Category Archives: travel

Places I’m going, packing, to do lists, generally more tips than the actual destination itself.

To the University of British Columbia

Today we left Kamloops and headed over to Vancouver. It was a pretty normal day and I talked to my mom on the phone; multiple other days I’d made notes that I couldn’t reach her (where were you mom?!?) I probably wrote it down so I didn’t get in trouble for not calling, answering machines were still pretty new sparse back then. Plus, I helped some of the seniors with their luggage; while that was something listed as something we would do, it wasn’t an everyday thing (I even mentioned whose luggage it was).

On the way to Vancouver

Taking a break on the way to Vancouver
Taking a break on the way to Vancouver

From the trip itinerary it says we’d see Fraser Canyon, Hell’s Gate and the Alexandra Suspension bridge on the ride (but honestly I really don’t remember any of that, I’ll have to see what I have photos of).

To protect from Avalanches?
You’ve got window glare (sorry!) but I wanted to show those structures to prevent the road (or rails) from avalanches (I guess?)

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Train

We stayed at the University of British Columbia (the rent the empty dorm rooms out like a hotel) and it really made an impact on me. I liked the campus and I really liked the way that the dorms were set up. I even went over and got a course description guide while I was there.

The dorms are rented out in the summer and the rooms are really tiny ($9 adults and $7 for kids). The bonus of this was that for the first time all trip I’ve had room of my own, so this was extra enjoyable to me! I’m an only kid so sharing a room, let alone with strangers wasn’t really something I was used to.

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Walter Gage Residence at U of BC

So the way our dorm, the Walter Gage Residence, was set up was that each floor had four “wings” and each wing had eight rooms: a bathroom, a living room/kitchenette, and six small (private) bedrooms. It seemed to me the building was kind of new at the time. I even sketched up a diagram, I’ll take a photo and add it.

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The layout was great (this is one of the four wings), you had “roommates” but you had your own room and a common area. You can see the building is kind of square so the drawing isn’t to any kind of scale.

Room layout
This the single room layout and that’s the door at the top. You can tell that I really liked the room setup here, I even added the shelves and lamp.

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This is from Roger’s Pass which we would have passed through today (I think). It came in a nice sealed case.

I mentioned in my journal that I’d gotten a lot of those commemorative coins, which is what I was thinking the other day, but I think I only have three of them. I’ll have to look in other places but all of this Alaska trip stuff has been in the same box for years.

Here’s the important part: We board the ship headed to Alaska tomorrow!!!

If you’re reading this post out of context, this is me re-journaling a trip to Alaska from when I was a kid. You might want to click the “trip to Alaska” link and go to the bottom and read them in order. I’m posting each entry on the same day that it happened years ago.

From Chateau Lake Louise to Kamloops!

Unfortunately, we didn’t get enough time at Chateau Lake Louise we were up at 7 am and out of there by 10 am. I did get a chance to take a few more pictures before we had to take off. It really was a beautiful area!

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There is no question that he was posing for me!

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I do have a copy of the final group photo somewhere, I believe he gave it to us as an 8″ x 10″ in black and white. I’ll have to find it, I’m hoping it’s with a few other items I can’t find that I think I know where they all are. But I’ll probably have to scan it to do it justice.

Group Picture
This is a group picture we were trying to take before leaving. Obviously we aren’t ready, I’m not it it yet!

I’m not sure which portion of the background is the glacier? But I know a portion of it is. Maybe most of the middle “mountain”? I didn’t actually take a photo of the hotel, but you can see part of it at wikipedia (From the description, it looks like they added onto it)

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I liked the room key here, it kind of folds up to be less bulky!

Here’s a few more photos of the area(?) and on the way to Kamloops. Even with these photos in chronological order, it’s still hard to tell when events change sometimes. With my digital camera I quite often take photos of signs so that I know what something is. But what I really want is GPS built into all my cameras so I really know exactly where I took my pictures. That also makes for some fun options to have software automatically place them on a map. WIth that said, these photos are from between Chateau Lake Louise and Kamloops (and maybe Vancouver, but hopefully not).

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A train bridge in the distance.

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A little glare on the window for this one, but I liked the view!

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Kamloops was pretty small but I really remember it being a tough town (I know I mentioned something about Calgary, but I didn’t remember that and it was before I was here!). It was a regular town (not a tourist town and not a big city at all), but I remember making fun of it in a variety of ways: “Kamloops, the only place the 24 hour A&P closes at 11pm”, we thought that was hysterical. We also thought Kuhnloops would be a good nickname for Mr. Kuhn, I guess Fruit Loops mushed with Kuhn and the town Kamloops made it all funny. We were kids, okay?!?

