Viejo, and the glistening new skyline which has developed from the relocation of Panama City after it's destruction. 

In the foreground there is old city ruins, the background is the shiny new Panama City skyline.

And out the other side of the tower you can see the Pacific Ocean, a mountain range and a whole line up of ships waiting for entrance to the Panama Canal. 

As we followed the trails around the old city, we saw lizards and iguanas and so, so many mangos. Our guide showed us the best way to "pick" ripe mangos. 1) Find a fallen mango. 2) Throw it into the tree 3) mangos fall from the sky! Gretchen was an expert!

This was a great introduction to the city. Comparing the old and new, and leaving with some delicious treats for later. We saved our mangos, and ventured into Casco Antiguo for lunch at Fonda Lo Que Hay. This was my favorite food stop of the trip!

After lunch, we walked a couple of blocks over to the Panama Canal Museum. This was a full walk from start to finish of the planning, construction, staffing and (at times) failings of the canal. It is a fascinating history, with lots of casualties and conflict, but ended in the completion of the canal in January 1915 and shortening the shipping route from NYC to San Fransisco by over 8,000 miles.

We had a few hours left in the day, so we took a drive down the Amador Causeway. This 3 mile road was made by connecting 3 tiny islands on the Pacific side of Panama. All that rock removed from the construction of the Panama Canal had to go somewhere, so they connected these islands, built a road and a boardwalk, and a great photo opportunity at this fun Panama sign:

Panama Day 1, Complete!

Graham Does Denver

In a completely unplanned coincidence, I have taken each of our kids on a solo trip to visit my college best friends' families when they were five years old. Since Sarah has moved to Denver, she had a baby, started a new job, and it was due time to visit my friend. Graham is now five, so he got to join mom on this visit. 

Sarah's littles on the left,
Graham rocking his Pikachu shirt on the right

Sarah and I are great friends. We are dedicated to getting our families together. We are very bad at remembering photos during these visits. 

We went on an hour long hike starting from her front door, and walked to a restaurant that had Graham's favorite macaroni and cheese. We met approximately 400 of their neighbor kids, all that have their very own electric scooters. Then we took the kids to Centennial Center Park where they dug up dinosaur bones in the sand and stared enviously at the other children whose parents brought swimsuits for the splash pad and water park.

We revisited an art installation from my past. Back in 2019, the 2nd gen lady Gills got together in Santa Fe, NM and visited a place called Meow Wolf. It's indescribable. And Denver has one all their own. Sarah's kids knew their way around the place, but for Graham, it was an experience like no other. Colors. Lights. Interactive Museum displays. Luckily, he had Lydia to show him the ropes. 

Graham + Meow Wolf = Happiness

Sarah's husband won a gold medal for the following day, where he offered to keep all three children for the Whole. Day. while we had an adventure of our own. Separately, Mr. Josh took the kids on a real live train ride, and then to a restaurant that had a Golden Tee arcade game. This is the highlight of Graham's trip to Denver. Golden Tee. Josh for the win. 

While they were Golden Tee-ing, we were on The Royal Gorge Railroad! 

Sun and Friends and a Train!

This was the greatest of all tourist traps! We had a full multi-course meal on the train, with white table cloths and full service. It was the best way to catch up with my friend! Hours of great views, pondering about who built it and how it could operate so close to the surrounding rock, and a quiet, intimate place to talk about life while someone else serves a meal was exactly what we needed. 

We sat inside with windows all around, and when we wanted fresh air, there was an open top car for that too. It was a dream! 

Open air car selfie!

Lucky for me, some of my favorite cousins live a short drive from one of my best friends. I wanted so badly to introduce them and unite two incredible families that I love! We had a great opportunity when my 2nd cousin Aisley was having a celebration for her 8th grade graduation the same weekend that Graham and I were in town! This 8th grade graduate attended our wedding as a very young little miss. We took the opportunity to crash her party and I introduced some of my favorite people. As an added bonus, my little man got to see his Uncle John and some of the cousins we would all love to see more!

Jonathan & Graham, cut from the same cloth

While we were living the Colorado life, Jon was managing things at home. The Texas life is different than most other daily life. This weekend was no exception. I got a text message that something was looking back at Jon from the pool skimmer. 

Look closely. Do you know what that is? A little pointed snout, a long rat tail, a football shaped body, and a pool. Maybe you knew it was an armadillo, but did you know that they can swim? Nope, me neither. 

This sucker has been digging up our landscaping for weeks! He danced too close to the fire and must have fallen in the pool. Jon found him in the skimmer and helped him get his weird little armor body out to dry land. Though you are not welcome here. Please dig for grubs elsewhere. 

Denver was lovely. Graham was hoping to see snow, which is a tall order in May, but we might just have to return for a snow filled winter season. While we have armadillos, we don't have a whole lot of winter. Thank you Sarah and Josh for hosting us and showing us your community!

30A Spring Break

We went to Florida for Spring Break this year! Specifically, we joined family friends at their brand new beach house on the 30A strip of the FL panhandle. The panhandle is not just for spring break college students anymore, it was a wonderful family destination!

We had one full day on the beach burying bodies and watching for wildlife in the water.

The little sandpipers are always entertaining, chasing waves and poking around for creatures in the sand. The real gem was this cool ray we saw from the beach. He came in and out with the waves for a good 20 minutes and the water was so clear that we could follow his progress the whole way. 

It is still March, so the beach was nice and warm in the sun, but if a cloud passed by or the wind blew, it could get chilly. Especially for Alex, who is notorious for wearing sweaters long after everyone else has adapted to shorts and t-shirts. 

