I did not do a blog entry for yesterday (Thursday) as I do not have any photos to document the day, but do I have some stories to tell.

I woke up pretty early yesterday morning to use the bathroom and my bottom lip felt funny. When I looked in the mirror I was shocked to see it was really swollen! It looked like I got some bad lip injections or something! So Jaime went and got me some ice, and Jon and Shareen were already downstairs, and he was nice enough to let the concierge know I needed medical attention. They called my room and let me know somebody could come up, but it would be a while, or I could go downstairs and be seen right away. So we did that. The medical worker was super nice, but since Jaime was there, was speaking Spanish, so I couldn't really understand what was being said. He did ask me in English if I was allergic to anything, or what I had ate, and thought it might be from shellfish. Well, it definitely wasn't that, but he said clearly it was an allergic reaction to something. So he took out what looked like a very old tackle box, and was speaking to Jaime in Spanish, and Jaime was nodding, and looked to me and said, ok he is going to give you a shot. And I was like NO NO NO! I am sure everything was probably on the up and up, but I wasn't going to risk getting a shot, so I told Jaime to tell him my friend had some benedryl, and he said perfect, keep the ice on it, and take that.

Shareen gave me the benedryl (luckily she brought some!) and, in less than an hour the swelling went away, and I was able to enjoy my breakfast, which I was very thankful for because as you know, that is both Jaime and my favorite part of vacation! Jon and Shareen were already down at the pool as they had eaten while I was getting my lip checked out. And we had another incredible pool day.

The bar tenders yesterday were just so much fun! I saw one person drinking something, and asked what it was. She said it was the "Special" so I asked the bartender at the swim up bar for the "Special" it looked a little different but was still delicious. So Shareen asked what I was drinking and I told her the "Special" so she asked me to get her one whlie I went to get another. This time it was also different, but even more delicious. So began me asking for the "Special" every time I ordered a drink, and every time it was a different drink. One time the bartender even made a Special "Special" drink and called it the "Becky Special." Well, long story short I was cut off from "Specials." But we had another very chill and fun day making friends at the pool and swim up bar.

We had dinner reservations at another a la carte restaurant, so early evening headed in to clean up for that. There was not too much for me to eat at this place, so we went to Starfish for....you guessed it, dinner #2. And enjoyed some ice cream at the little shop as well.

Which brings us to today. We had breakfast (again, amazing) and hung out by the pool for just a bit then after lunch headed to the Miraflora Locks to experience the Canal.

This was definitely cool to see as there was no way we would stay in Panama for a week and not go see the Canal in action. But it wasn't exactly action-packed. Not to say it wasn't really cool, just everything moved very sloooooowly.

We found out that nothing really happens between 10am and 2pm, so we either had to get there really early (wasn't gonna happen) or afternoon, so we got there right at 2pm. There were two HUGE ships going through, and a few smaller boats as well. They have to empty out the water to let the ship go down, then open the gates, let them through, close the gates behind them, then refill the water and start the whole process over again. It was pretty spectacular to see such a large ship go though, and pretty incredible that it even fits! But it wasn't like if you blink, you miss it. You could witness the whole thing and probably fit in a nap as well. That is an exaggeration, but you see what I mean.

After we witnessed that, we walked through the museum, and watched a short video they had on the creation of the Canal and what it means to people there. We got some photos, and headed back. We just took an uber to and from the Locks, and the fee was minimal. We were just able to watch and explore on our own so glad we did not book a tour or anything like that. A very inexpensive day, and very cool experience.

The food at the buffet tonight was appropriate for our last night - Panamanian food. Jaime, Jon and Shareen all said it was delicious. I ate what I could, there were some good food options for me, but the Panamanian dishes were meat, so I could not try them. So maybe you can guess what we did a little while later? Dinner number 2! I had pineapple pizza at Starfish. Not Panamanian, but it did hit the spot.

There was this one server there, her name was Lady. She worked at the different restaurants down on the first level. She saw us so much that when we sat down, she immediately brought us over two diet sodas. She knew that is what we were going to order. Talk about service! We gave her a very nice tip before we left. She was our favorite.

To end the night, the four of us hung out in the lobby bar and had some drinks, and there were some locals there playing Panamanian music, so we just relaxed and enjoyed our last evening in Panama. We sat outside and enjoyed the breeze and each other's company.