Although our first President, George Washington, never lived in the White House - it was not completed until the administration of our second president, John Adams. President John Adams is credited with owning the first Presidential Pets: two mixed breed dogs, named Juno and Satan. John Adams' tenure in the White House was short-lived (he lost reelection later that year), but many dogs and cats have served as First Pets ever since. John Adams' son, President John Quincy Adams, received an alligator as a gift from France's Marquis de Lafayette.

Once upon a time, the joke among those in the cruise industry was that the cruise vacation was something for the "newlywed" or the "nearly dead." I remember those jokes, as well as a time in my own life when I would be embarrassed to say that I was even going on a cruise. One day it occurred to me; how else could I see six Caribbean Island nations in eight days or explore a series of major Alaskan cities that are inaccessible by road in under a week? I quickly became a champion of the cruise experience.