2025 Summer Reflections + Alaskans Favorite Alaska Foods + Behind the scenes on the Riverboat Discovery

Jennie shares three reflections from the 2025 summer Alaska season as well as a behind the scenes conversation with the Riverboat Discovery and an around the dinner table conversation with Alaskans about their favorite Alaska foods.

Join the Alaska Uncovered Planning Club on Patreon

Get on my Alaska Insider Newsletter email list

Shop all Alaska Travel planners and premade itineraries 

Book a planning session with Jennie

Have Jennie plan your trip for you

Follow Jennie on Instagram

Music credits:  Largo Montebello, by Domenico Mannelli, CC.

Transcript

 Welcome to the Alaska Uncovered Podcast with me, your host, Jennie Thwing Flaming, my occasional co-host and full-time husband, Jay, and I bring you accurate, helpful, and entertaining information about Alaska Travel and life in Alaska. Enjoy the show. I. 

Hi everyone. Welcome back to the Alaska Uncovered Podcast. It's me, Jennie, and today I'm going to share three big takeaways or reflections from. The summer of 2025. I spent seven weeks, um, working as a tour director and a few of those days were also working at the cruise port. And then I also spent about 10 days on my own visiting some really cool places.

I'm gonna share more about those in the next couple of episodes. Um, the next. Three episodes after today will also include some interviews that I did in the field this summer, so that's pretty fun. Excited to bring those to you. Just a reminder too, the Alaska Planning Club is underway and it's so fun.

Last week we talked about tipping and dealing with flight scene cancellations and small plane flights, and making. Decisions about a bunch of different things and it's just so fun for me to do this. So please join us. It's not too late. You can join us anytime. It's over on Patreon and it's $9 a month and you can cancel whenever you want.

The link is down in the show notes, or you can just find me on Patreon. Okay. So today I want to share three big reflections that I have based on the summer of 2025 and my experiences during that time. And then after that, I'm going to share a couple of short interviews that I recorded in the field, in situations where I just had the opportunity to chat with someone.

It wasn't planned ahead of time and. There was just some serendipity there. And so I'm gonna bring those to you, a little bit later. So to start with, what are my three, big takeaways And you know, this is the third year that I've done an episode like this. So look back to October in 2024. In 2023 for my reflections from those seasons as well, I think.

The biggest thing that I wanna start with is I did, I led as a tour director, two tours that were the same. So the same itinerary. They're both two weeks long. So I spent a month doing that tour and just to tell you basically what the itinerary is, it starts and ends in Anchorage and it's a big road trip all around Alaska and the Yukon territory.

It is a really cool adventure. We definitely have some very long days in the coach for sure. Um, we also have a train, uh, leg on the Alaska Railroad. Actually, it's on the Wilderness Express, but it's, um, part of the, it's a separate company, but the train cars are pulled by the Alaska Railroad, and then we also finish the.

Tour with a boat charter, um, from Valez to Whittier, which is a big highlight of that trip. And, um, it's Withand Stevens Cruises and they were on the podcast in July. So, um, it's really fun to get to go to places and see people who have been on the podcast, you know, even when I'm, when I'm working in another role.

So that's really fun. Alright, so what do I wanna tell you about this particular tour? My first big thing that I really reflected on this season is people's expectations and how they respond to adversity, and that is my guests on the tour. So I wanna talk about that a little bit. I'm thinking of it as the difference between joy and suffering.

And I want to just tell you that even when you're on vacation, um, not everything goes according to plan, especially in a place as vast as Alaska. There's no way you can expect or anticipate everything, and that includes me when I'm working. There are surprises.

Some of them good, some of them not as good, and we have to pivot, and that is just. A reality of travel in Alaska. I would say that as a reality of life, there are always things that change no matter how much you prepare. So first of all, the importance of travel insurance, it's really important. Um, I've talked about that many other times.

Um, I'll probably talk about that again because. Travel insurance is extremely important for any trip, and I do not ever go to Alaska without travel insurance ever. Um, even when I'm working, I'm pretty close to home.

I'm only three hours from home when I'm in Alaska. So, um, just to mention that again. Okay. But that's a little bit of a tangent from what I really wanna say. So I did this trip twice. This summer, it's basically a two week road trip. Many of the days, uh, four of the days in particular, I guess I should say it's two weeks.

