Alaska: America's Iceland, but with more dogs

Amid all the COVID craziness Caiqian and I decided to postpone the Thailand trip indefinitely and travel someplace exotic, yet domestic. So we decided on Alaska. In retrospect I think it was the perfect place to celebrate Caiqian's birthday week.

Only in Alaska would Caiqian be the "early riser" first to walk on new snow

We had good food from International House of Hotdogs (IHOH), Glacier Brewhouse, and Simon and Seafort's , but in the interest of keeping this (relatively) short, I'm only including pictures from our favorite find, 49th state Brewing Company. There I got a Yak burger and Caiqian had the most amazing Bering Sea Red King Crab. 

Yak Burger and Bering Sea Red King Crab at 49th State Brewing Company

Later we found out based on grocery prices that Bering Sea Red King Crab is premium crab (our order was MKT price, aka $95). Looking at a grocery flyer Bering Sea Red King Crab costs +68% more than snow crab pound-for-pound, but in my opinion it was worth the additional $$$. It was so big and the crab flavor was more concentrated and less watery than crab I've had in the past.

Grocery 5lb prices for Snow ($315) Golden King ($395, +25%), Red King ($529, +68%) Crab

After our initial few days in Anchorage, we met up with Salmonberry tours on Caiqian's birthday. They were sweet and presented Caiqian with birthday cupcakes.

Surprise birthday cupcakes from our Salmonberry Tour Guide Laura

Salmonberry was our tour group that we would be stuck with From Nov 26th to 29th. We were composed of six couples, three boomer couples and three millennial couples. And it required a lot of van driving.

One of many trips in the Salmonberry Van

Our first Salmonberry trip was on Caiqian's birthday, and we went to see the Alaskan sled dogs that compete in the Iditarod sled dog race.

Seeing retired dogs at lodge at Alaska Sled Dog Tours

After meeting the retired dogs (>8 years old) in the lodge we met the athletes (3-8 years old) in their home in the open yard.

Athletes Housing

One of the highlights of the tour was seeing the 1 year old yearling puppies playing in the open enclosure. I was surprised to know that even at yearlings many weren't named yet. Naming the dogs is kind of a big deal with different generations having a connecting theme. It was there that we also learned about how mushers will have to massage muscle knots out of tired dogs during competitions like the Iditarod. A skill I should learn to help massage Caiqian!

Caiqian getting kisses and Bryan learning how to massage puppies

But unfortunately we got bad news that there was not enough snow to properly run a dog sled, so they would be substituting with an ATV ride (which they call a side-by-side) where they latch the dogs to run in front of us. Although it was a fun sight, it did not feel like dog sledding.

Riding along with dogs in a side-by-side (ATV)

After our dog tour we visited Denali brewpub and had a charcuterie board, meat lovers pizza, and a staggering 10 drink flight. From the flights I learned that beer can be nitro-infused, where nitrogen gas replaces CO2 in beer, which cuts down on the harsher, more acidic CO2 carbonated bubbles and replaces it with smaller, smoother , and more neutral nitrogen bubbles.

Food and flights at Denali Brewing Company's Brewery

The next day we got to ride the famous Aurora Winter Train to Fairbanks, which took ~ 8 hours. The train ride was basic seating (no compartments or sleeper beds) but we did enjoy the novelty of eating reindeer penne bolognese and buffalo chili at the dining cart while looking out to the vast Alaskan wilderness.

Riding to Fairbanks on Aurora Winter Train, with meal in the dining car

That night after our train ride our van driver got a bit lost trying to find Aurora Bear, our next touring vendor. At this point Caiqian and I were at our lowest point. We did not get to dog mush, we hadn't seen any northern lights, and Caiqian was getting sick from our train ride and our guide fumbling around in the woods trying to find our next destination. We were even told there might not be enough snow to snowshoe.

But it all turned around at Aurora Bear, as our amazing hosts found an alternate route to snowshoe in.

