Wedding Drop Zone

Alright. I’m back. Your vacation from my inane musings is over. I’ve returned from yet another week of having more fun than is probably strictly legal, but hey, someone’s gotta do it. Our adventures in Panama City were so extensive that it’ll take a couple days to fully document our “accomplishments”. As usual, with any return to Panama’s capitol city there was a significant amount of nostalgia involved since that is where I first met my Favorite Panamanian all those years ago. The city we knew is barely recognizable under the massive growth it has experienced in the ensuing decades but the memories are still intact.

Bride and Groom, Obviously

We flew down using Air Panama which had the benefit of landing at the Albrook Airport, within spitting distance of where I first encountered the owner of the flashing eyes I’ve been married to for the last 41 years. We were picked up by Tia Loca and her son and grabbed breakfast at the Albrook Mall, a huge shopping mall adjacent to the airport. The food was good and I had the added benefit of seeing a hefty fifty year old naked female butt in the offing. I was going to the bathrooms with my Favorite Panamanian when she opened the door to the ladies room and there was the aforementioned posterior on full display by a lady washing her hands with her pants inexplicably around her ankles. I gallantly tried to avoid acknowledging anything was visible as I ducked into the men’s room. Predictably, my appetite wasn’t ruined and following breakfast my wife and her sister finagled a visit to the mall. Who saw that coming!

Vera Cruz Beach

I was finally able to extricate them when I pointed out that we had to go to their apartment in order to change and then make our way through inevitable traffic to Vera Cruz where the wedding we were attending was located. The wedding was supposed to start at 2 and we arrived fashionably late about twenty minutes after the hour. We were some of the first to arrive. The bride walked out around 3pm after my Favorite Panamanian, Tia Loca , and assorted cousins finished setting up the venue.

Wife and I With Mother of Bride

Our Table

The venue bears mention because it was on the beach directly adjacent to what had been Fort Kobbe and Howard Air Force Base where I was assigned during my time in Panama. The venue was on the beach which I used as a jumpmaster to spot the drop zone from the airplane for our parachute jumps which were across the street in Venado Drop Zone. Obviously this restaurant amongst many other hotels and tourist spots have sprung up since my time “standing in the door” above Venado. I tried, semi-successfully, to try and explain the historical significance of where we were sitting to my wife’s assembled family.

Sangria Arrives

Sangria Gals

The bride looked appropriately spectacular even though this was just the civil wedding. They will do it all again in July in the church which boggles the mind. There was a very fun vibe throughout the day, as is usually the case when I get to hang out with my Favorite Panamanian’s family. When healthy portions of sangria arrived at our table we laughed about the history of my wife and Tia Loca in previous sangria inspired episodes, including Tia Loca spontaneously speaking English and my wife’s room by room hotel search. The stories grew in the telling, of course.

Civil Marriage Paperwork

Wife and Tia Loca in Front of Departed Ocean
Swings were Underwater when we Arrived

Once all the paperwork was signed, a true family party took off which involved the usual amount of dancing. For some reason I could not fully fathom, buckets of beer kept appearing at our table. Not one to look the proverbial gift horse, etc, etc. It was great fun filled with the aforementioned nostalgia. I kept looking down the shore to areas I led some of the first patrols of my Army career as an infantry lieutenant. It would have been hard to keep the troops focused if the wedding location had been there then.

Then the Dancing Started

Sunday I was roped into attending church with my Favorite Panamanian and Tia Loca. Our first choice was closed for renovations. We found another which I happily noted was air conditioned. Then the padre came out. He was one of those that loved to the sound of his own voice. An hour and forty-five minutes later we were finally released from bondage. We linked up with another cousin, one of my favorites, that I hadn’t seen in a long time. She’s the daughter of my wife’s oldest sister. After we picked her up we paid a quick visit to an aunt nearing 100 years in age and then lunch in the center of Panama City, delving once again into the memory banks.

Sunday Lunch Crew

Posing

After lunch everyone, well everyone except the only gringo, thought it would be a good idea to return to the Albrook Mall for some shopping. They sweetened the pot by allowing me to see a movie there while they shopped. The movie was in Spanish and the ticket agent wanted to make sure I understood that before completing my purchase. I had some sneaky pride when informed her, in Spanish, that I knew it would be. After the movie we were driven to our next stop by the nephew. That next stop as the start of our next adventure and will be recounted in tomorrow’s blog post.

The movie I saw was 65. The title refers to the number of million years ago the action took place. A member of a space going human race journeys through the solar system when his ship is damaged and forced to crash land of earth during the age of the dinosaurs. Adam Driver once again demonstrates his almost mysterious screen presence as the pilot. He finds only one other passenger has survived, a young girl, and they tried to make their way through the constant threat of the dinosaurs to another part of their crashed ship that has an escape vehicle. The pilot has to rank with some of the most unlucky movie characters of all time. He has a profound level of technology to assist him but earth throws everything at him, constantly. His lack of luck culminates when he figures out he’s in the impact area of a massive incoming asteroid, the one that wiped out the dinosaurs. Like I said, unlucky. While kind of dour at times, this was a nice adventure yarn with some feisty dinosaurs, realistically portrayed.

Meanwhile, Back in the World
The BRS Started her First Ever Star Wars Journey in Dad's Theater

While the FBR Returned to a Book Store

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RECURRING CHARACTERS:                                     

ABFA – Amazing Best Family Athlete - my daughter in law; BR3 – Blog Reader #3 – granddaughter #3; BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel - second granddaughter; Cantankerous Friend – friend since grade school who likes to argue about everything, poses as radical leftist to attract women; CRC - Connecticut Riverboat Captain – another close friend from high school, renowned sailor of the big river; Curbside Girls – close friends of my daughter acquired during him her single days in Brooklyn; Deckzilla – our backyard deck which grew to monstrous dimensions once my wife got involved in planning; Favorite Panamanian - the wife (of course); FBR - First Blog Reader - first granddaughter; First Friday – celebrations to mark the First Friday of the Week; Great Aunt - my elder sister; Keene Friends 1 & 2 – friends since high school from my home town of Keene, NH; Kindergarten Friend – friend since kindergarten whom I reunited with after many years; Maine and Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife – her US sisters, my wife is the 3^rd Musquetera (musketeer); Namesake Nephew – son of Great Aunt and Soxfather named after me; Neighborhood Mafioso - wife's close friend and Panamanian mafia member; PanaGals – female relatives /friends of my wife from Panama; Panamanian/Latin Mafia – inevitable group of Latino friends my wife accumulates wherever we have lived & their spouses; PCR - Pittsburgh College Roommate– high school friend, also a “Minor Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; PCR+1 - Pittsburgh College Roommate’s wife; Riggins - also known as the Grandpuppy, son's dog; Soxfather - my brother in law; Tia Loca – wife’s younger sister; Wingman – my son in law; Wingmom – Wingman’s mom, of course