Muchacho Polaco

Yunuen and I just returned to Panama City from Valle de Anton, which is a neat little village in a rainforest West of Panama City. We stayed at Los Mandarinos which is a small Villa in the valley of a dormant volcano (see photo below). It was really beautiful and we enjoyed it a lot and would highly recommend it to others. The temperature was absolutely perfect and there is always a slight breeze which is nice at night when you have all the windows open. Waking up in the morning to the exotic noises was also very neat – there are guacamayas (parrots), toucans, monkees , sloths and other wild things running around in the area. Yunuen was very nervous when we saw a sloth as she felt it was looking at me funny, but given they move about the same pace as I do in the morning when getting ready for work, there was very little to worry about. This was probably the most relaxing place we’ve ever experienced!

I had to go back to the dentist today to get a crown for the tooth that had the root canal a few weeks back. The procedure wasn’t as unpleasant as the previous, but the injections and smell of burnt teeth (from the drill) are never pleasant. Saddly, when one gets a crown, the first is only a temporary while the permanent is being made and thus I have to return in a couple more weeks.

Yunuen and I purchased tickets to go to Panama for March 17th-21st last night. We have yet to decide what we are going to do when we are there, but are excited nonetheless.

Yunuen and I returned from the Northwest late last night. We flew into Seattle on Sunday and had some fun downtown at the fish market and aquarium before heading to my sisters house in Woodinville. We had fun visiting my sister and her husband Chris and my four nephews Reilly, Noah, Owen and Finn. Chris has a new game called ‘Supreme Commander‘ which is about to be released, so these are exciting times for them.

From Seattle we headed North into British Columbia. We stayed at the Lonsdale Quay Hotel on Monday night in their suite which has a beautiful view of the city. We had dinner that night at the Observatory Restaurant on Grouse Mountain. My Uncle lives on a yacht that was less than a 5 minute drive from our hotel, so we visited him later that evening.

The next day Yunuen and I took the Seabus into the city and spent some time on Robson Street. When we returned to the North Shore later that day we had the opportunity to visit Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge despite the heavy rain. My mother had arranged a really nice family dinner that evening where Yunuen got to meet 25-30 members of my family, some of which I had never met myself.

This was a very enjoyable trip and we hope to return this summer, particularly to stay in a cabin on Mayne Island for a few days.