Yesterday's Panama Canal crossing was most memorable. We were well prepared for it because of Terry Breen's excellent lecture on the topic the previous day. Very well attended. Lots of us are doing the crossing for the first time. This will be Terry's 77th crossing. One of our crew members has done it something like 126 times. I awoke at 4:30 am because the movement of the ship had changed. The pilot boat had just dropped off our pilot. A crowd quickly assembeled on deck 12. We were surrounded by dozens of vessels awaiting entry. Their checks have to clear before that happens. Ours had cleared. It was about 100K. Cruise ships get entry priority so we were on our way into the first of three locks at about 5:30 am. A local narrator, Pete, provided narrative. At 6:27 we were standing on the aft deck of La Veranda as water poured into the second of the locks having taken Terry Breen's advice that an aft view is best once you enter the locks. LV opened for breakfast at that moment and we nabbed table 3, a table for two. So for the remainder of our journey through the first three locks Fred and I feasted on crispy bacon, eggs, corned beef hash, juice and coffee from the best seat in the house. We exited the last lock into the Pacific at about 2:00 pm in a torrential rain storm. The day was an exciting and most memorable experience. I got great video, some of it from my very own breakfast table. Oh, it was HOT. Very HOT. I don't remember ever experiencing heat like that and I grew up on South Florida. That isn't a complaint just a description since he who book cruise near equator in May is a fool to complain of heat. Life doesn't get any better than this. Pat