It was really hot, I wrote that “it hit 96 degrees here today” and while that was Canada, I’ll assume that was in Fahrenheit. This was our least fancy (not at all fancy) hotel all trip. I don’t need “fancy” but this one stood out as “not like the others”…

One very “not vacation” thing we did was to go see Raiders of the Lost Ark which I’d said in my journal that “Raiders was just and good and the first time!”.

It wasn’t very much of an Independence Day but we were able to cope :)

If you’re reading this post out of context, this is me re-journaling a trip to Alaska from when I was a kid. You might want to click the “trip to Alaska” link and go to the bottom and read them in order. I’m posting each entry on the same day that it happened years ago.

Chateau Lake Louise

Today we left Calgary on the bus to head to Chateau Lake Louise. The itinerary says “After leaving Calgary, gradually, the foothills gain height as you rider and almost before you know it, you are in the mountains”. He wasn’t kidding. I took a lot of photos on the ride over

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The above are mostly pictures from the ride and I’m sure in a few you can see the reflection from the window. But it pretty much matches the description that Mr. Kuhn mentioned in the itinerary!

10am
Got to Banff National Park.
Went to visit the “bee-u-tiful” Banff Springs Hotel and took pictures.

12:30pm
Lunch after riding on the bus some more at A&W.

2pm
Arrived at the Chateau Lake Louise.

I’m pretty sure that I wrote “bee-u-tiful” because that’s how Mr. Kuhn said it. Mr. Kuhn was a great guy that ran the trip and a bit eccentric at times but he put on a great trip.

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The above pictures are from the area around the hotel. The latter ones (certainly from the vertical ones on) are from the hike up Mt. Victoria. That last one would be where we stopped to get tea (probably Coke for us!) at some point on the hike.

3:15pm
Hiked up to the tea house and waterfall four-and-a-half miles up Mount Victoria.

8PM
Had a great dinner in the Victoria Dining Room. Wore my jacket and borrowed a tie from Jeff.

I don’t know what was a great dinner to me back then? Hamburgers and ice cream? Also, I can’t remember why I borrowed a tie from Jeff, maybe I liked it better? Did I not take one? I’ve actually found a few pictures of Jeff and friended him (I think it’s his Facebook that I found) so that I could send him some of the photos (but he hasn’t responded!).

The Chateau Lake Louise was a beautiful location to stay at, it seems to me the rooms were pretty tiny (as many old hotels are) but it was great location and I do remember climbing way way up while were were there. It was beautiful and great to be in the forest climbing around and taking pictures.

If you’re reading this post out of context, this is me re-journaling a trip to Alaska from when I was a kid. You might want to click the “trip to Alaska” link and go to the bottom and read them in order. I’m posting each entry on the same day that it happened years ago.

Visiting Calgary, Canada

So we left Edmonton by bus and pretty much “goofed around all day” after we got to Calgary.

Waiting for the bus to Calgary
Our group waiting for the bus to Calgary

Calgary Canada

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These are on the ride from Edmunton to Calgary.

The last two photos seems a little high for a bus but downtown seems a little empty if they are from the hotel window…

In Calfary, we stayed at another Sheraton.

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If my memory serves me right, my room was number 308…

We got to Calgary in time for lunch and had lots of time for goofing around (as stated above) but I’m not sure what we did. I know I really liked the big cities and I’d never been let loose in downtown Detroit so I probably wandered around everywhere and anywhere I could.

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Before this trip all I knew about Calgary and the Calgary Stampede (which I think we missed by less than a week) could have been summed up in this story in the Uncanny X-men.

If you read X-men you are surely nodding your head in agreement. If you didn’t read X-men you scratching your head in confusion. I was HUGE into X-men at the time and I’ll always connect Calgary with this X-men/Alpha Flight crossover (Alpha Flight was the Canadian super-hero team that Wolverine was from).

Calgary Tower
Calgary Tower

From my journal:

8:00 pm – Went to dinner at the four seasons and then went up the Calgary Tower. Great view, took lots of pictures. Rough town, almost saw a fight a couple of times.

And here is a few of the photos from up high a little reflection from the windows but it’s bearable.

View from Calgary Tower

View from Calgary Tower

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Views from the Calgary Tower.

The Calgary Stampede
I believe this is where they held the Calgary Stampede.

