Panama to Florida
Jennifer wanted to try Picasso Café’s Eggs Benedict for
her birthday, so Sunday we met a group of people to celebrate her birthday and
have brunch. As always, the company was great and the food good. Thanks for inviting us!
Jennifer & Jim
Sunday night we ate one last time at Cholos Comida Mexicana.
Gustavo showed us his new baby photos. Emily is 10 months now. We will miss
him. I swear he saw us in the parking lot as the minute we sat down he had our
Diet Cokes on the table. (Coca-lite) He didn't bring menus and knew what we
wanted. I switch off, but he knew we wouldn't need menus. We met him on our 2nd
trip to Panama before moving here. He was probably in high school then. He now
has grown into a fine young man with a family.
Gustavo
this is an old photo I found when we had lunch with Adam & Mary a while back
Monday, we drove to Westland Mall to eat at Leños y Carbón
one last time. All was good except the sweet plantains were under-cooked. The mall was decorated for Christmas.
Tuesday, we had our last haircuts with Nancy. She was a gem
to find and such a wonderful person. I neglected to get her photo. We had one last meal at Gourmet Pizza. We had killer Gyros. First time we had tried them and we wished we had found them sooner.
Fernando posed with me
Wednesday, we had one last Happy Hour at Picasso. Sharon,
Jill & Don stopped by to say "bye". Sharon made us 2 cute
Christmas stockings in just the right size for people on the move. How sweet!
Jim & Jennifer, Adam & Mary, Rick & Francine, Walter & Jane,
Susan and Ernie and Enieda came. Claire (the owner of Picasso) stopped by to
chat and the 2 servers that have taken such good care of us these past 3 1/2
years posed for photos. Yeneth is quite the "ham" and Berta's baby is
due end of December or early January. We had hoped to see Betty to say
"bye" one last time, but she wasn't there.
Picasso
Yeneth
Yeneth
Berta - her baby is due in a month or so
the owner Claire hugging me
Adam, Mary, Claire, me, Jim Eneida & Ernie (left around the table)
Susan & me
Jim & Jennifer
on the walk home we saw this tree in the parking lot of Cable Onda with a small satellite dish on top
this church used to be a charming open air church until they "upgraded"
Thursday, I followed up with Dra. Julia for one last dental
appointment. She is so sad we are leaving. She wanted to take photos of us
together for her Facebook page. I had my camera with me so I got some of her
and the office staff. (kinda weird, I know)
Greg, me, Dra Julia & assistant
assistants
Friday, Jane & Walter came with us on our final walk in
Sendero Bosque Seco. (dry forest trail)
Saturday, we had one last group dinner at Los Camisones.
Thanks to everyone for such a wonderful evening and send off. We were treated
to dinner by the group and Jane gave me a lovely pair of earrings.
Los Camisones
the group from one end of the table
the group from the other end of the table - the lighting was terrible to get the whole table
Brownie Sundae
La Crepes de la Casa
Thanks Jane, I love them!
Sunday, Jim & Jennifer came and picked up the last of
our things that we wanted to keep until the last day. They treated us to lunch at Vieni Qua.
Yum!
We have made great friends here and we will miss them one
and all.
Monday morning sunrise and some photos of the condo before we leave to fly out.
OK, this is strange, but we watched this spider outside the bedroom window grow from a little one
We returned the rental car to Beaches Auto
and were met by the driver they set up to drive us to the airport. We were
there early and so was he. I got a bath by 2 of the friendly dogs there. We
arrived at the airport early and since we were business class we got to hang
out in the special lounge. We went to the gate fearing that our carefully (like
a puzzle) packed carryons would be searched as they always do for flights to
USA, but were pleasantly surprised when they just put them through the scanner
and had us remove our shoes. (Yes, we already went through security once)
Tocumen International Airport
nice lounge
On the plane we were served warm mixed nuts and a drink and then served
our lunch and a dessert. The extra space and amenities in Business Class were nice, but with all of our luggage the extra included weight for the luggage was the main reason we did it. We had to wait only an extra 10 minutes or so since
there was a “tormenta” (thunder storm) and we had to wait for it to pass. We
arrived in Miami in about 3 hours and got our luggage and picked up our rental
car. There was an incident in baggage claim that just appalled me. There was an
older Panamanian couple trying to get their luggage and the other side of the caurosel
was blocked off and they weren’t supposed to stand there. A worker came up and
yelled at them to stop don’t go in there. Just get out! She turns to me and
says “no muy amable”. (he wasn’t nice) I shook my head and laughed and said
“no, muy amable"” Later the same guy was chewing out an employee. Miami is always such an
uptight airport.
