Cruising Into 2011

It's a beautifully sunny morning in Birch Bay as we ready ourselves to drive down for an overnight stay in SEA.

We'll spend New Year's Eve - starting around 7:00 a.m. tomorrow - flying to IAD and onward to MIA. We hope to meet up with Kathy's brother Tom and family New Year's Day if they manage to fly out of the Colorado snow that caused them to delay their flight by one day.

We board the Eurodam , one of Holland America's larger ships, January 2 for a six-night cruise around the Caribbean.

We're only stopping at three ports, HAL's "private island," Half Moon Cay, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, and Georgetown, Cayman Islands before returning to Fort Lauderdale. Tom, our personal restaurant consultant, is in charge of selecting Florida eateries before and after our cruise, and we'll be counting on his suggestions as we try two of the specialty restaurants, The Pinnacle Grill and Tamarind aboard the Eurodam.

Our first New Year's resolution clearly must be to hit the treadmills daily in the Fitness Center to try to burn off a few of those calories.