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.
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| Wife and I With Mother of Bride |
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| 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.
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| Sangria Arrives |
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| 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.
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| Civil Marriage Paperwork |
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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.
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| 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.
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| Sunday Lunch Crew |
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| 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.
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Meanwhile, Back in the World
The BRS Started her First Ever Star Wars Journey in Dad's Theater |
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| 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 3rd 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
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