Tag Archives: Alaska Trip

Edward J. Kuhn 1923-2013

Posted on July 19, 2013 | 4 comments

A few days ago, I was wondering some things about the Alaska trip: how long Mr. Kuhn had done it for or if anyone else had ever posted pictures at some point in time, so I went to internet to see what I could find out.

Unfortunately, the first thing I found was Mr. Kuhn’s obituary. It seemed an odd thing is that it was just a few weeks ago, right before I started posting every thing about this trip. He passed on June 20th, a week before we left thirty-two years ago.

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I wasn’t even sure how old he was at the time, we were just fifteen, so even thirty years old would be ancient to us. But he was celebrating his 25th year of leading this trip when were on it, so that would make him a bit older, now that I have the dates, he’d have been fifty-seven on our trip. Did I mention that he originally went on this trip with someone else as leader? He retired from the eight years after our trip and it says he did the Alaska trips for over thirty years, so I guess at least five more after us, maybe a few more than that.

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That’s Mr. Kuhn in the back in the blue jacket/shirt.
That’s the fish bake (I think by some mines) in Alaska we went to.

He was this crazy old guy who took us on the adventure of a lifetime. I think about this trip often, I feel that it has a bit to do with the traveler in me. Obviously, I had something of it in me before I left or I’d never have taken this three week trek away from home. Until recently, it was one of the longest trips I’ve ever been on.

Thank you and take care Mr. Kuhn I hope you’re still out there traveling…

In case you know Mr. Kuhn and are wondering why I’m posting his obituary, I went on a trip to Alaska with Mr. Kuhn when I was a kid. I recently found my journal from that trip and scanned my slides and I just spent the last three weeks writing about the whole trip to Alaska. I wrote it up each day and posted information and photos on the same day but exactly thirty-two years later.

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Back to Michigan from Canada, Alaska, Chicago and everywhere in-between.

Posted on July 18, 2013 | 1 comment

So we got up this morning and boarded a chartered bus from Chicago and back to the Detroit area. It was a long bus ride and we arrived tired and I recall it being really really hot when we arrived (a bank parking lot in Pleasant Ridge, the same spot we left from). I’m thinking it was kind of hot on the bus, so maybe something was broken(?).

Nothing else exciting, we stopped somewhere for lunch but no photos from today (sorry). I’ll scan those other pictures eventually (the two nice group shots and some black and white photos), hopefully more sooner than later (I did start making room for the scanner). I never found the photos that I took with the 110 camera, I looked all over for them but sadly never found them. I even looked for the pewter bear that I bought as a souvenir in Alaska, but no luck there either…

Since I don’t have any photos from today, here’s a few panoramic photos that I don’t think I posted here (a few might have been posted to Facebook already). I just tried to pick random ones but they’re mostly from Banff National Park and some glaciers in Alaska.

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Mendenhall Glacier.

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Near (in?) Banff National Park.

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In Banff National Park near the Chateau Lake Louise.

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Near Banff National Park.

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Glacier Bay.

It was a great trip and I really enjoyed reliving it while sharing it with you all here.

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.

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Playing in Chicago (and a mini adventure in the middle of nowhere)

Posted on July 17, 2013 | Leave a comment

So we were pretty bored on the train, it was 40 hours so far and I was pretty stir crazy. We’d stopped at some towns but nothing for more than a few minutes (We stopped in St. Payl / Minneapolis, MN for a short time, but I slept through that). We (the guys) wanted some snacks and something different than what was on the train. The problem was that most of the towns were just a quick stop and there was nothing nearby. So we watched the next few stops and the next stop in the middle of nowhere we saw a little shop (a little farther than across the street) and we ran like cRaZy. We made sure the guy from the train knew where we were going, and we knew they weren’t going to leave a few kids behind, but we didn’t really know for sure(!), so we ran and ran like our lives depended on it (my Mom would have killed me!) and got some drinks/snacks and got back on the train.

Thinking of the train station in Dearborn, there’s nothing there if you were just traveling by, the station is a small building and it’s behind the police station and library, nowhere that you could really get anything. Plus, if the train stops for more than a few minutes, it’s only because it’s early, I don’t think I’ve generally seen it sit there for more than 5 minutes, if that. People get off, people get on and it’s gone (very efficient).

So it was the last day on the train and we were ready to get off the train and glad to arrive in Chicago.

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From my journal:

6 pm – Got into Chicago and took cabs from the train station to the hotel. Mr. Kuhn gave us money and we got food from Burger King. Then we went up the Sears Tower.

