The Delta Queen is celebrating her 80th birthday. I hope when I am celebrating my 80th I will be as surrounded by music, loyal friends and fun.This traditional paddlewheel steamboat has been cruising up and down the Mississippi and its tributaries for decades, recapturing the days when hundreds of steamboats plied these waters. In fact, dozens of steamboats were tied up, one after the other, all along the docks in port cities.Delta Queen is a part of history, an American treasure, making the steamboat days live again for those who still have the opportunity to cruise her. In fact the Delta Queen has been named a National Historic Landmark and a member of the National Trust Historic Hotels of America. And she has been inducted into the National Maritime Hall of Fame as a vessel that made an outstanding contribution to the maritime industry, in fact the only vessel still operating that is in the Hall of Fame. She used to cruise along the California coast, then in drab grey was a troop ship in World War II, then guided by tugboats came through the Panama Canal to her present cruises on the Mississippi River and