Panama Canal Transit Part 2

For the introduction to our Panama Canal transit, see Panama Canal Transit Part 1I snapped this photo from the Promenade Deck (Deck 3) pointing my camera straight down the side of the ship when we were in the first lock section. You can see the side of the ship in the lower portion of the photo and the concrete wall of the lock section in the upper portion with about 10 inches between them with the water way down there at the bottom.
The green hills and fields along the Panama Canal and one of the official Panama Canal Authority buildings on the right, the Visitors Center.
A close-up of one of the hard-working "mules," the little engines that keep the ship centered in the lock section...You can see some of the cables going from the mule to our ship. There were two of these mules on each side of the ship.
We passed by a little railroad bridge.
At last we entered Gatun Lake...
...where another cruise ship was also anchored.
Saturday, December 12...sunset over Gatun Lake
Sunday morning...We saw several ships anchored in Gatun Lake. Here you can see a cruise ship and a container ship.
Since it was Sunday morning, we attended the protestant church service. James Blackman, the piano bar entertainer, played and sang Christmas music with us and Pastor Larry Clark from Virginia did the service. There were also a priest and a rabbi who held religious services aboard ship. Each of them got a free cruise; well, almost free: they just had to pay the taxes on the cruise.
The Rosario strings also played at the church service...pianist, violinist (Dick Saraza) and bass player. They were from India and the Philippines. They were fantastic. Their music sounded like they had all played together for many years, but they had only been playing together for three months. The violinist, Dick, played everything from classical to show tunes to pop tunes and he had most of the pieces memorized. They performed in the Explorer Lounge about six hours a day every day for the entire cruise. We listened to them every evening after dinner...amazing musicians!