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$1 commemorative coin for the Calgary Stampede.

While I was on this trip Canada was issuing a variety of $1 coins for certain events and locations. This one has Guy Weadick on it, not sure if they had multiple different ones for the Stampede for that year or just one person a year. For some reason these coinds felt more like collectables than our current 50 state quarters currently do. I though I’d gotten quite few on the trip but I can only find two…

If you’re reading this post out of context, this is me re-journaling a trip to Alaska from when I was a kid. You might want to click the “trip to Alaska” link and go to the bottom and read them in order. I’m posting each entry on the same day that it happened years ago.

A day in Edmunton, Alberta – Canada Day

After another night on the train we eventually arrived in Edmunton, Alberta.

VIew from the Train

VIew from the Train

VIew from the Train

FYI, the slide scanning was done at CostCo and I’m not really impressed but the quality. Yes, the slides are old but they were stored in plastic bags that were tied shut and stored in a box. But it’s CostCo, I probably could (and should) have gotten a refund and tried them somewhere else.

In Edmunton we stayed at the Sheraton Caravan. Most of the hotels we stayed at on this trip were pretty nice, if I recall correctly.

It was Canada Day so I mentioned that “most stores were closed”. But I did buy a poster at a mall, but I have no idea what kind. Was it of Edmonton or nothing to do with the trip at all?

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I have an assortment of key souvenirs from this trip.

From my “journal” which is really just some pages of loose-leaf paper –

Noon: Explored the city when we were supposed to go on tour because others were late. Turns out everyone eryone else didn’t go on tour either. Found LOTS of arcades. (If I recall correctly, I think some of the kids took off since we were tired of waiting, but since the tour fell through, I don’t think we got in much trouble).

Later on that day we went up to the observation floor of the of Telus Plaza which was called Vista 33 and it also happened to be a telephone museum. I really don’t remember much from the telephone museum, but I obviously thought it was cool enough to purchase two of the souvenir coins they had. I was into tech then, so I’d have thought it would have made more of an impression. Speaking of tech, I’d had my first computer job all lined up for my return. As soon as I got back I was to start work at the Family Computer Center selling computers and teaching classes (which was owned by the same folks who owned The Doll Hospital and Toy Soldier Shop).

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I specially mentioned that it was a “great view but I only had my 110 pocket camera” so this means there are more photos than just the slides that I have. I know where there are a few B & W prints from the 33MM camera, but I wonder where those shots from the pocket camera are?

We did a “tour” of town via subway which I thought was “stupid” and since I generally (at least now) like trains and subways I’m assuming it was stupid in that it was something put together quickly to make up for the earlier screwed up tour and it wasn’t much of a tour.

The other thing that I remember is there seemed to be huge amounts of construction of tall buildings downtown here and in Calgary (we go there tomorrow). This made a huge impression on me, Detroit had a lot of tall buildings by where I lived (Berkley and the surrounding area) most building were only one to three floors, tall buildings were the exception, there were lots in these cities. Even now in Detroit if you go up in a tall building there are so few tall buildings in the distance you can generally figure out where the are located.

If you’re reading this post out of context, this is me re-journaling a trip to Alaska from when I was a kid. You might want to click the “trip to Alaska” link and go to the bottom and read them in order. I’m posting each entry on the same day that it happened years ago.

Four hours in Winnipeg, Canada

We had a four hour break from the train in Winnipeg (the capitol of Manitobe) and listed as “where the prairies begin” (that’s from my trip notes). I wrote:

We stopped in Winnipeg (still taking train). A big city, but not much interesting and we took a tour by bus.

I know I talked a lot as a kid, but I guess I didn’t write a lot!

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This was one of the people on our trip, I remember them but don’t ask me their name.

Speaking of the people on the trip: There were ten boys about my age and if I recall correctly most seemed to be spoiled kids where were probably sent away to get rid of them for the summer. There were about 40 adults and I think they were mostly (but not all) retirees. The adults seemed kind of well traveled about two-thirds were married and traveling together. I didn’t realize this at the time but all of the adults traveling alone were women, some were marked “Ms.” and some “Mrs.”, not sure if the latter were windowed or they left the men at home.

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I’m sure I thought this statue was cute then, since I still do now!

The sculpture of the cubs looks to be something of Leo Mol and may now be located in the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden which opened after I took this photo. It looks a lot like Bear Cubs (1976) or Playful Cubs (1975); those two are so similar it may be one of them or another similar one (thanks to Nancy for pointing this out in the comments).

