The 5 Lew Kids
Family Travels

Both our parents loved to travel. It seemed to be in their genes. Travel is something that most people highly value, but our parents took it to levels beyond what most people do. But they were not very rich. So, our dad sought ways to travel cheaply, which meant staying in campgrounds rather than hotels. We stayed in many state parks growing up and have a lot of memories of evening campfire that the rangers would hold.

Our dad bought a 1956 white pickup truck in 1963, and an Open Road (brand) camper to put on it in February 1964. Using his sheet metal and carpentry skills, he modified the camper to sleep our entire family. Jürgen, my parents, and I usually sat in the truck cab, while the others stayed in the camper and got very car sick. There was a small window between the cab and the back that we could crawl through so the younger ones could occasionally sit in the cab, as well.

Our mom said that our dad loved to plan trips. He would spend months researching and planning our family summer vacation itineraries. Our mom's favorite trips were to Yellowstone National Park, where the bears visited us at night, and Joshua Tree National Monument/Park.

Here is a list of trips we took. Both our parents had lists of trips taken. There were some conflicts between them, so this is probably not be a perfect list. 

• 1955—Lake Tahoe—with baby Alan

• 1956—Lake Tahoe—with Alan, baby Jürgen, and grandparents

• 1957—(Summer) Yosemite—with grandparents, in a trailer that our parent bought, probably that same year (that was before Ronnie was born in December)

• 1958—(June) Lake Tahoe with 7-month-old Ronnie, probably in our trailer
  —Our dad also listed a trip to Reno, staying in a hotel.
  —Our dad also listed a trip to Guerneville, where the Armstrong Redwoods State Park is located, probably in our trailer

• 1959—Redwoods and the Coast—in our trailer (before Monika was born in November)

• 1961 or 2—(December or January) Reno by Train—Alan Remembers taking a train to Reno and staying in an old hotel with a very small room and we all shared a single bed. He recalls there was snow on the ground, and we played in the snow on the steps of the hotel. Monika Remember taking the train, the very small hotel room with a picture of Mother Mary on the wall and playing in the snow. She thought it was a dream, but our mom told her many years later that she was 2 years old at that time.

• 1962—(May) our dad took my grandparents, Ronnie, and Monika to the Seattle World’s Fair and Vancouver, Canada in our family trailer. 

• 1964—(Summer) Lake Tahoe (El Dorado Campground) and Virginia City, NV in our new pickup camper and a tent (our parents sold the trailer because it was too big to go to some places)

• 1965—(Summer) Los Angeles, Disneyland, and Tijuana, Mexico - we went to Universal Studios on one of our trips to Los Angeles, maybe this one. Monika Remembers that we sat in the audience for the pilot of a new game show during that tour. In those days, it was actually a tour by open air bus through the movie studio grounds. It was not yet a theme park.  She also remembers admiring the tour guide on the studio tour and thinking she wanted to do that when she grows up.  

• 1966—(April) Yosemite National Park, without my dad who was in Southeast Asia, our mom said it rained and snowed on us. Calvin Remembers: We had left our campground and the snow was so heavy that we could not get back to it. We returned home, leaving some things at the campground, including some yummy chicken.

• 1966—(Summer) Mt. Lassen National Park, plus the Redwoods, Oregon Cave, Shasta Dam, & Marysville

• Bodga Bay, Santa Cruz, and South Lake Tahoe were favorite destinations with our camper in the 1960s, although most of those trips were not recorded. In winter, we would go to Baxter (lower elevation) or Cisco Grove on I-80 to play in the snow.

• 1967—(Summer) Big Basin Redwoods State Park, with Joe King's sons who were living with us

• 1968—(Summer) The Great Salt Lake, Craters of the Moon National Monument, Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks. In Salt Lake City we visited the Mormon Temple Visitors Center and took a dip in the Great Salt Lake.  Jurgen Remembers we stopped at the "Fishing Bridge" in Yellowstone N.P.  because Jurgen and Alan wanted to fish. They each caught some trout there. We probably camped at the Coulter Bay campground at Grand Teton N.P. 

