ANOTHER HURDLE DOWN

Another thing to cross off our list of things to do before retiring to Panama occurred today.  Ray and I took the day off from work to make the trip into Washington, DC to have the Vice Counsel authenticate ten documents for our attorney in Panama (10 documents x $30/document plus 3 extra pages=$306 in cash or certified check handed over to Lourdes, the attorney and VC at the Embassy).  It is a forty-seven mile trip from our house to the Embassy.  We took the advice of Ray's navigation system and bailed off North I-395 and drove on the George Washington Parkway instead (due to, what else is new, traffic at nine am).  Why are people not at the office at nine am?  What time do all of these commuters start work?  Or were they all very late?  We left our house at eight am and arrived to the Panamanian Embassy a few minutes before ten.  The Embassy opens at nine-thirty, but in one of his many phone conversations with the receptionist, Ray was told not to worry.  They close at two pm, but there is never a long wait.  Street parking was a breeze, and inside the building we went.

This is the Panamanian Embassy.  A house among other houses on McGill Terrace.

Ray had great enthusiasm.  The receptionist greeted us warmly, and when Ray told her we were there to have our papers "legalized", she knowingly nodded and said "authenticated".  He told her that we were very happy to be at the Embassy to get this task done, and she looked at me and said, "you don't look quite so happy".  I told her I was excited, but I when I walked in I was just waiting for her to tell us that we were at the wrong office or we couldn't be seen today.  What I didn't say to her though is this:  I guess I have been reading so many blogs and posts on forums about confusion in Panama, the long lines, the not so happy to help government employees, that I was setting myself up for this today.  She directed us down the hall assuring us that we were in the right place, and we would be taken care of.  Within minutes, we were sitting in the Consular's office with Lourdes, the Vice Consul.  She is an attorney from Panama City, recently married to a Panamanian with hopes of moving back to Panama soon to practice law there.  She has been in the States for six years.  She reviewed our papers, chatted some more with us about our plans of retirement and where we were hoping to live, copied our papers, printed out the papers we needed to be sealed to our papers, and then she started the sealing of the authentication paper to each document.  Next, she stamped.  We talked about the stamping.  Five stamps on each document.  If a document has a page two stapled to it, then that gets stamped over it (just in case the pages separate or someone tries to send in just page one without page two it can be matched up easily).  It all made sense to us.  I wouldn't dare say otherwise!  We gave her our cash.  She gave us a receipt, her business card and, within thirty minutes, we were out the door.  Next, Ray will scan papers to the attorney.  He will start the translation of each document.  We will Fed Ex the papers, also.  On January 13th, we start following our Panamanian attorney around Panama City hoping to get our temporary Visa that week.

This is what we saw when leaving Washington, DC.

Where money is made (although the government never seems to have any)

The scaffolding is coming down (Washington Monument needed repairs after an earthquake three years ago)

The Washington Monument with The Jefferson Memorial in front

World War II Memorial

The Tidal Basin with cherry trees around it

The Jefferson Memorial from I-395 Southbound with the Monument behind it.

What shape has five sides?  The Pentagon Building.

The United States Air Force Memorial at the Navy Annex

Once out of the DC area, we stopped at Mike's American Grill for lunch.  This is the restaurant where Ray and I went to on our first date.  It is located in Springfield, VA where Ray grew up for the most part, and I lived after college.  Whenever we know we will be near Mike's, we stop for lunch or dinner.  We also stopped by Quantico National Cemetery to pay my parents a visit.  Since we just celebrated another holiday without them, it only seemed appropriate to say hello (even though they were both cremated and are on my dresser where I talk to them daily) and make sure the grounds are kept nice (now I sound like my mother).

When telling my co-worker why I would be off today, her comment was that she can't believe this could all really happen.  "It's right around the corner now".  She just didn't believe me when I started talking about this whole retirement thing two years ago.  This February, it will be two years we have researched Panama.  Last month, it was a year we took our first trip to Panama to see for ourselves what the country looked like.  In a year.................