Spring Break for us included St. Patrick's Day this year, so we stumbled upon some pretty elaborate decorations during our exploring. 

Gigi's Fabulous Kids!

We particularly enjoyed Rosemary Beach and Seaside. Both towns have fun local shopping, ice cream shops and each has their own personality, making them both a place worth stopping. A few of our favorite stops were at The Art of Simple, Gigi's Fabulous Kids and Sundog Books which is a beautiful book shop and has the warmest, fuzziest sweatshirts around. Sundog also had a live book signing with the author Nicolas H. who was so gracious at explaining his path to being published to our budding novel writer. 

Sundog Books (and sweatshirts)

Graham was all smiles this whole trip. A group of kids, the beach, jumping off of hydrants! He is made for vacation!

Me and my best girl

Big white baby in a big white tub

We are so thankful to have friends that played host, tour guide and entertainment directors during the week! The more we learn about Florida, the more we like to visit.

St. Augustine Thanksgiving

After months of crossing our fingers hoping for COVID-19 to subside, we were able to slip through the peak "waves" of the virus long enough to meet as a family in St. Augustine, FL. The destination was chosen as compromise between a beach vacation, a venture to see new parts of America, with this, we got both! Accessible to everyone either by many hours of driving or the 45 minute away airport, our growing family of 14 all made it in one piece ready to hit the town as the tourists that we are. 

St. Augustine is in the northern part of the east coast of Florida, about an hour south of Jacksonville. It is touted as the "oldest city in the US", which is to say that it is the oldest, continuously inhabited European settlement in the lower 48. 

 

Each family arrived separately, so the Saturday before Thanksgiving was spent trying to figure out how to find each other while we waited for our condos to open. We drove directly to historic downtown from the airport to find my parents and brother. The center of downtown St. Augustine is an adorable pedestrian street surrounded by restaurants and shops and a full on, centuries old castle! Complete with cannons and lookouts, the Castillo de San Marcos was a delightful surprise of a place. The coquina walls are almost completely made of shells and remains of sea creatures. This protects it from the harshest of oceanfront elements and absorbs rather than repels cannonball fire. The Castillo was involved in a number of conflicts involving multiple world powers, but in 1933 it transferred ownership to the National Parks Department and serves as a tourist destination today. 

We had lots of fun stretching out our legs after a morning of travel, and took in some history along the way. They ask that you not climb on the cannons, we didn't see the sign until after Alex climbed on top for the photo. 

Enjoying the castle with family

We took a guided boat tour through St. Augustine Eco Tours where we had a 2-hour private tour that was suitable both for the youngest and most seasick prone of us all. We saw dolphins, birds, sailboats washed up from previous storms, and enjoyed seeing some of the city monuments without shoving through a crowd. 

These pelicans were everywhere! With the bonus of an oystercatcher on the right.

We were true tourists on this trip and went to the highly publicized St. Augustine Alligator Farm. There were so. very. many. ALLIGATORS! Different species, different sizes, enclosures with whole congregations of alligators! (That's the actual term for a group of alligators, who knew??). They had all kinds of birds and other animals too, it was a fun way to spend the afternoon! 

I don't remember this bird's name. But he was beautiful!

When we had seen all the dinosaur ancestors that we could handle, we met up for a beachfront lunch at The Beachcomber St. Augustine. This little spot was literally on the beach. We had to ask for a table on the patio so that we wouldn't end up with sand in our food. Graham did his best to bring the sand to us, and the sand kept him busy for a majority of our meal. Great food, great beer, fun spot that would have been a return trip if it had been just a little warmer the week we were there. 

We took the longest tour ever, 22 stops on a packed full trolley to all of the greatest (aka: oldest) sites in America. It was a "hop on, hop off" tour, but the cars were so full that we were too afraid to hop off for fear of not having space to hop back on before sundown. We were also fantastically underdressed for the weather. It was cold and windy and the sun kept us sane for the first half of the tour, but about halfway in the shadows took over and we were all shivering.  

We did take a tour through the oldest jail in the country with our outlaw guide, Bubbaloo. He was informative and ridiculous, perfect for tourists and children. The jail was the highlight of the tour, thanks to Uncle Chris who suggested that we go, and then paid our entrance fee. As you might expect in a tourist town, very little was free, so we didn't see the Fountain of Youth or tour the oldest schoolhouse, or experience the Colonial Experience. We were tapped out. And we were freezing. 

We did walk through the beautifully decorated town square, though we couldn't quite make it to sunset for the lights. 

The second gen adults snuck out for the most extravagant escape room out there. And we failed it by a thread.  

The best part of the trip was our stay at the Colony Reed Condos. Each family had their own 3-bedroom condo, but we could jump back and forth from room to room as if we were neighbors. They had a playground that was visible from all of our rooms and a boardwalk directly to the beach! These babies had so much fun!

The first day we made the incorrect assumption that the water was too cold for swimsuits. Oops.

We made the choice to forgo attempting to cook the biggest meal of the year in a rental kitchen and we ordered family style traditional turkey dinner from Ned's Southside Kitchen. As an added bonus, pickup was made via drive-through and couldn't have been easier. 

Our trip ended on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We stopped into town on our way to the airport and ate at Burger Buckets. It was good, though many of the menu items that caught our eyes were sold out. It was a very busy week for small businesses and some places just couldn't keep up. 

We had a great time, with great company. This year more than most, we are so thankful for the time we can spend with long distanced family. Happy Thanksgiving!