• 1969—(early Summer) to Seattle, WA, to Vancouver, BC, ferry to Vancouver Island, ferry Olympic Peninsula 

• 1970—(Summer) Our German grandmother (our Oma) came with Tante Karin’s family (Friedhelm Esser, Yvonne, & Hans Jürgen); we took them to the Redwoods and Lake Tahoe. Monika remembers our Aunt Karin went to brush her teeth in our bathroom and suddenly came out screaming! It turned out she had thought a tube of Bengay muscle rub was toothpaste. It certainly does smell like toothpaste.

• 1971—(early Summer?) Bodega Bay. Calvin Remembers when he, Alan, our dad, and two of our dad's friends went there on a day trip to fish. Alan had two hooks on his line and caught two perch at the same time.  Alan Remembers that now, and he also remembers our dad catching a small shark on one of our trips, but we didn't know if it was edible. Calvin also remembers catching about 10 flounder at Bodega Bay over a three-day weekend trip, and another trip where Ronnie caught a rock fish and no one else caught anything.  Calvin also remembers bringing friends to Bodega Bay and sleeping in a tent while our parents slept in the camper. Monika Remembers that Calvin always loved fishing. When he was small he would often talk to fishermen about what they were doing.  She also remembers that Micah and Nathan would go to Bodega Bay with our dad when they were kids.

• 1971—(July?) Santa Cruz - Alan Remembers: I missed high school driver's ed in the spring and took a driving class in the summer, after which I got my license. The first thing I did was to take 3 friends in our camper to Santa Cruz. In those days you could park anywhere in town, and we stayed near the ocean and the Boardwalk. 

• 1971—(August 6-16) Los Angeles, the Queen Mary, Disneyland, San Diego, and Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks

• 1972—(Summer) Death Valley, Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon National Park, Oak Creek Canyon, Sedona, Montezuma Castle; return same route to Las Vegas, then Reno and Squaw Valley - Jurgen Remember that we bought a couple of canvas water bags to store water in for the truck when to crossed Death Valley. He also recalls how he and Alan helped out with the driving on that trip how he was driving well over the speed limit on the open desert highways. Calvin Remembers how incredibly hot it was trying to sleep the camper in Las Vegas. We had a fan or two in the roof, but that was it.

• 1972? - Dillon Beach - Alan Remembers: I went on camping trips to Dillon Beach (a private sand dune area south of Bodega Bay) with the St. Philomene football team in 7th, 8th, and 9th (high school l freshman) grades. In 1972, I think, I took the camper and several high school friends to Dillon Beach. Jurgen and I also went there with Boy Scouts once, and we also went there on a family trip once. The main activities included catching crabs with crab nets off a pier, digging for clams on a sand bar at low tide, and hiking the areas many sand dunes.  

• 1972? - Alan Remembers: I took our dad's pickup truck (without the camper) one weekend up Highway 88 in the Sierras for an overnight trip by myself. I arrived at a state park after dark. The park ranger was suspicious and took me to the station to call our mom who confirmed that it was OK for me to be doing that. I slept in the back of the truck.

Besides the longer Summer Vacation trips listed above, it seems we went to either Lake Tahoe or Santa Cruz almost every summer. 

The following trips did not include all of us kids. 

• 1973—(June) Mexicali, Mexico (to meet Thai cousins), and, according to our mom, Marineland, Palm Springs, and Joshua Tree National Monument (Jürgen and Alan did not go on this trip)

• 1973—(August) Big Sur - Alan, who graduated from high school, came with his friend in his own car

• 1974—(Summer) Bodega Bay (Alan was in Idaho and Wyoming this summer and went to Hong Kong in September)

• 1975—(Spring) Ronnie and my mom went to Germany. Ronnie graduated a semester early and it was my mom’s first time back in over 20 years.

