#SRP2015 Day 7: Panama Canal & Panama City!

ENGLISH: BLACK FONT (Or gray).  SPANISH: RED FONT

INGLÉS: FUENTE NEGRO (O gris).  ESPAÑOL: FUENTE ROJO

*******

We began our final day in this country by waking up in our Santiago hotel. Ruth (Talsy's daughter), and Juselino and his wife Ysolina joined us for breakfast at the hotel before loading us into the bus for a 2.5-hour drive into Panama City. Our itinerary for the day included a visit to The Panama Canal.

Comenzamos nuestro último día en este país por despertar en nuestro hotel de Santiago. Ruth (la hija de Talsy), y Juselino y su esposa Ysolina unieron a nosotros para el desayuno en el hotel antes de nosotros cargando en el autobús por un 2.5 horas en coche a la ciudad de Panamá. Nuestro itinerario para el día incluyó una visita al Canal de Panamá. 

santiago

"i am second" ||  "yo soy segundo"

the hotel in santiago  ||  el hotel en santiago

windmills  ||  molinos de viento

ummm.... :/

restaurant: pio pio  ||  restaurante: pio pio 

Our visit to the Canal was a wonderful experience.
Nuestra visita al Canal fue una experiencia maravillosa.

the locke ||  el locke

panama canal  ||  Canal de Panamá

Our team ♥
Nuestro equipo ♥

After the Canal, we stopped for lunch before heading back to the hotel. We took the scenic route around the city, where Talsy pointed out the historical landmarks of the old and new portions of the city.

Después de la Canal, paramos para almorzar antes de regresar al hotel. Tomamos la ruta panorámica por la ciudad, donde Talsy señalar los hitos históricos de las viejas y nuevas partes de la ciudad.

hard rock hotel panama  ||  a screw-shaped building
Hard Rock Hotel Panamá || un edificio en forma de tornillo

toll booths  ||  cabinas de peaje

There, we were able to celebrate Quinn turning 11. Happy Birthday, Quinn!!!!

Allí, pudimos celebrar Quinn giro 11. Feliz cumpleaños, Quinn!!!! 

Quinn's Birthday!

We spent some time with Talsy and Ruth at the hotel, while Quinn, Aaron and Chris played chess.
Pasamos algún tiempo con Talsy y Ruth en el hotel, mientras que Quinn, Aaron y Chris jugaban al ajedrez. 

with ruth :)  ||  con ruth :) 

We leave this beautiful country tomorrow morning. I am emotionally torn over my anticipation to get home to my family and to stay here and work in ministry partnership with Talsy, David and the team. It has been such an fulfilling, challenging week and I am proud to have been part of this team.

Salimos de este hermoso país mañana por la mañana. Estoy dividido emocionalmente sobre mi anticipación para llegar a casa para mi familia y para estar aquí y trabajar en colaboración con el ministerio Talsy, David y el equipo. Ha sido una, desafiando semana tan satisfactoria y me siento orgulloso de haber sido parte de este equipo.



Day 7: Panama Canal & Quinn's Birthday.
Check.
I don't know if I am ready to leave... :/

Día 7:. Canal & Quinn Panamá de cumpleaños 
Hecho. 
No sé si me estoy listo para salir ...: / 

xo | cmd
♥ | cmd

Motor City Work Conference, Pt. II

gooood morning, detroit :|

I woke up in Detroit this morning.
I woke up way too early.
I smelled like an ashtray when I woke up.. because you can still smoke indoors in Michigan.
And somehow, I woke up hungry.

Luckily for us, the Westin is a classy little-well, not really little - joint, so there's nothing to complain about with wide waterfall showerheads, marble sinks, window blinds that filter in the light but not the dilapidated view of demolition and chaos.... and of course a full-scale breakfast buffet line, complete with coffee.. to start off day 2 of our conference.

