For my brother’s birthday this year, I thought I’d pay him a visit in his new home up in Chugiak, Alaska. I arrived late Thursday night, but much to my surprise, it doesn’t really get dark there. It was something like 7 or 8pm in LA, kinda dark, but not middle of the night dark. It’s always great seeing my brother.

Friday we drove to Whittier. What’s cool about Whittier is that to get there, you have to drive through the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel, the second longest highway tunnel (13,300ft/4,050m) and longest combined rail and highway tunnel in North America. It’s only one lane, with railroad tracks down the center. How it works is the tunnel goes one way on the top of the hour; on the half the tunnel goes the other way. Sometimes throughout the day, the train runs as well. We had to wait on both sides before being able to go through, but I made a pretty cool video in the sped up fashion as we went through the tunnel. We stopped off on the side of the road to shoot some pictures of the glacial stream before heading home.

Saturday we were pretty lazy and played a new game, No More Heroes, I brought with me for the Wii most of the day. In the evening, we went over to Aaron’s friend Colin’s place for a barbecue. Some of Colin’s friends showed up with their kids as well, so we had a mini party. Around 10pm we could see Denali through the trees off Colin’s back deck, with a nice orange glow coming from the setting sun.

Since I had a late flight out of Anchorage, Adria, Aaron, and I decided to take a short trip to Hatcher Pass, an old mining town. Aaron thinks it’s where the MythBusters did their cabin fever test. I’m pretty sure he’s right. There was still snow covering the path leading up to the shacks from the parking lot, so we didn’t hike up there. It was very beautiful and serene though. On our way back, we stopped off to snap some shots of the stream running along the road. When we got there, we saw a gold miner packing up his stuff to go find a new spot.

So I realized 3 days wasn’t enough time to spend up there. After living in big cities for quite awhile, it’s almost overwhelming how scenic and open it is up there. I think my lungs really enjoyed a break from the shitty air I breathe in daily in LA. I hope the next time I go I can bring Reiko with me so she can see one of America’s last frontiers.