Mar 21 - San Francisco, CA USA

DONNA KAY PHILLIPS : We have arrived. We have completed the objective of moving the Splendor from Ft Lauderdale, FL to San Francisco, CA - an historic journey to be sure. We are packed up to leave our 49 day home of SmoothLounge Studio 6453. We will see our Basil dog today and our van, not sure I remember how to drive at this point, other than ATVs :-)

The photos today are from the camera of Martina (Gold Pearl Dining Room HeadWaitress). She's been kind enough to share her jump drive with us throughout this trip to augment the travel log with her exemplorary version of some of these beautiful ports. This became especially ciritical when I left our little Olympus at the restaurant in Puerto Vallarta. The shots you see from that day until now are pretty much all hers and she got some incredible angles of our city by the Bay. This is her first visit to SF and it's refreshing to see the city through new eyes - enjoy!

While Martina and her crew was trekking the city from Pier 39 to Fisherman's Wharf to the Golden Gate bridge to Lombard Street, Sandy and I met up with our housesitter, Tony who brought Basil to see up. It was an emotional connection for us, though she did seem a little annoyed with us all at the same time.

We then headed over to Union Square to pick up Dad and a very sick Diane. Yes, the Cape Horn Cough still has it's grip on plenty of passengers. We drove them around the city in search of lunch and a big box of See's candy destined for the Photography staff. If you could see the sheer stacks of photos my Dad has printed and logged on this trip, you would fully understand the big box of candies.

Our goals accomplished and our 2 day cruise to nowhere impending, we said our goodbyes for now to Dad, Diane, Basil and Tony. Looking my father in the eyes to say thanks was one of the hardest things to get through without losing it in front of him. It's exhilerating and greatly satisfying to set a lifetime goal such as this and to complete it just the way we planned, he and I and all of us. My Dad & Diane put the gleem on this trip for us and stormed the ports like troopers no matter what tried to get in their way. It was nothing short of amazing that this trip merely happened but to have been such a stellar experience that all of us will share for the rest of our lives, is a blessing.

I will never live my life the same way because of this patchwork of experiences sewn together by the Carnival family. I will not wait for life to come to me, I will set out to find it and when it comes looking for me I will say YES. Discovering the beautiful landscapes and corners of these Southern cultures has brought my innocence to the surface, I felt like a child with so much to learn. To the balance of that, I feel I have had to grow up in terms of adopting a more "live and let live" outlook.

Because of the tireless efforts by this ship's crew I have learned that I can always go on just a little further. Even after long work hours, there is always time for a smoke and a drink and to wake early one more day to play just as hard.

Even Captain Pagano gave us perspective that day up on the Bridge in Rio when 4 buses (including his own) was late to arrive back to the ship. Complaints abounded about how the Rio tour groups should have known, should have accounted for Carnival, etc. Capt. Pagan, in his relaxed Genoa tone exclaimed, "It's no one's fault, maybe we should have stayed here overnight, it is a wonderful city." Very similar wisdom espoused by a St Thomas surrey driver on the way to Megan's Bay "Don't go and give yourself a heart attack mon." Here here you wise sages in everyman's clothes!

Thanks for reading the Travel Log, hopefully we have been able to bring you with us over this long haul. Please go back and review some of the ports from Rio on to SF as I have updated and added new photos from my Dad and Martina that tell the stories even better.

This has been a labor of love, taking no less than 2-3 hrs per day on average to keep up - that's serious sun time people. There was just no other way to document so many rich experiences for so many folks. Our web traffic has increased over 300% since we began the Log and we hope that a lot of that spilled over to our sponsors Point South Music, Golden Tulip Resorts and Branche Restaurants as well as our Internet Sponsors SeaMobile (Fabian).

The Golden Gate Bridge is known as the Gateway to the Pacific, it's the last historic monument that westbound sailor sees as they are underway to chase the sun down the Pacific. Maybe that will be our next direction, although the European / Atlantic Crossing of The Carnival Dream is looking pretty good about now.

Always in search of "blue line therapy." - dkp