June 28, 2025

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, USA

I flew from Philadelphia to San Diego on the morning of Sunday June 15th to rejoin the Ship. It was a gorgeous sunny day and after carting my bags to my room, and unpacking a little bit, I got out to explore the City. Sarah joined me walking around the port area. We did some shopping at the outdoor farmer markets and caught up. Our Ship was docked between two icons - the USS Midway Aircraft carrier and the Star of India the world's oldest active sailing ship. Both are currently museums. Sarah and I posed like the        Farewell Kiss statue and did a selfie for Sarah's boyfriend Bob.

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Day 2 in San Diego I had Moh's Surgery on my forehead to remove two basal cell spots. Juan, the office administrator genius at SCRIPPS CLINIC totally hooked me up ! I had Dr. Hubert Greenway, who did the first fellowship with Dr. Moh's himself as my surgeon. Dr. Greenway doesn't even typically work on Monday's but came in to help me out. He has trained 81 fellows in the dermatology surgery and his 81st graduate was also involved my case - she froze off a third spot Dr. Greenway noticed to prevent any further damage developing. While waiting for the lab work to clear the surgery margins I walked in Scripps Zen garden over looking the golf course and coast of Southern California. Once Dr. Greenway was convinced they got all the margins I walked down the street to the plastic surgeon offices at Scripps. There Dr. Christopher Bergeron did his magic and closed up the skin on my forehead. Everyone I met at Scripps was amazing and a special shout out to my wonderful, compassionate nurse and hopefully future Ship resident!

We also enjoyed the margaritas at Miguel's port side restaurant on both Sunday and Tuesday afternoons. The house mix was yummy, they had a nice long Happy Hour and we struck up a conversation with local Hypnotist Motivational Speaker, Jim Lutes and his buddy Luke who was a Martial arts specialist.

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.