Cruise

Imagine sitting on a Caribbean beach, drinking rum watching sails break the horizon and listening to the wind play with the palm fronds. Unfortunately, there is not a hilarious pirate with thick black eye liner frolicking around you. Instead there are numerous members of your extended family. I realize not everyones ideal vacation involves a family reunion, mine does.

I went on a cruise with my mom, brother, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. Our group was 16 people. As a family we are very close. My family are some of my favorite people on the planet. It is not unusual for us to get together in large groups. Every summer we all make the time to go to our cabin on a lake and spend time together. Water skiing, swimming, boating, games, laughter and fun.

The last time my family all went on a large vacation together was Disney land about 10 years ago. Once again, the group was about 16 people, maybe more maybe less. We all had a blast, and we were due for a new family vacation. My grandmother and mother decided that they wanted to go on a cruise. Then my brother decided that this sounded like a fun vacation too. I was then on board. My grandfather was also coming. From there it mushroomed out into our family, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, basically anyone who wanted to come was invited. We are an inclusive bunch and don't necessarily wait around for an invite for vacation. By the time we all got done we looked and realized that there weren't many people who were staying home.

My mom and I went down to Florida to meet my grandparents and then from there drive down to Miami where we would meet the cruise. The drive down was all well and good, except for my mother being an insane backseat driver, and some minor complications/ disagreements with a GPS. We did end up making it to the cruise.

On the cruise we hung out at the corner of a bar, were served drinks from two bartenders we nic named Guido and Shampoo. I also toured St. Thomas, went snorkeling to a shipwreck, visited a national wildlife park near Samana in the Dominican Republic where there were cave paintings, took a boat ride out to an island where we swam into shore and then drank a stiff drink called painkillers. We went out to eat, and saw shows. One of the better vacations I've ever been on. Not because of the cruise, no offense to the boat while it was impressive, it was the people who made it.