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Saint Boniface Cathedral is a link to Wikipedia, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Thanks to Nancy for identification of this too and a link to Wikipedia.

I guess my high point of the day was when I was playing Bingo and “won a VIA key chain bottle opener”. I do remember winning something playing Bingo, but I don’t remember the keychain at all and it’s not in my box of souvenirs.

If anyone can identify the items in these photos better, please do! Especially if you know I’ve got them labeled in the wrong city!

If you’re reading this post out of context, this is me re-journaling a trip to Alaska from when I was a kid. You might want to click the “trip to Alaska” link and go to the bottom and read them in order. I’m posting each entry on the same day that it happened years ago.

VIA Train Travel – The Super Continental

So yesterday we boarded “Canada National’s Finest Train” The Super Continental. While the route goes across most of Canada, we will get off at Edmonton.

The Super Continental
Map courtesy of Wikipedia.

We’re on the train for a few days and we sleep on it, on the 29th I said that the “breakfast food was OK”. I cannot believe I don’t have a picture of one of the sleeper units. It was the old fashioned kind of sleeper where you pulled the curtain closed. They were stacked two high. We were on a few different trains, maybe I have a photo from later on (I can’t even find a good representation on-line).

VIA Train Bench
Why would I even take a picture of one of these couches on the train and not the sleepers?

The trains were Canadian National (you’ve seen the CN logo on trains, right?) but trains were labeled “VIA” that was the passenger trains distinction (I think that was still relatively new at the time).

View from the dome car in the train.
View from the dome car in the train.

We basically spent all of June 29th paying games and talking about plans for the trip to the Canadian Rockies (and Alaska). On our off time, we probably ran around the train checking everything out from end to end.

We did make a quick 20-minute stop in the town of Hornepayne, Ontario which I wrote was a “pretty small dull town”. It probably had a population of under 2,000 at the time and as of 2011 has a population of 1050, so maybe my evaluation wasn’t too far off!

(See, I told you the first few days were going to be a little boring).

If you’re reading this post out of context, this is me re-journaling a trip to Alaska from when I was a kid. You might want to click the “trip to Alaska” link and go to the bottom and read them in order. I’m posting each entry on the same day that it happened years ago.

Alaska: A long long time ago… but still June 28th

So when I was a kid, I had the opportunity to go on a trip through Canada and on to Alaska and (sort of) back through the US. This was a big deal in my house, I didn’t get sent away to camp for the summer (maybe a week with scouts) or even on my own for any trips, this was huge for me. My Mom knew I was interested in Alaska from books (all I can think of off hand is The Hardy Boys – The Mystery at Devil’s Paw), television and school, she saw a newspaper article about this local teacher who did a tour every summer with seniors and teenage boys. I grew up with my single Mom who worked her butt off at a local grocery store and while this trip was a decent price, I still understood it was a lot of money; plus, I had to earn and pay for a third of it (or a quarter?). But the trip looked amazing, it was clearly one of those once in a lifetime opportunities and was probably supposed to build character helping the seniors with their luggage and other things.

This is that story of that trip. I’ve got photos (actually, mostly slides that were recently scanned) some (sometimes poorly written) journal entries by a 15-year old me and some other odds and ends that I’ll include. I might make a mistake or two with photos in the wrong order and me having to make some of my best guesses (but I’m pretty sure I’d kept the photos in order). Keep in mind that I don’t have as many photos as the cRaZy number that I would take these days since they wren’t digital back then.

The trip started on June 28 at empty parking lot in Pleasant Ridge where we all met and got on the bus to Windsor, Canada where we would catch the train to Toronto, Canada. My experience on busses were probably limited to school trips (maybe something with the boy scouts?) and I probably hadn’t ever been on a train at this point in my life.

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A picture out of the window of the train.
(I’m guessing that’s Toronto in the distance?)

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Some tall building I must have thought was cool since I took several pictures (none were very good).

We had a few hours to kill in Toronto while waiting for the train. So we wandered around and saw a few things and spent some time at an amusement park called Canada Place, the weird thing is that I don’t really remember Canada Place from any of my trips to Toronto the following few years and it looks like it’s still around.

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Toronto’s CN tower which I really thought we went up in it, but since I don’t have any pictures, maybe we didn’t.

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This ship was docked nearby (at the carnival?)

I promise the adventures get more exciting after the first few days since they are mostly transportation to get to other places and I didn’t do much with my journal the first 5 days…