New Blog

I have a new blog. The address is:
http://bowmantravel.blogspot.com/
Check it out!!

My nephew, Nick, is leaving for China tomorrow! He is going to Harbin to teach English. Harbin is a large city near Mongolia and Siberia. I think it will be COLD in the winter! He has a blog to record his experiences in China. The address of his blog is "drunken-russian.blogspot.com". That's all I have for now.
Over and out.
(That was for you, PaulC!)

It's been over two years since I posted to this blog. We are planning our next trip to Alaska so I thought I would start posting again. We are planning on going back to Skagway in July of 2010 for 10-14 days. Andy and Kerry (our son and daughter-in-law) will be going with us. Once again, the anticipation and planning of the trip are almost as much fun as the trip itself. I will post on our planning progress and whatever else I feel like talking about.

I think I need to fix my links....

We left Skagway on Friday. We flew in a small plane from Skagway to Juneau. This photo was taken from the plane. We flew at about 3500 feet through the mountains. It was beautiful!

Saying goodbye to Ashley, Skagway and all our new friends was really difficult. It was a great vacation and we are looking forward to returning.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog and viewing the photo albums as much as I have enjoyed recording our vacation.

Liarsville - Thursday, June 15

The company that Ashley works for has a Salmon bake at a place called Liarsville which is very close to Skagway. The salmon bake consists of a delicious meal of grilled salmon, rice, baked beans, and pasta salad. The grilled salmon was the best I have ever had. It was grilled over a wood fire and there was an optional sauce made with brown sugar. Then after the meal we saw a nice show with the actors in period costumes from the gold rush era. They sang songs and recited Robert Service poetry. The show was funny and we really enjoyed it. The young lady with Rick is Chrystal. She really made the experience fun. If you ever go to Skagway, consider the salmon bake! The food was delicious and the show was fun!

The Fjord Express

On Wednesday Rick and I took a tour with a company called the Fjord Express. We got on a catamaran (see the photo album for pictures) in Skagway, sailed to Haines to pick up a few more passengers and made our way to Juneau. On the way we saw waterfalls, lots of whales, sea lions, porpoises and Bald Eages. It was a beautiful trip! When we got to Juneau we transfered to a motor coach and after a short tour of Juneau, we had a couple of free hours to explore the capital city of Alaska. Then we re-boarded the motor coach and went out to the Mendenhall Glacier. We had about an hour to visit the visitor's center and view the glacier. There is a beautiful lake at the base of the glacier and when ice bergs calve off the glacier they float around in the lake until they melt. After the glacier the bus took us back to the boat and we returned to Skagway. On the return trip we saw more whales and eagles, a beautiful lighthouse and many more eagles. Thank you Captain Glen and crew member Gail for a wonderful trip!

Weather and Mosquitos

Just a short note about the weather. It has been around 50-55 degrees for most of our time here but on Saturday (helicopter day) it was 78 degrees, which tied the record for that day. The sun was shining all day and it was actually sort of hot. I got a little too much sun. Yesterday drizzled all day and today is the same. A little cool and drizzly.
I have only seen one mosquito. I was warned about them. I heard that they are huge and plentiful. But I think it might be a little too early for them. Plus it's really windy in Skagway. Skagway means "windy place" in the native language.
Today we are going on a couple of short hikes and I am making vegetable soup for Ashley and her co-workers. I loaded a new album last night so check it out. There are now two and I think I will have another one tomorrow.