Last Sat, Ashcroft Ghost Town in the background. Tori is advising me as to what textures would make a good background, like the wood in this old cabin. :0)

The Miraflores Lock on the Panama Canal. The first of three locks starting from the Pacific Ocean (Gulf of Panama) side.

Jodi-

Cool pictures, like always! Hi Nicole! nice to "see" you!
And who is Tori? two cuties!

More of our fishing weekend, Sekiu, Washington.
On the way out the the Strait of Juna de Fuca.
to the perfect fishing spot! I caught the first salmon!

{{!gwi}}

Kat....Tori's my GF's kid. The whole family is very talented. Tori is 11 years old and already a black belt in Karate. Everyone in her family of 4 owns an SLR camera. She's able to visualize,try things out and is instructing all of us on how she gets some of her shots....yeah I know....but I get help where ever I can find it. :0) :0)

Some chairs I saw while shopping at Lake of the Ozarks Monday...

and a restaurant we ate at.

Jodi, I love your pictures of the Panama Canal, I got to visit one set of locks when I was in Panama, but I didn't get a chance to traverse the canal or even see any of it but the one set of locks.

On our voyage I was reading the book "The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914" by David McCullough which provides a details history of the building of the canal. I joked that the book provides a good view of what a herculean task building the canal was, because simply reading the book is nearly as herculean.

I think that your image might be of the San Pedro locks (which has two lock doors and one lock chamber) rather than the Miraflores locks (which has three lock doors and two lock chambers).

Here is an image of the inside of the Gatun Locks Control House, showing the original analog gauges and controls for operating the lock doors, with racks of computers in the background that now drive the original mechanisms.

Interesting, Bob.
Tori looks so very serious Nicole!

Bob, you may be right. I have so many photos of the crossing with a handful of ones my husband took that it's confusing to me which lock is which. The above photo may indeed be the San Pedro lock that my husband took and I just lumped it into my photos where it must have fallen in the wrong order.

I actually got off the ship to do a rain forest hike before it reached the Gatun lock. Once back from the hike, we got to go up to an observation tower at Gatun to watch a ship go through. My ship had already crossed through Gatun while I was on the hike. We then took a bus to Colon where our ship was docked.

Did you visit Colon? Most amazingly poor city living conditions that I've ever seen. At first I thought we were driving by abandoned burnt out concrete multi-story buildings until I realized there was laundry hanging from a few balconies.

Once at the dock it was suggested we not venture past the shops at the ship dock to insure our safety.

Jodi-

Jodi,

Our ship docked in Colon and stayed there two days. We received similar warnings about the city of Colon. I went through the city several times on a bus for tours to an Indian village, the Gatun Locks, and the city of Portobello, but didn't venture on foot any further into the city than the shops at the dock.

Given the following images of the city of Colon, you can see why I was very surprised when one of the tour guides said that Colon used to be the most beautiful city in Panama.

Lovely!

Thanks for posting the photos Bob. I wasn't expecting such squalor and unable to get to my camera for most of the bus ride.

I'm not done processing my photos from the Panama Canal cruise but if I have any decent photos of Colon to share, I will.

Jodi-