• 1975—(Summer) according to our mom, Oma and Tante Renate visited Sacramento

• 1976—(June 6-13) Salinas, Santa Barbara (to see Jürgen), Los Angeles (to see Uncle Jason Yee), with Ronnie and Calvin

• 1978-9—(Dec 19-Feb 1) our Oma, Tante Renate, Tante Karin, Friedhelm Esser, Yvonnie, & Hand-Jurgen visit Sacramento; they also visited Alan in Oakland

• 1979—(Summer) our parents flew to New York; they took bus to Toronto for 25th Wedding Anniversary and renewed their vows in a church wedding arranged by Jimmy and Joan Kee; they also visited Boston and Denver (none of us kids went on this trip)

• 1980—(Feb-March?) our dad, grandmother (Unging), and Calvin visited Hong Kong, Macau, and our village in Toisan, China; it was our dad's first time back to China since he left in 1940. 

• 1981—(Summer) our Oma and Tante Renate visit Sacramento

• 1982—(Aug 31-Oct 10) our mom and dad toured China 

• 1983—(Sept 8-Oct 7) our mom and dad toured central Europe; this was our dad's first trip to Europe

• 1984—(Summer?) our mom and dad toured Australia, New Zealand, and Tahiti

• 1985—(Summer?) our mom and dad toured northern Europe, including Norway

• 1985—(mid-September) Jurgen organized a whitewater raft trip for his friends down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon; Ronnie and Mark Button got to know each other on that trip; Jurgen was a river guide in Idaho and Wyoming in the summers when he was in college

• 1986—our mom and dad took trips to Mexicali, Los Angeles, Canada, South Korea, and China

• 1987—(May) our dad took Ronnie, Monika, and Alan to Hong Kong, Guangzhou, and Toisan; Alan, Monika, and Ronnie flew on their own to Guilin, China 

• 1987—(Summer?) our parents visited Florida and took a Caribbean cruise 

• 1988—(Summer?) our parents went to Japan, Singapore, and China 

• 1989—Our parents went to Portland for Monika's graduation - Monika Remembers:  We went to a German restaurant with a few of my friends to celebrate. Mom loved it, she sang some of the German songs (the staff all sang).  It was fun. 

• 1989—(May to June) our parents did a European tour to Berlin, Hungary, Monaco, and Spain; they went to the University of Tubingen where they met Alan, Mable, and Lauren were (Alan had taught a semester there), and they all went together to Dusseldorf

• 1994—Ronnie, Monika, & my parents went to Nova Scotia, Canada

• 1996—(March) our parents our parents, Alan, Mable, Lauren, Skylan, Chynna, Nathan, and Tina Kennedy (Alan's colleague at NAU) went to Hong Kong and Toisan (it was a very cold March in southern China)

• 1997-98—(Dec-Jan) our parents visited Alan, Mable, Skylan, & Chynna who were in Singapore for a year; they took a 2-night cruise to Penang, Malaysia, and Alan took our dad only to Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia (on the island of Borneo) where he wanted to see the headhunters because the thought they might have originated in China (which they also think).

• 2000—(May) our dad took Alan with him to Houston to visit his relatives there, including Bill Wing, a distant cousin of our grandmother 

• 2001—(May 4-11) Alan visited our dad in Sacramento; they had dim sum with Jürgen, Monika, and Calvin on May 5; they went to San Francisco on May 7. 

• 2001—(June 23-July 5) Jimmy Kee visited dad and they took a road trip to Vancouver, BC, bringing grandson Nate back with them from Portland. They also went to San Francisco to visit Harry Lew. (See full itinerary with his Eulogy.) 

• 2012—(August - Alan had two conferences in Germany (Trier & Koln), we turned it into a family trip, with Monika, Jürgen, Kelsey, joining Alan's family to visit our Dusseldorf relatives (Tante Karen, Yvonne, Tante Julianne, and Thomas & family), and a trip to Berlin  

NOTE: Additional and more recent information is on the LewBerg Private website.
Family members can contact Alan Lew <alanalew@gmail.com> to obtain access that website.