Four of the days are very long days. They are busy. We cover a lot of miles on pretty bad roads. This year we had several, like more than normal long pilot car waits. Um. That makes it even longer. The Alaska Highway kind of between Bur Wash Landing and Beaver Creek was quite a bit rougher and slower than it was in 2024 and 2023. I'm mentioning that even if you're not driving the Alaska Highway, you know that was there this year, but that could be somewhere else next year. The point is that travel times are way longer than you expect sometimes. Even longer than I expect, and I know what's typical. Okay. So what I really wanna share about this is the two different groups that I had on my tour, both of the groups were great, I should say, right I didn't have anybody who was really challenging to deal with on either of these two tours. People were kind to each other, which is really important to me. So yeah, so start with saying that the people that came both times were wonderful. However, there was a huge difference between these two groups as far as, but there was a group of, I'm gonna say maybe 20% of the group was really, disappointed in their experience. And that does change things for the whole group. The second group, that I had, by the way, at the end of the season when it's colder and Rainier, that group.

Loved this experience. And even though, and, and I'm saying that because they had the same experience, both of them had long days on rough roads in a motor coach. Not every day was like that. Both groups had lots of wonderful things happen, but there were, there were long times and longer than we planned at times because of construction and other things.

So. The difference was. Really one of like how people approach that adversity, and this is something I've known for a long time, but it was really interesting to do these two tours a month apart. So I had two weeks between them and just see how different that was. And a lot of it was. Just how long the days were and people wanted to go to these cool places.

But in order to do that, it means, you know, a really big day of driving. That, and then I think just the, general quality of the hotels. So in Alaska and the Yukon, we've talked about this before, there are not, there really aren't really nice hotels. There are some beautiful, wonderful, sometimes luxurious, sometimes rustic remote properties.

But on the road system when you're visiting, hotels are really expensive and. You're not getting a ton for what you pay. That's just, that isn't specific to this tour. That is, that's the same if you're traveling on your own. That is just a reality. The demand is just so high. Most hotels only have a short part of the year to make their income and 'em, and there just are a lot of challenges even though people are doing the best they can.

So for example, um. There is a hotel that we stay at that, um, often some of the outlets don't work. Um, often the wifi, it doesn't work. They don't have hair dryers. Um, and that is something that I found people are totally okay with if they know ahead of time. So I always prepare people like, this is gonna be the situation at this hotel, this is gonna be the situation at this hotel.

Um, and, you know, all the Hotta hotels that we stay at are clean and comfortable, right? But very rustic, no frills. And, um, it was just interesting to see how these different groups kind of responded to that. One was like. What, why are you making a big deal out of this, Jennie? This is totally fine. And others are like, whoa.

I, you know, really like frustrated about things like the hair dryer and wifi and the power and how loud the air conditioning is in that particular place. So, and you know, this tour is a higher end company, right? So if you did a tour with this company in other locations, you would stay at very nice hotels.

And I'm just really upfront about that, that those types of hotels are not available in the places that we travel to. So we found places that do a great job with what they have to work with, but there's no frills of any kind. So, um, I. That I think it's really hotels and driving distances and how long things take That are the two things on this tour that people struggle with.

And so, the reason I'm sharing this with you is that these two groups stayed in the same hotels, drove on the same roads in the same condition, and one was really. You know, there were some people on that first tour who really had a hard time getting beyond that and enjoying the trip for what it was.

And the other group just absolutely loved it. And so I just wanna encourage you to , think about the fact that you know why you're going, where you're going and what really matters and booking things that are aligned with that. And, I think that just is really important. And then there are other things like pilot car waits and construction.

You know, that can be 10 minutes, that can be an hour. You're not gonna be able to know in advance. Um, you're not gonna be able to know if your flight scene trip will get canceled or not. Um, so I just wanna encourage you to like, yes, having a plan is important. Really focus on what you care about. The most, rather than kind of what other people are telling you or what you've seen on say, social media is a must do.

I don't really believe in must dos except the must dos for you personally and your travel crew. And of course that's one of the things that I help people with. Um, so yes, in the planning club, but also I've just restarted doing my one-on-one. Zoom sessions, um, and those are $47. So you can absolutely book one of those if you want help figuring out something like this.

Or if you're like, I wanna avoid these really long travel days, how do I cut something out? What's gonna be the right thing to do? That's also something I can help you with. Okay. And the link for that is always in the show notes for every episode. Alright. So that's the first thing. I know I spent a lot of time on that, but I feel like, wow, I just really feel like that one is super important and kind of meta.

