June 30, 2025

CATALINA ISLAND, CALIFORNIA - DAY 2

Another sunny day and adventure for the 3 of us! Sarah's top pick of activities, was to conquer her fear of heights and go Parasailing. We had hope to go up as a triple, but it was too windy for the boat operators to feel comfortable.We had to split into two rides and Sarah volunteered to go up twice! Sarah & I went up first, then she stayed strapped in and went again with Sherrie.

Amazing view from 1200 feet above sea level. So calm, quiet and peaceful!

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After Parasailing, I decided to skip lunch and indulge my curiosity in learning to Scuba Dive. There was a theater in town called IMMERSED and it was a dome shape. You laid on bean bag chairs and got immersed  watching a 30 minute film with dive breathing sound effects, so you got the sensation you were diving in some of the greatest underwater spots through out the world! I loved it but also realized I didn't enjoy the dark cave dives. I never knew how stunning the surface of the water looks from deep below!

When I came out of Immersed, I was talking to the manager and found out there was also a Mermaids experience available.I had asked about this the day before at the tourist center but they made it sound like it was more for a character at kids parties! Turns out we could have done a whole photo shot with them in the water on the beach, had we known. Since there was only a couple hours left in the day until we set sail, I had to settle for a photo shoot in the grotto area of their studio. I talked Sarah into doing it too, and we are still awaiting copies of our photos while I type this blog post up. We only have the following shots for now.

HONG KONG

By Pat Patrick • September 3, 2026
So excited to get out and explore this huge city. Our Port is attached to a huge shopping mall - so it is a bit of a hike before we even get outside. When we do the heat hits us like a brick wall! There are typhoons, in the area and according to a local, when the storms come in, they first bring a wave of fog, heat and humidity to Hong Kong .

ENTERING HONG KONG HARBOR

By Pat Patrick • September 1, 2026
On Saturday August 29, 2026 we achieved another historic milestone on this circumnavigation of the World , we cruised into Hong Kong Harbor. Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China. The land encompassed by Hong Kong is confusing. It includes part of the southern coast of mainland China, just below Shenzhen, Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories . Looking at a map helps, but the rules changed so many times! I asked my buddy Chat several times, to tell me if what I was looking at was the Hong Kong that the British had owned for years. The answer was never straight forward!

HA LONG BAY, VIETNAM

By Pat Patrick • August 31, 2026
Ha Long Bay in Vietnam is one of those bucket list places I have had in my sights for years. It's the iconic picture in my mind's eye, whenever I think of Vietnam . We had made plans to go with 8 others on a brand new, swanky Red Dragon Junk boat for a harbor cruise and overnight stay, but sadly the weather did not cooperate the whole 4 days we were in port. No ships were permitted to sail, per the local government. Many of us were bummed! This is typhoon session and there was a lot of rain and high winds our first couple of days - we were hoping it would blow out the last day and we could at least do a day trip but no luck!