We stayed at the Ascot House in Chicago. It was a weird shaped really large room that we ended up with. I’m not sure how many of us were in there, but after running around Chicago we were pretty tired and it probably didn’t matter. This was at 1100 S Michigan Ave, it’s a Best Western across from Grant Park, I really don’t remember the nice park across the street, maybe it wasn’t as nice back then? Maybe we just walked out the wrong way out the side door?

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We ran around all over the area in Chicago, we were pretty unstructured and unsupervised this evening. A few of us hung out and went up to the top of the Sears Tower and checked out the elevated train. I can’t remember if we got on it just for the heck of it or if we took it to get to the Sears Tower, which was kind of far away.

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.

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Washington outdoors.

Posted on July 15, 2013 | Leave a comment

I got a postcard from Mom! She sent it to the hotel from when she was up north with my Aunt Nola last week! It’s of the Mackinaw Bridge which is huge and connects the upper and lower peninsula’s of Michigan together.

Postcard from Mom

Postcard from Mom

Today we are to explore the nearby trails and “leave to see Steven’s Canyon, Cayuse Pass, Cowlitz River, Box Canyon, Chinook Pass, White River and the missive 5.5 mile long Emmons Glacier”.

From my journal –

9 am – Feel a lot better after all that sleep. We leave here at Noon. Young and Spencer leave today for the rest of the trip.

I was feeling better which is good, like I said yesterday, I thought we’d stayed here for days and days (I thought that mostly because I really remember being sick). I’d mentioned Young and/or Spencer in my journal before (but not here on the web) so I must have spent some time with them and helping out and playing cards. I’m guessing they were a few of the senior women that I have posted a few photos of here and there. I’m sure with feeling sick and homesick I was very jealous of their heading home.

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I think those last from photos are from the Washinton area, anyone who thinks they’re from farther east, let me know and I’ll move them around. Some of yesterday’s photos might actually be from some of the other locations around here, I’m doing my best with these in trying to remember (and space them out for you!).

So later today we’ll board Amtrak train #8 , the Empire Builder on the Superliner for Chicago and start our two day trek back on the trail.

From my journal:

4 pm – Called home from train station. Train is is okay but room is a little small for 3 people. Train has 2 floors, we’re on 2nd. We got one of the bigger rooms, you should see the guys that got one of the smaller rooms.


8pm – Dinner was good, had turkey and more.

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.

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Mt. Rainer National Park

Posted on July 14, 2013 | Leave a comment

According to the itinerary “Mount Rainer is 14,400 feet and capped with 26 glaciers. Mt. Rainer is the greatest single scenic attrition in the entire Pacific Northwest.”

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From my journal:

8 am – Feeling a little better than yesterday.


9 am – Got on the bed to ride to Mt. Rainier.


1:30 pm – By the time we got back to the hotel I was so sick I thought I was going to die.


8 pm – Slept for a while. Woke up, felt better, ran around outside some more. Went back feeling sick.

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Paradise Inn hotel (built in 1916).

From my memory: This was the year after Mount Saint Helens erupted. I recall going on the bus ride and the guide telling us that if we saw ash-like material along the sides of the road (or other places) that there was a good chance it was from the eruption from last year. I think I skipped dinner and a few of the guys stayed behind and then I was sick more for the rest of the day. I just remember staying back for being sick and then running around for a while. When we ran around outside we had a blast and I don’t know where the energy came from, it was beautiful out, but then I went back to bed and you’d never know I’d been feeling better. I thought I was in the room for days feeling sick, but I think we only spent one night here.

Keep in mind, while I was feeling sick, I’m also feeling homesick (and being sick is making it worse!), it’s been seventeen days since I’ve been gone, this is a record by far (not sure if I’d ever been gone more than a week). So at this point I just want to be home and be sick and have my mom take care of me!

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I think these last few are form near the hotel when we were running around outside. I think it was just Jeff and I (maybe one other kid too).

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.

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Vancouver to Seattle, Washington.

Posted on July 13, 2013 | Leave a comment

From the itinerary, “Our wonderful cruise ended at 9am as we arrived in Vancouver and hopped on a bus to take us to Seattle. We visited some special exhibits at the Century 21 Center (which I don’t remember) and took a ride up revolving Space Needle in Seattle.” I think just the restaurant revolves, but maybe we ate there (I can’t remember), I do not think the observation level revolves, I was up it a few years ago and I don’t recall the floor we were on rotating…

From my journal –

1 pm – Finally got to the motel, but one we were off the bus we found out it was the wrong one.

4:30 pm – Went to the World’s Fair grounds which was pretty dull and there wasn’t much going on [probably because the World’s Fair was decades before!]. Went up the tower (Space Needle) and took lots of shots.


