David & Cheryl arrived and checked in to the hotel overlooking Balboa yacht club moorings. Nancy felt like she was coming down with a cold so I went to meet them. I had Luis pick them up at the airport. It was great seeing them again during our travels, David & Cheryl crewed for us during the first 800 miles of our voyage down the coast of Baja. We went out for drinks and discussed excitedly about our up coming transit. The next day Nancy's cold was worse but somehow she rallied and we met up with Luis and he drove us around for a look at city. We visited the old French section of Panama and some of the newer areas. Panama is a city of three million people with many living here from around the world. The next day was busy provisioning for the trip, which consisted of three hours of grocery shopping. I also contacted Tony, another cab service, to rent four 125' lines and to hire one professional line handler. After a fun & busy week we were all was set for transiting the Panama Canal on Monday (4/13/09) at 9:00 in the morning.