Our Summer Vacation

Travel Log: Day 2

(Mon. June 16, 2008)

We took the kids and my folks to the Miraflores Visitor Center. Wow! The visitor center sure has changed since our last visit. It was nice to see all the improvements. The kids really had a lot of fun learning about how the locks work and getting to watch a couple of ships make their way through the locks.

Click here to take a virtual tour of the Miraflores Visitor Center

Checking out the view from the new observation deck

Bryan, Jared, & Daniel with a ship passing through the locks.

Grandpa Flores is trying to get a shot of the passing ship.

Bryan, Sara, Jared, Daniel on the observation deck.

Jared & Daniel getting the sillies out

Being silly with the HAZ mat suit on display

Our little family just outside the entrance to the Visitor Center

What? No elevators!

A little about the Miraflores Locks...

This is the first set of locks situated on the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal. The locomotives maneuver the ships through the locks prior to being raised or lowered 27 feet per chamber. Twenty six million gallons of water is transferred in only 7 minutes and all done by gravity. Your bath tub doesn't drain that fast. There are three sets of locks in the Panama Canal. On the Pacific entrance are Miraflores, with two chambers, and Pedro Miquel with one chamber. On the Atlantic is one set of locks with 3 chambers, the Gatun Locks. Ships are raised a total of 87 feet above sea level into Gatun Lake and then lowered at the end of their transit into the other ocean. A common misconception is that one ocean is higher that the other, but they are both at sea level. Panama receives as much as 200 inches of rain per year. This was a determining factor in placing the canal there since 52 million gallons of fresh water is lost to the ocean on each transit. http://sunnyfortuna.com/fortunacam/showcams/panama/miraflores.htm

Click here for a very cool video of the locks in action.

In the evening we went with my parents to work on the Panama Temple. It was still very much under construction and having it ready for the open house was somewhat of a miracle! (The electricians strike really set things back.) My folks and I worked on the lockers in the womens dressing room while Bryan went to work figuring out the wiring for the washing machines in the lodging area for the temple missionaries and patrons. It was a very cool experience for us!

Thanks Raquel for taking care of our kiddos!

Here's a look at the publicity photos for the Panama City Temple.