The other two are a little more tactical. Alright, so let's get into those. So the second one is I want to encourage you. To take the alternative that is offered if something is canceled. So let me explain that a little bit more. Um, sometimes because of weather or other things, um, you might have a tour and not necessarily like a multi-day tour, like the one that, the ones that I lead, it could just be a short tour if it needs to be canceled for some reason.

Especially flight scene. That's where this really came up. Um, sometimes a tour is just canceled and there's not an alternative. And that's, that's totally, there's nothing you can do about that. However, if you are offered an alternative, so for example. Um, you've booked a flight scene tour and they say, Hey, we are not going to be able to land on the glacier, um, today like we expected.

But we do think we can still show you some pretty amazing, um, things from the air if you still wanna go. That has happened. To me or my guests many times. Um, another possibility is there's a tour that my guests can book in Fairbanks that goes up above the Arctic Circle. And it's a very cool experience where people get to fly up, have some experience on the ground up, fly back to Fairbanks.

And on one of my tours this summer, um, both nights we were in Fairbanks. Weather was present preventing that flight from going to where it normally goes, um, which is Wiseman. And instead, um, the tour companies said, Hey. No problem. We can give you your money back and, and just cancel it.

That's just fine. Or if you want to still have a different experience above the Arctic Circle, you can go to another place. In this case, it was the village of Fort Yukon. You can do that instead. And. I, I just wanna encourage you that if you're given a choice like that, go for it. Take the local alternative, because these companies want to make sure you have a good experience, right?

So if they offer something different than what you booked, they're not gonna offer you something terrible. It's just gonna be different and maybe less well known as in the case of Fort Yukon and. Every time my guests have been given that opportunity, whether it was the Arctic Circle flight or, um, it happens quite often in Denali where they'll say, Hey, we are not going to see the peak of Denali on this tour, but we are still gonna show you amazing mountains and glaciers.

Um, do you still wanna go and. What I want to tell you is that I've, many guests have faced that choice. Many of my clients have faced that choice. And every time they've said yes to the alternative, they have loved it. So local folks running local tour companies are not gonna offer you a bad alternative.

So I just wanna encourage you and, and I think flight scene in Denali is a place. It really comes up a lot. No one is ever disappointed in flight scene in Denali. It's incredible. I've had the opportunity to do it several times. I've only seen the peak of Denali flight scene once, and it wasn't a better tour than when I didn't see it, right?

They're not gonna take you if you can't see really cool things, so I just wanna encourage you, if you're facing a choice like that, say yes to what they offer. It'll probably be. Incredible. And you'll probably get to see something really unique and different. So I say, go for it. And that applies to quite a few other things as well.

But um, take the alternative and see where it takes you. Alright, so the final thing that I wanted to talk about before I share, um, a little bit of, uh, impromptu field interviewing, uh, is. Rain jackets. Okay. This is a very tactical one. Um, I, I know that I've talked about rain jackets before and how important that is, um, and how important it is to not worry about the weather too much.

On nearly every trip to Alaska, you will see some rain and some days where it does not rain. I, that does not always happen. It is possible to have a trip where it rains every day. It is possible to have a trip where it doesn't rain, but no matter what the forecast is, no matter what time of year, you've gotta have a rain jacket or you'll.

Suffer. Um, so a rain jacket with a hood, um, not an umbrella. It's, it's fine to also have an umbrella, but often it's also windy and plus that uses your hands. So I just wanna really encourage you to have a rain jacket. I'm not saying don't bring an umbrella, but don't bring an umbrella instead of a rain jacket.

Okay? Especially if you're doing anything on boats, airplanes, um. Or going outside. Um, because again, wind, okay, so that's the kind of obvious case for the rain jacket, but there are two other places where rain jacket can really save your bacon. And I experienced both of those this summer. And so that made me think, Ooh, I need to tell everybody in the fall how important the rain jacket is for other reasons.

The two other reasons are bug protection. So, when I went to Snug Harbor Outpost, which is next to Lake Clark National Park. We're gonna have a, in a couple weeks, another episode that's exclusively about that. I don't wanna tell you too much about Snug Harbor here except to say that we went out bear watching several times while I was there, which was amazing.

And the bugs were very intense and,, I wore, it was sunny. , But I wore my rain jacket, my rain pants, my rubber boots, and I had a head nut. I didn't, uh, wear the head nut more for more than a few minutes, but it was amazing to have it. For bugs. That's one thing, and again, bugs, you can't control whether bugs are gonna be bad or not.

