The next day we flew to Panama City, where we boarded the cruise ship the following afternoon. It was a small yacht that held about 300 people, the yacht was complete with a movie library, buffet, restaurant, fitness center, and an opposable hull that could open to allow scuba diving, water skiing, and sunbathing in the middles of the ocean. The yacht docked at a different harbor everyday for the last 4-5 days. I remember going on a tropical rainforest tour with Heather’s dad and seeing a sleeping boa constrictor up close and getting bitten by sand flies. I recall the time we all went kayaking and got painful sunburns (with SPF 50 sunscreen applied several times!) My fondest memory of the whole trip was of the last day, when we all went white-water rafting, it was the first time I’d ever rafted and the memory will stay with me for the rest of my life, the laughing, the screaming, the taste of fresh pineapple, and the crashing of the waterfall, and especially the beauty of it all. As my mom said, my trip with Heather’s family was a once-in-a-lifetime