Fast forward to training [it's a bunch of useful info that's applicable to my job but not really to a blog].. and then fast forward again to the part where we continued eating. They called the food-intake part "breaks." We called it the other way around: in between eating, we took some breaks and learned some stuff. It's a huge win.

So yeah, we ate, again, at the full-table service awards luncheon. ConGRATS to Kortney on being recognized as one of the top 5 sales reps for our territory, to Nikki, Kortney & Anna on completing their EUC for sales, and to a tiny self-backpat for completing my EUCP. It only took me a shy 3 years to do it. Haha.

express takes care of its own ;)

Oh, and Chris bid for and won this:

4-foot tall wooden express superhero?
..... check.

Haha.

Anyway, it wasn't long before Nikki, Elisa and I were back in yoga clothes and packed in a row into the backseat, headed for home. We stopped off at a gas station in Wapakoneta [yep, welcome to Ohio...] and debated a mini visit to the Armstrong Air & Space Museum, but were distracted immediately by the DQ, which of course was a bigger priority. It'd been nearly FOUR hours since we'd eaten, so by this point in the weekend after having stretched our stomachs to the max with heart-attacking food, we figured, why not?

neil armstrong air & space museum | wapokoneta, oh

.... and then, finally, we were home.
It's still early in the evening; Oktoberfest/Zincinnati is happening this weekend downtown, but if I'm being honest, I'm parked on the couch now and really not in the mood to do anything else. 

... Don't judge.
I'll see how I feel about all of it tomorrow. (:
For now, I'm gonna lay here and attempt to will this food to digest.
We'll pick this back up tomorrow.

xo | cmd

Mama & Mini & Museum

Hello December!

Sydni and I marinated for a day or two over what we'd do today, and we ended up voting on a trip to the Children's Museum/Magic House in St. Louis. It was all she could talk about all morning, and when we finally got in the car, we spent the entire drive to St. Louis cheering for UC [as they entered into a matchup against 'Bama... UC!!!!]

before.... GO UC!

And then we were there for hours.... and hours.....



after.. Go... HOME ? haha...

I love this kid more than life itself.. she's such a mini and we had a blast today.

Not a bad way to ring in December, yeah?

--- I'd say not ;)

xo | cmd

Magic House St. Louis

Sydni and I got an early start to our morning today. Well, early for a Saturday. We finally rolled out of bed around 8:15, took our time eating breakfast and getting ready, and loaded up for a day of exploration at the Magic House Children’s Museum in Kirkwood, just on the outskirts of St. Louis.

It was a costume day there [woops, on our part], so most of the day’s visitors were donning disguises from Disney movies, fairy tales, or comic books. I’m glad Sydni didn’t understand the difference between their attire and hers; had she, I probably would’ve just told her she was actually a real super-hero and normalcy was her costume for the day. Yenno, kinda like the toddler girl version of Clark Kent? No?

K. Well anyway, the entire staff was costumed, too, and were posted up all over the place ready to sign their character autographs in the little flip books we’d been given upon paid admission [10 bucks for both us of, thanks military discount ;) ].

She had a blast. I spent nearly 3 hours chasing after her as she bounced around from display to display, room to room, floor to floor. She played a 15-foot harp, stood inside a life-size bubble, bought an entire basket of pretend milk at the pretend grocery store, and answered every phone in the Morse code room. She wanted three autographs from Mickey Mouse, but screamed bloody murder at Jack Sparrow the pirate [not quite sure on that one]. She had a tea party with Alice and the Rabbit in the Wonderland room, and made quite the mess at the water table, even with the little plastic smock thing. Go figure J. 

And, she was asleep before we got out of the parking lot when we left.

We came back to the house to finish up her naptime here, and then we worked a little bit on getting ready for Daddy to come home this week. We really wish he could’ve been there today with us, but I’m not even sure we covered the entire place, so I’m confident we’ll be going back.

Church tomorrow. I’m due to join the praise band before and during, and help with church directory photos after. I think it’s time to call it a night!

xo | cmd