You can't know in advance. The only way you know for sure you won't have to deal with bugs is if it's very windy and, uh, if it's winter. So if it's not very wi, if you don't know for sure, it's gonna be very windy, which you don't, and it's not winter. Then you need a rain jacket also for bugs. Last thing about the rain jacket, it's really helpful for wind, especially on a boat.

So I mentioned that we do this cool boat, , trip on one of the tours that I led this summer. Across Prince William Sound and it is an amazing trip., However, to be able to go outside and enjoy it when the boat is underway, super windy. I also did the longer tour out into Kenai Fjords National Park, um, in on a different tour and.

You know, we were out for six hours and, a lot of people were getting seasick and I was really happy to be comfortable standing outside. I was not feeling seasick.. I had taken medication to prevent that, but I was not enjoying being indoors with a lot of seasick people. So anyway, that's another reason is just for wind, especially on any kind of a boat experience.

Okay, well those are my three lessons. One. Embracing uncertainty and planning an itinerary that's aligned with what you care about. That's the first one I talked about. Number two, um, is taking the alternatives offered by tour companies if your tour is canceled. And number three, all the important reasons to have a rain jacket, including ones that don't have to do with rain.

Okay, so. Now I'd like to share a couple of recordings that I did this summer and in the coming weeks. I'm gonna do this a couple more times from other locations, one of the times that I was in Fairbanks this summer. When I was on the riverboat discovery, which is always a highlight, for my guests and for me, I really love it to you.

Wade Binkley, who's the president of the Riverboat Discovery was driving and he does drive regularly, but between my part-time schedule and only being there a few times a year. It rarely works out, that he's driving when I'm on the boat. But that did happen once, towards the end of the season.

And, Wade was on the podcast one of the very first episodes in, spring of 2023. So it was episode seven, March 29th, 2023, if you can believe that. And, he shared his family story of coming to. Fairbanks and how this whole operation got started and it was a great episode. So go back and listen to that one.

If you started. Listening more recently and have missed it. But I'm gonna share just a casual conversation that Wade and I had on the boat this summer. And then also, JR Lewis, who's one of the narrators for the riverboat discovery. He came in and chatted with us, US as well. So I'm gonna share a couple clips, um, that are my short conversations with them onboard the boat.

And then after that I'm gonna share, a conversation that I had this summer with a bunch of Alaskans. Most of them were longtime Alaskans, but a couple of them had just come up to work in the summer of 2025 about their favorite Alaskan foods. So I'll share that To wrap up the episode, I.

  so Wade, right now you're driving the boat. Yeah, that's right. We're cruising upstream here on the, the China River. Uh, heading back to Steamboat Landing after a great morning, uh, here on Riverboat Discovery three. Yeah, I know. It's really fun. It's funny because I know that you drive the boat sometimes, but it.

Never works out that I'm here when you're driving. So it's really fun that worked out today. That's cool. The riverboat is the kind of company where the president of the company also drives the boat sometimes, which I think it says a lot about. You guys as a company. So tell me what, tell me why you still do it when I imagine you probably don't Absolutely have to. Well, yeah, that's, that's just part of who we are. It was my grandfather, uh, that started this business in 1950 with my grandmother and his background before tourism was driving boats and hauling freight and supplies on, on the Yukon River.

And before him, his father came up during the fond gold rush and also. Instead of becoming a, a gold miner, built and operated boat. So it's really just in our blood. All of our family members are boat captains and really this is what we love most about this job is being in the wheelhouse, being on the river, and of course, getting to interact.

And, meet our guests and tell them about our, our history, our family, and our great state of Alaska. And that's, really the best part of our job. So any, anytime I can get outta the office and into the wheelhouse, it's a great day. Right. No kidding. Yeah. That's awesome. Tell me a little bit about how, I know we talked about this before in the first episode, but kind of tell me a little bit about how, dad, and your aunts and uncles and nieces and nephews and how everybody kind of learns to do this.

Yeah, well this is just part of being in a family business, just like so many people and families across the United States. When you're in it every single day, you start off at a young age just coming into work with your parents and slowly starting to observe and understand what they do. And it's the same thing for us as we were kids growing up in the business.

And, and for my children today, I've got a, a 5-year-old and an eight and 9-year-old, and. You know, their favorite part about summer vacation is coming to work and getting a chance to be a part of this and see it and be around the, the older employees and work in the snack bar and not run the cash register.

