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This Photo-documentary is copyright by Hugeaux aka Hugo R. Miller with The Library of Congress of The United States Copyright Office. USA

Hugeaux aka Hugo R. Miller is a world traveler and professional artist/photographer living in Florida.

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Hugeaux

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PART #4

6:45pm
Anchorage, Alaska
I made it back to the hotel and decided to walk up through the neighborhood to the CARRS grocery store. As I was walking I told myself that I should look for an Alaskan Souvenir Liquor/Spirit to take back to Florida. To my surprise I spoke with the lady at the liquor store and she said that all the liquors are imported and that there are no major liquor stores in Alaska. I had my eye on a bottle of smoked salmon flavored vodka, but I shall wait and see later. On my way back through the neighborhood to the hotel I found many crabapple trees and a raspberry patch, so I began to pick them. Dinner tonight shall be chicken salads, yogurt, potatoe salad, cheese biscuit, crabapple, bananas and raspberries. I picked enough to take back to Florida. On the way home via Anchorage People Mover (bus) I passed by what appears to be a Martin Luther King Jr park, so tomorrow I shall purchase an all day pass and photograph this area and an area known as Muldoon. I can not get the meeting of my new Trinidadian friend Trevor Rennie out of my head. I mean he is a person from the Caribbeans living in the Arctic. Well I shall like to thank God and the ancestors for making this day a fruitful day. It is funny, I am usually about exhausted and ready to go home, but Alaska and the Arctic is having its way with me. Good night and may God Bless.

DAY #4
11:15am
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
Anchorage
I am writing this entry under an Alaskan pine tree dripping with sap in the Arctic cold at the Martine Luther King Jr. Memorial park on L street in Anchorage. What an interesting morning. No sun today and no rain, just Arctic cold. I had an interesting conversation on the bus stop this morning with an African from Cameroon. He mentioned he has been here for 3 years and that it is bearable. He mentioned that he had just returned from the Cameroon and me began to talk. He also mentioned that the weather is not the factor here in the Arctic, but, also the sun. I believe this is where the term cabin fever comes from. He mentioned that during the winter, the people go crazy, due to the lack of sunlight. He also mentioned that the Arctic (Anchorage) is a tranquil place. Our African ancestry began to connect, when I asked him why he came to the Arctic and he replied “ We Africans like to Explore”…DITTO!!!
The MLK jr monument is in a downtown park connected to the Veterans monument as well. It is a well manicured park, and if you did not know it, you would pass by it. I caught sight of it yesterday on the bus and vowed to return, today. The pinel smell of the pine sap has really got me intoxicated. I feel that I am breathing pure, fresh Arctic air, which I am. Today, I shall exhaust my expedition by catching the Anchorage People Mover (bus) everywhere to photograph. My next stop is Muldoon, which some to be known, as the ghettoe of Anchorage….and we are off!!!

1:30pm
Russian Jack Park
Nunaka Valley, Anchorage
- photography -
I am writing this entry while sitting in the Nunaka Valley Park. I have no direction of where I am at, but I took the #15 Muldoon bus to the end of the line. The driver was helpful as she told me a lot of the Nunaka history. Nunaka Valley is where the military during the 1950’s built their small cabin like houses. The backdrop of the mountains are everywhere, however the weather does not permit me to see much. I am about 30 minutes from the heart of Anchorage. I took a hike through a park called Russian Jack Park, but it seemed more like a neighborhood trail. This neighborhood is more modernized that what I had imagined. So my visit here shall not be long. I shall hop on the bus and head to the neighborhood of Fairview.
　
4:45pm
Northway Mall. Anchorage
African descent shops:
- Braids by Tee (Compton, USA)
- Motherland in Me (South African)
- Nina’s in a Box (Dominican Republic)

7:00pm
Anchorage
What a interesting day, today. I spent most of this day, after the MLK monument, bus hopping. I visited Fairview after Nunaka and was amazed at all the classic automobiles which have been restored. On my way to Fairview I took a glimpse of a Dominican restaurant in a trailer outside the Northway Mall and decided after my walk through Fairview to double back.
Fairview is a neighborhood in Anchorage. I was told, in which, many people of African descent lives and it was true. I saw many, but I did not photograph them, I am interested in “how they live” and their architecture. Baptist churches were in the area. I saw many crabapple trees and raspberry bushes, so I decided to have lunch on Fairview. I wanted and munched on the many crabapples trees in the area. One of the highlight was a classic 1940-1950 large Ford truck with an outside horn, which was restored, cut not cosmetically altered. I began to photograph it. It really amazed me to see classic 1970’s Cadillacs and Lincolns restored and on the streets in the Arctic. I noticed that many of the houses up here are formulated out of the style of the cabin. The homes are not large, and many have the appearance of the log cabin. The Arctic temperature was dropping and I wanted to double back to the Northway Mall, so I decided to catch the bus in the other direction.
What a great wealth I made in the Northway Mall. I came across an African Shop, which was tended by a woman from Cape Town, South Africa called “Motherland in me” named Martha., and a Braids and Barber shop tended by Tee from Compton, Los Angeles, USA called “Braids by Tee”. These ladies gave me some more insight of the Africans in the Arctics.
It was told to me that Alaska is considered the “Suicide Capital of The World”, but the media tends to block out all elements. As I was told to be earlier, depression, is a major factor to the high level of suicide in Alaska, but most people do not talk about it. I was also expressed to me, that the sunlight is the major factor for the depression.
Speaking with Martha from South Africa, I got a chance to hear her pronounce her native “click”, when she pronounced the word “Xhosa”. I told her that I had just returned from South Africa, ^ months ago.
Both shops are Afro-centric and in the Arctic, which make it unbelievable but true. The African and the diaspora is thriving in the Arctic. I am told tonight that it suppose to get colder with the Arctic winds kicking up to 100mph….brr!!!
I leave tomorrow night, but have rented a car to visit Flattop mountain in the morning and then head eastward to Palmer and Glennallen, Alaska. If the weather permits. I purchased some smoked salmon flavored vodka made from Alaska glacier ice in Alaska, a souvenir of my Spirits!! Dinner tonight will be hot turkey breast, yogurt, bananas, potatoe salad and water. Good Night and May God Bless.