Mr. Kuhn left his and Jim’s luggage back at the ship. Jim needs his luggage since it has his pills. [Jim was a guy in a wheelchair on the trip with multiple special needs, he wasn’t a senior and he wasn’t a kid.]


8 pm – Have had a headache and a sore throat but I’m feeling a little better.


9 pm – This Hotel (a Motel 6) isn’t bad for so cheap. It coast 79 cents to get a key that turns on the TV [I don’t remember that at all and I don’t think I ever saw it since]. We did get a “magic fingers” bed massage for 25 cents. No phones in the room, but I guess it does the job.

Jim and Mr. Kuhn must have gotten their luggage later but I didn’t journal that. I think Jim had the same last name as Mr. Kuhn but wasn’t a relative, or something oddly coincidental like that (maybe slightly different last names and they were related?).

Seattle Panorama July 1981

Seattle Panorama July 1981

Space Needle

Seattle Panorama July 1981

Seattle Panorama July 1981

The above are a few different panoramas of the Seattle, Washington skyline. I assume I took all of these from the Space Needle at the old World’s Fair Grounds (the middle one is of the Space Needle from the ground). These were made from scans of the slides I took on the trip and joined together with the AutoStitch Panorama app on my iPhone (although the second one from the bottom looks a tiny goofy in the middle, I wonder if these two pieces really go together). These all enlarge to huge so if you want to see more detail, just click. Obviously, the tall one in the middle is the Space Needle from ground level.

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.

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A day of cruising and relaxation on the ship

Posted on July 12, 2013 | Leave a comment

Another day without many activities on the boat. I have no idea why they wouldn’t have had the captain’s dinner or the costume party on one of these slow days.

From my journal:

10 am – I just keep having the same breakfast over and over: Pancakes, sausage, apple juice, milk and corn flakes. I with they would change the menu for breakfast once in a while.


I do have to get down to do some laundry today, not too much but enough to last the rest of the vacation.


The Sun Princess just went by, it is one of the “Love Boats” (it looks just like the ships on the TV series).


1 pm – Those “Love Boats” really get around, the Island Princess just sailed by too.

So not too exciting. I do remember that we played a bit of cribbage with the seniors (and some other cards), I bet it was on a few of these slow days. Here’s a few assorted photos that I don’t think I posted yet.

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Glacier Bay.

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The ship with some glaciers in the background.

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Near the Mendenhall Glacier.

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Near Juneau, Alaska.

So those were just a few photos from various points of the Alaska part of the trip since I didn’t have anything else for you today.

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I really like this photo with the smooth reflection, but sadly the colors were WAY off so I converted it.

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Another one that I converted to b & w.

The last few slides were ruined, they were at the end of the roll and must not have gotten developed properly. They looked very red/orange-ish, the shades looked mostly okay, so I just converted them to them to black and white and they look much better! That reminds me, I do have some black and white photos that I shot while in Alaska too (I’m not sure what portion of the trip), I really like how they came out, I’ll have to scan them.

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.

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Easy going day as we head back towards Canada down the Alaskan coast

Posted on July 11, 2013 | Leave a comment

Today there was really not much to do, which I find odd since there were so many activities all the other other days. We crossed back into Canada at 2 and stopped into Prince Rupert around 6pm. The itinerary says we visited the “Worlds Largest Cold Storage Plant” but I really really don’t remember that (and I’ve got no note of it in my journal). I see from my journal we did go down and visit the engine room and wheel house of the ship.

Okay, so I’ve checked my journal and the photos and I appear to have zero photos from today, which is weird. I’m wondering if something happened to a roll and I have no pictures until the day after tomorrow (or if I’ve mixed something up in the order of photos?). Regardless, as I said yesterday, I have things that did not get posted so I’ll share some of those today.

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A few more shots of the Glacier Bay area for you.

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One of the ranger’s that came on board to talk to us about Glacier Bay.

I forgot to mention the size of the glacier’s yesterday. The Margaree Glacier is a mile wide, 200 feet tall and thirty-five miles long! That’s huge.

Me all dressed up for the Captains Dinner
Me all dressed up for the Captain’s Dinner

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A view off the back of the ship as we pull away from Glacier Bay.

The Man of Steel
Dressed up as Superman for the costume contest. I made this costume!!!

I did win a T-Shirt for this costume, it said “First Mate”! So yesterday was a super busy day: we had Glacier Bay, the Captain’s dinner and a costume party. Why some of these weren’t saved for the next few days, I’m not really sure.

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.

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