Our first thing was to find the Fedex place to mail our
passports and paperwork to CIBT to get our China visas. After that we got in
rush hour traffic on the drive to Port St Lucie. We stopped for a quick dinner and
then were back on the road. We checked in and started to settle in. Then, that
came to a halt when the power went out. (and stayed out) We joked that in
Panama our condo building had a generator and we never were without power for
much more than 30 seconds. We did a bit more by use of our flashlights and then
it was getting on past 11:00 and we had both been up since 4:00 that morning,
so we got in bed, just in time for the power to come back on.
Tuesday, we had hoped that the moving company was going to
deliver our shipment in the afternoon, but despite booking well in advance we
got a lady that was pretty clueless. We said we could do it anytime after NOON
on Tuesday, and she emails back “So, Tuesday is good?” We said yes, after NOON.
So, the next email says we’ll be there at 9:00. The storage facility doesn’t
open until 9:30 and we still had to actually rent the unit. So, we said that’s
not possible and then they scheduled it for a week from Wednesday. Not happy
about that, but…..
We also got our flu shots and Greg got his shingles shot. I
got mine almost 4 years ago. I think the poor girl at Walgreens was on her
first day. I’m sure she wondered “why did she get “us”. She couldn’t find us in
the computer. She seemed to think our last name was Gregory. Of course she
wanted a phone number or address which of course are not current. Finally, she
got it right and found us. Then, to put in our address which is in Panama for
insurance (this will change when we return from the cruise), she couldn’t enter
an address out of the country. (not enough spaces on the computer). So, they
used our mailing address here in Florida for Panama. We were there over an hour with this
“simple task”. She got help and they worked it out. We finally got our shots.
The person giving the shot treated me like I’ve never had a shot before. Not
only have I gotten them for years, I have also given many. She didn’t like how
I sat in the chair and made me sit her way. Then, each time she swabbed the
spot my sleeve fell over it and she had to keep re-swabbing. So, I held my
sleeve up for her and she yelled at me for that too. She says “all I want you
do is relax your arm, don’t hold your sleeve and sit back.” I said "I could relax
if you quit yelling at me."
Ah well, it’s fair to say we are experiencing some culture
shock being back here.
The Residence Inn is nice and suits our needs for the long
term stay. Kitchen and 1 bedroom. They provide breakfast every day. On Mondays,
Tuesdays and Wednesdays they provide some food in the evening. We missed
Monday, Tuesday this week was cheeseburger sliders and Wednesday was supposed
to be a Hot Dog Food truck but the sign had changed to be Carrabba’s Grill.
Wednesday, we found a bank with an available safe deposit
box so we set that up and then made the drive to our old one to move everything
closer to this area. Grabbed lunch at the Cheesecake Factory so that made the drive worth it.
We seem to be running non-stop with errands. Lots of stuff
we ordered online and is arriving daily. Lots of sending stuff back….ordering
new……
Most of last week was unseasonably cold, rainy and windy. I was really missing Panama. I could hear Jim laughing at me and saying "payback". (I always laughed when he had to go back to the East Coast in the cold weather) The last couple of days are back to normal with highs in the 80's.
Now that the weather is sunny I'll try to take some photos of the area and put them in the next post.
Today we got our passports back from CIBT with the 10 year visas for China. Wow, 7 days door to door! That was fast.
We had a schedule change on our World Cruise itinerary and Princess canceled Bodrum Turkey and substituted Rhodes Greece. Luckily, it was easy to cancel my Bodrum private tour and set up a new one in Rhodes. I contacted 2 operators and both were very responsive. It was also very nice that the same tour mates also wanted to stay on the new tour. Both were new ports for all of us, so we are thrilled to see either.
Tomorrow we get our stuff delivered to storage from the Port of Miami from Panama. We bought some shelving and some clothing racks to get ready to unpack and organize. Then, the task of sorting out what to take on the cruise.
Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays / Happy Hanukkah
Until next time!
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