My dear Dad is an adventurer. Just writing that it seems like a crazy understatement. He was a career military guy - joined the army in his small coal mining town of Stellerton in the Maritimes and dreamed of seeing the world. The adventure began there and really has never ended. He was stationed all over Canada, was in Korea during the Korean War, was in Egypt for the skirmishes there, spent time in Japan, was in Congo for a pretty long time and once we kids came along, he hauled us back and forth across the country. For the three years we were stationed in Germany, we didn't miss too many weekends packing up our wet moldy stinky tent trailer in search of the next country to explore.

After retirement from the military his quest for adventure only heightened. Now there were no rules, no restrictions and he has taken on many many interesting, bizarre, dangerous, questionable and exciting projects. He has lived a truly remarkable life.  

One summer when he was out visiting me, I learned that he had never seen the Panama Canal. I found that quite amazing. For my Dad it is more noteworthy on what he hasn't seen than what he has! I sent him a book on the Canal for Christmas and that's how this trip started.

2008 was my retirement year so I had lots of vacation days to use before my last day in June. I offered to take my Dad and his wife on a cruise through the Panama Canal.......most Dad's would love that.....not mine. His reply was that he thought that would be far too boring, too many old people and "What would happen if you were on the cruise and learned of a really cool thing to see and you had to get back on the ship and couldn't go and find out for yourself?"  My Dad and his wife were in their eighties already and technically fitted the 'old people' category, but I understood.

He countered with the idea that I could rent a car in Belize or Mexico and drive them through Belize, Honduras, Nicaraugra, Guatemala, quickly through Costa Rica because he had already seen all of that one, and get to Panama where we could have time to have a good look around before heading over to Columbia. Hmmmm I thought........thinking of the movies Vacation and European Vacation and seeing myself as Chevy Chase with not one, but perhaps two bodies strapped to the roof of the car......nahhh.

So, I countered with a trip to Panama where I would rent a car and drive them around ONE country.   

Seemed like a good idea........and once I got the blasted car out of Panama City....a day I hope never to repeat......the trip was marvelous. Dad's wife Marion called it her best vacation ever and that in itself was worth the effort. 

We went Shrimping on a drag boat, cruised down the Panama Canal in a really small fishing boat and had monkeys jump on board. We saw sloths and toucans and parrots in the wild and drove around each day exploring nooks and crannies of the little towns we stumbled upon. We devoured amazing seafood - not Marion, who hates seafood but who discovered she likes Coca Loca's!   We were even fortunate enough to make friends with a lovely Panamanian couple from Panama City. They offered to show us their city, their way, driving my car. That was a very special day.

In the end, Dad was right, there were many cool things we would have missed on day trips from a cruise and doing it this way allowed us to spend some interesting times together. Let's just say I didn't return rested. Happy, but not rested. And Dad has not only seen the Panama Canal, he has felt it, smelled it and enjoyed it at water level!