Maybe it's because my parents force fed me a steady diet of Jimmy Buffet tunes growing up.

Or perhaps it has something to do with watching Cocktail as an impressionable 10-year-old (you know, back when Tom Cruise was still really cool). But I've always associated vacation with cocktails. There is just something so right about sipping a fruity spiked beverage after a sea-soaked boating adventure or a long day under the hot sun. But cocktail consumption doesn't have to be an afterthought to an otherwise sober day of vacation. Oh no. Cocktails can be the modus operandi, the launch pad into a new anthropological realm rimmed in salt and topped with a maraschino cherry. After all, history doesn't have to be dry.

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