Snowshoe Northern Lights tour with Aurora Bear

That night just before returning to the van I caught our first glimpse of the northern lights. They weren't the most spectacular northern lights we saw this trip (those pictures will be coming later, on a different day) but they were special to me and Caiqian. The show was ~10 minutes total, and the lights were changing rapidly which was quite fun.

Our first time seeing the northern lights

The next day we got to visit the Chena Ice Museum, a location that I have actually been interested in visiting for a few years now. It's a museum built out of ice, constantly kept below freezing, featuring many different ice structures and sculptures. It was also place I could cheat a little and cross off "being inside an igloo" from my bucket list (since there's an ice igloo inside). Counts in my book!

Inside Chena's Aurora Ice Museum, featuring igloo and ice martini glass (appletini)

There we were also served appletini's in a all-ice martini glass. After we finished sipping our Appletini, we were told throwing the ice cup to the floor would grant us a wish. So I threw the ice glass to the floor and wished for a successful dog mushing tour later in the trip. 

Afterward we switched gears and changed into swimsuits to experience the Chena hot springs. I have been to hot springs before in Iceland, but what was different this time was that is was a much colder -20F outside, so as the steam rose from the springs, it immediately condensed and froze on our hair, leading to wild results.

Getting "Alaskan mascara" as steam freezes on us at Chena Hot Springs 

That night we dressed back into our cold gear and went to Aurora Pointe, where we waited in a heated lodge for the lights. And at 1:50AM, we went outside and got the most amazing show. The first pics are from Caiqian's phone, but the bottom picture with Caiqian and me was from a professional photographer who had a special setup and flashlight designed for taking pictures of tourists in front of the lights. 

Northern lights sightings at Aurora Pointe

With that high point complete, I'll take a brief break to talk about food. Alaska has good food! But the only Michelin-recognized restaurant in Fairbanks was a little place called Soba, which featured Moldovan food, a type of food I never tried before. There we had fruit punch, dumplings, cabbage rolls, and... pork+egg+polenta? Anyways the proper names are in the caption below.

(Top to bottom) Compot, Pelmini, Sarmale, and Mamaliga from Soba (Moldovan Cuisine)

Our last fun meal in Alaska was poetic. It was from a Thai place that promised to bring the flavors of Chiang Mai to Fairbanks. Considering we cancelled our trip to Thailand (where we planned to go to Chiang Mai) it felt like a way to bookend our food experience in Alaska. Plus it was cool Alaskan fusion, using crispy Alaskan Halibut as the main protein.

Alaskan Halibut Pla Rad Pick from Lemongrass Thai Cuisine

On our last free day many of the tour group went on a recommended helicopter tour. But I knew what we had to do. We remedied our earlier failed dog sled tour by making our own arrangements. I rented a car and booked a dog mushing place in Fairbanks. One thing I learned about from the car rental company is that we needed to plug in our car when parked, since apparently oil will solidify if not electrically heated.

Electrical plug for warming cars

With the car rental and new booking complete, Caiqian and I drove ~40 minutes on a scenic route to Black Spruce Dog Sledding. When we arrived we went straight to work harnessing dogs with the lovely owner Jeff providing instruction.

Bryan harnessing Dogs at Black Spruce Dog Sledding

With the dogs harnessed we were finally going to mush dogs in the snow!

Caiqian and I standing up on the dog sleds before takeoff

The ride was everything I wanted. Fast, beautiful, and exciting as I barely managed to keep my balance standing up as the dogs turned through narrow trails.

View from the storage seat in front

Halfway through Caiqian and I switched and then I sat down while she stood up to mush. Below is a quick 10 second video I took of the dogs running and Caiqian mushing, from the comfort of the front sled storage seat.

After Caiqian and I both mushed the dogs, we posed with our puppies, so happy that we finally got to experience being moved via dog-power.

Posing with our team!

And with our mushing trip complete, it felt like we finally did everything we wanted to do in Alaska in Winter. Overall we were very happy with the trip, although we will probably not do any more multi-day tour groups in the future. Thanks for reading.