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.

KOH SAMUI, THAILAND - Final Day

By Pat Patrick • July 14, 2026
I really enjoyed my first trip to Thailand! On our final morning here we went to try breakfast at this spot, down the road, we had been hearing rave reviews on, King Of Bread . The hype was correct, the breakfast was delicious and they had some unique choices. I had eggs benedict on a croissant, in lieu of the standard english muffin and Bosco had it on Milk Bread, which was equally tasty.

KOH SAMUI, THAILAND - Cooking Class

By Pat Patrick • July 14, 2026
We love having authentic experiences with locals to really get a chance to see how they live and thrive in the Ports we visit. So when I found a cooking class, by a local woman offered in her home, we were excited to book. Um ( our teacher) picked us and brought us back to our hotel along with the family of 4 from Sydney, Australia, that had also signed up for this afternoon class. Um's house, which has a lovely open air kitchen, garden and dining area, was about a 30 minute drive and turned out to be on the beach, right next to the Grandparent Rocks.

KOH SAMUI, THAILAND - NIGHTLIFE

By Pat Patrick • July 14, 2026
The nightlife scene doesn't really get going till after 11pm and goes till 5 am in the Chaweng section of Koh Samui . We made our way over to the club district, and one of the hot spots called the ArkBar a little past 10pm to have some dinner, while watching the beach fire shows.