Cruisin' - 1

Finally. The centerpiece of this Tuzitrip - our family cruise to the Bahamas. All went well with the fly-in and by late Christmas night we were all (18 of us) bedded down in the Cocoa Beach Comfort Inn. The kids had made big plans for celebrating Susie's 70th birthday - a 70s party - and we surprised her by showing up at breakfast the next morning on the patio in tie-dyed splendor - beads, shades, sideburns, do-rags(?), mustaches, ... .

The back of the t-shirts read: Susie is 70; 70 is the new 40; Susie was 40 in the 70s; Time for a 70s Party! When we boarded the ship that afternoon it wasn't long until it seemed everybody knew Susie was 70. And they all told her, You can't be 70! On board, we got a professional group picture in our t-shirts and I'll scan that in and add it later.


After breakfast everybody gave their list of Things I Love About Susie. This wasn't sappy -- a theme soon developed around suppositories: Susie's prescription for what ails you. So far, though, the Easterling family members have not gotten this treatment. A second theme was the wooden spoon weapon of choice for childhood and grandchildhood punishment, but more importantly, the THREAT. Nevertheless, everyone loves Susie! It's the smile, sense of humor, personality, and obvious love Susie has for her family.


In early afternoon we boarded our cruise ship, the Royal Caribbean's Monarch of the Seas. Lunch was being served. We soon became very familiar with the phrase, Buffet's Open!

Here's a picture of the ship I took from our Sunday stopover at Cococay.



More pictures here. The ship is 880 ft. long and its capacity is 2744 passengers.

With our distinctive garb, we soon made our presence known. Susie became famous. One of the kids overheard a conversation on board, someone saying: I met Susie!

Cheers,

Susie and Rob