Alaska, Radiance of the Seas, August 28th to September 11th, 2009

Prologue

"North to Alaska, go north, the rush is on".

The lyrics to the 1960 Johnny Horton song "North to Alaska" have been running through my head these last few days as I prepare for my next cruising adventure. The music brings back childhood memories, as my older brothers were big country music fans and I grew up listening to their favourite artists from the 50's and 60's.

On Thursday, August 27th, 2009, I will once again be at the Fredericton airport awaiting an Air Canada flight at an hour when most of my friends are still asleep. With a connection through Pearson Airport in Toronto, I will be on the West Coast by 10:00 a.m. local time, ahead of my travelling companions who are flying in from various states in the U.S. It will be somewhat of a treat for me to travel to a cruise port without going through Customs, as the path to embarkation ports usually leads me to or through 'the States'.

This cruise on the beautiful Radiance of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean ship on which I have had the pleasure to sail 14 days in 2007, will depart Vancouver on Friday August 28th and sail to Seward, Alaska with stops in Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway and Icy Strait Point, as well as a day cruising past the Hubbard Glacier. Once onboard, we will be united with friends from Florida who are sailing this week and next for the trip northward.We will bid them farewell in Seward, and I along with 4 others in our travelling group will re-board the ship for the southbound journey back to Vancouver.

This will be also be a mini-reunion cruise for my "Pirates of the Mariner" mateys, which include myself, my 'significant other' Dave from Connecticut, Dorothy and Barry from Florida, David and Nancy from Georgia, and Roger and Kathlene from New York. We first met on the Mariner of the Seas in September of 2007 and get together whenever we can to play Pirate and hoist a mug of 'grog'.

On September 4th, Dave and I will be joined by Bill and Mariana from California, fellow "Hornblowers" who sailed with me for 46 nights on my South American adventure on the Mariner. Cruising as much as we do means that we gather not only great memories of our travels, but lifelong friends along the way.

Dave and I have signed up for some amazing excursions for our first , but probably not last, trip to Alaska. Weather permitting, we will be flying via helicoptor onto a glacier, soaring via floatplane over fjords and lakes, whale watching, sailing with crab fisherman, panning for gold, and visiting a summer musher's camp to spend some time with the remarkable working dogs. And hopefully the skies will be clear for a ride on the mile-long Zipline at Icy Strait Point :)

So join me here in the next few days and weeks as I head "North to Alaska". See you onboard !