Bowman's Local Flavor - Next Decade

Day 6 thru 10 – Land of the Midnight Sun After leaving Glacier Bay, we headed out to open waters and sailed toward our final port, Whittier, Alaska. We’d been at sea for 7 days and traveled about 1300 nautical miles. The plan for the rest of the trip is to disembark at Whittier, Alaska and board the McKinley Express bound for Denali National Park, then travel to Fairbanks and home. The McKinley Express is a privately-owned train operated by Holland America. It features glas

Day 5 – June 12, Glacier Bay Among the many natural beauties of Alaska, one that is very unique to this area is Glacier Bay. Glaciers are caused when more snow falls in an area than the annual rate of melting, causing the bottom layers to be compressed by the new snow falling on the top. The compacted snows becomes enormously heavy and falls victim to gravity, which pulls the mass into the sea. Glaciers can also be found in Washington, Oregon, California, Montana and Wyom

Day 4 – Haines and Skagway – Eagle Preserve June 11, 2026 The most adventuresome outing we chose was the Haines Jet Boating experience. This was advertised as the best way to see Alaskan wildlife and I was hoping for some memorable photos. The information provided by the cruise ship advised dressing for the cold with an outer layer which was water proof. I was a little anxious the night before, hoping that I had the requisite clothing. But my concerns were quickly laid to

Day three, June 10, 2026 – Juneau Juneau is the capital city of Alaska and holds the distinction of being the only state capital in the country which cannot be accessed by roads. We are learning this fact about a number of places in Alaska, which only serves to reinforce our decision not to drive to Alaska. Juneau can only be accessed by air or by sea and the cruise ships which visit here swell the population by 50% on any summer day. The main industry here is state gover

June 9 – Ketchikan, Alaska Back in the 90’s I was a huge fan of the show “Northern Exposure”. It followed the lives of the inhabitants of an eclectic Alaskan town. When we opened the blinds today, I had to just smile. The town of Ketchikan Alaska looked much like the town in the show - Simple small shops, lots of individual flair, nothing moving too fast. And surrounding this little town, the beautiful Tongass National Forest. After breakfast, we left the ship and finall

June 8 2026 When you mention to someone that you are taking a cruise, everyone has their own interpretation of that experience. Some envision lying by the pool, massages at the spa, and endless trips to the buffet. Others want gambling opportunities and see a cruise as a floating Vegas of sorts with visits to the casino and non-stop bingo games. Still others are drawn to the duty-free shopping and occasions to dress to impress. But for Jim and I, the cruise is simply the

Sunday, June 7, 2026 Ten years – a decade – a significant passage of time. When Jim and I married ten years ago, we understood clearly that time is precious. After both being widowed, we knew that we needed to make the most of our time and here we are, ten years later. So to celebrate our tenth anniversary, we decided to take a grand adventure to Alaska. We debated several different scenarios to accomplish this – camping in our van for part or the whole trip or driving.

Ten years of travel and we still have adventures to explore. We've changed our methods of travel -- we traded our travel trailer camper for a campervan we built, and we sometimes explore public transportation instead of our car, but we haven't lost our love for this beautiful country and the local flavor of each community. Come join us on our next ten years of adventures.