Ruth and John's Travels: Florida and Panama Canal Jan/Feb 2014

Ruth and John at the launch of a Delta-IV rocket, carrying a GPS satellite into medium earth orbit.
Yes. Yes, it does get that cold in Florida.

In the bunker, looking out through the multi-layered glass
at the Mercury launch pad where Alan Shepard was launched into his sub-orbital flight.

Ruth at pad 34A, for Apollo 1.
Three astronauts died here when something in
their oxygen-filled capsule caught fire.

The original LEM for Apollo 15.
This LEM was replaced when the decision was made to take a lunar rover on the flight.
(It's all a hoax, sheeple!!! Wake up!!!!)

Launch Pad 39A, used for shuttle and Apollo launches.

Ruth in the 'fire trench' at Pad 39A.
Seconds before a launch, this trench is flooded with water, not so much for cooling,
but to absorb the shock and sound waves from the three large rocket engines.

The Apollo 14 Command module.

Ruth touching a moon rock brought back by Apollo 14

John in front of the actual Atlantis shuttle

Ruth and John at the entrance to the Kennedy Space Center.

An Anhinga along one of the Cape canals.

The Crawlerway between the VAB and Launch Complex 39

A crocodile near Pad 39A doing what crocodiles do best.
Lurk.

A juvenile Royal Tern at Parmer's Resort begging for food from a parent.

Hemingway's typewriter in his house in Key West, Florida
It's not this one, but you can buy one just like it.

A fountain in the garden of Hemingway's house.
The lower part is the urinal from "Sloppy Joe's", 'Papa's' favorite watering hole.

The sign says it all, really.

Sunrise at Parmer's resort, Little Torch Key.

The first morning on board the MS Statendam!!
John relaxing on our room's balcony with a BIG breakfast.

Ruth eating an actual mango, actually fallen from an actual mango tree
in the courtyard of the 'Palace of the Inquisition' in Cartagena, Colombia.

Ruth and John on the streets of old Cartagena

John and Ruth in front of the church of San Pedro Claver SJ

Early morning approaching the Gatun lock on the Atlantic side of the Panama canal.

The ship entering the third and highest of the Gatun locks.
We are almost at the level of Gatun Lake in the distance.

The Gaillard, or Culebra cut across the continental divide,
with the Centennial Bridge in the distance.

Construction on the 'twinning' of the canal. Construction is erratic.
Another canal is being mooted for Nicaragua.

We are in the last chamber of the Miraflores locks, and almost in the Pacific ocean.
There is a new visitor and interpretive centre out of the picture to the left (east)

Wild cashews along the road in Costa Rica.
They are poisonous when raw like this.

A female damselfly (Megaloprepus caerulatus) in the Costa Rican rainforest.

A crocodile along the Tarcoles River in Costa Rica.
Too small to do anything like this.

An iguana along the Tarcoles.

Scarlet Macaws fighting? courting? horsing around?

John on the pedicab we hired for the afternoon in Corinto, Nicaragua.

A side street in Corinto.

Ruth insisted on getting in to the warm water of the Pacific

Ruth and John on the 'playa' after Ruth's dip in the ocean

Two ladies of Corinto bringing in the catch of the day, a Dorado.

The still active, but not explosive (recently, anyways) Volcan de Fuego
It erupted exactly one year later, in February of 2015

Coffee beans need to be turned every 45 mins as they dry.
Here they are drying on the terrace of Finca Filadelfia

The skull of a Mayan noble in the museum in Tapachula, Chiapas.

A Guatemalan lady selling her handicrafts on the street in Tapachula

A actual cacao pod on an actual cacao tree on the grounds at Izapa

Ruth climbing the side of a Mayan ruin at the large archaeological site of Izapa.
Several stelae were uncovered here, the best known, Stela 5, known to Mormons as 'Lehi's stone'
Izapa is also the birthplace of the Mayan calender,

Actual bananas on an actual banana tree in an actual banana plantation.
The blue plastic bags are to make the ripening process more consistent within the bunch
and to protect them from possums and bats..

Formal night on board the M.S. Statendam

Los Arcos rocks, at the tip of the Baja peninsula at Cabo San Lucas.
The boats are taking out sport fishers at dawn.

A humpback whale with the suburbs of Cabo San Lucas in the background.

Sea Lions chillaxin' on the rocks near Cabo San Lucas.

A tanned and wind-blown John on the trip back from our whale watching tour.

Ruth stumping the panel on a shipboard version of What's my Line?
(Selling wedding dresses from home)

From left to right: Tracy and Rick D., Mary and Paul W., Ruth and John M.

The last of the formal (aka spiff) nights on the Statendam

John and the sunset west of the Baja peninsula

Sunset over the Pacific.
You just might be able to see Hawaii :-)

A well-tanned Ruth says:
Welcome to San Diego!!

A 'Lucha Libre' - themed wedding party is distracted by an
instant geyser, caused by a large delivery truck hitting a fire hydrant in the
'Old Town' section of San Diego.