And an opportunity to meet the guests and get a chance to, to understand what hospitality and tourism is. And they don't even know it. They're just coming here to have fun. But they're learning valuable skills and, and eventually they'll start to work their way into the wheelhouse as they get a little bit older and get some wheel time and understand how these boats operate.

And then hopefully at age 18, if they want, they'll be able to, sit for their US Coast Guard exam mm-hmm. And become, an official captain. Woohoo. Awesome. All right, so today is kind of a rainy day, which is pretty unusual in Fairbanks. For people who haven't been to Alaska before or have only been to certain parts, I think people don't realize how different the weather is in different parts of the state, like how dry Fairbanks is most of the time.

And, I'm just kind of curious what your favorite during the tour season, you know, when you're driving. The boat, which month is your favorite to be out here and why? Yeah. I mean, you really, you can't go wrong with midsummer in Fairbanks. Yeah, Fairbanks has, its kind of iconic, like just beautiful mid seventies, sunshiny blue sky days and, and those are great and, and.

We, we, uh, we just love a good Fairbanks summer, but, but really my favorite time of year is September. Mm-hmm. Early, early September. Yeah. Fall is a really short season here in the interior, but when it's on, it's, it's really magical and it's crisp and it's cool. And. If it's a kind of a clear day out and a little bit of sun, uh, it's just a great time to be in, in the interior and, uh, that's kind of my favorite.

Mm-hmm. Favorite season for, for being out on the water. Yeah. That I, I've been thinking, you know, 'cause it's not quite fall, but it's like, yeah, right on the, oh, there's a little yellow. I'm like, oh, oh, oh. I love it. Yeah. That's, this is one of the times of year that I, well, early September when I really miss mm-hmm.

Living in Fairbanks. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Okay. Anything else I should be asking you about right now that you feel like talking about? Well, um, let's see. Yeah, just, you know, the riverboat discovery is just an opportunity for us to share our home and kind of the unique place that is the interior of Alaska.

Alaska is made up of these vastly different regions, as we kind of mentioned. Mm-hmm. In geography. And climate and, and people as well. And that's really what, what the riverboat discovery focuses on is, is the people. Mm-hmm. And the cultures. And, you know, from, you know, thousands and thousands of years ago, indigenous people digging into their history and their culture and how they were able to make.

This unique place home.

So yeah, it's just a great opportunity that to teach people about, our state and this unique little corner. That we call Fairbanks and the interior of Alaska. You know, it's, it's kind of interesting because working as a tour director, one of the things that my guests. Most often comment on that is a surprise to them about visiting Alaska.

You know, people are like, yeah, I, I saw a bear and I wanted to see a bear and that was awesome. Mm-hmm. Or I wanted to fly above the Arctic circle and I did that and it was cool. Or I wanted to see a glacier. But a lot of times people really talk about how much they enjoy getting to learn about people.

Mm-hmm. And getting to know Alaskans. So whether that's learning about Alaska Native culture or meeting people. Who are guides on kind of any tour in kind of any way, they're like, wow, I didn't expect people to be so like glad I was here. Yeah. You know, and like interested in sharing where they live. And so that's just interesting for me to think about that.

People often comment on that, especially if I ask them what was the highlight of this trip for you? Sure. Because like this tour I'm on now is two weeks long. Mm-hmm. Um. And so it's interesting to see what sticks out to people after two weeks. Yeah. You know, and sometimes, you know, you forget, I, I forget it sometimes too, but when I'm out traveling, you know, in the off season and.

Visiting different places or different countries. It's the same for me. Yeah. I know when I, when I come home, what I remember and what I connect to are those people that I've met along the way. Yeah. And the relationships that you build or, a local that you meet in a restaurant and strike up a conversation or someone that's given you directions or a tip on what to do.

Those really outlast those memories kind of outlast the flashy scenery. Totally. The Yep. The exciting tour that you did or whatever, but it's, it's those kind of connections that you make along the way mm-hmm. That stick with you.



That's what we try to provide here when we, when we have our guests on board.

It's like inviting a friend, you know, in for a cup of coffee, uh, into your home. That's, that's the type of relationship we want to have with our guests so that they have that good warm feeling when they head back home.

 Yeah. Okay. So I am talking to you, JR Lewis, also known as the voice of the riverboat discovery. I think I'm the only, probably the only person who calls you that. So JR can you tell everybody just a little bit about your job and. What it is and how long you've been doing it, your job here at the riverboat?

Yeah, I know you do a few things. This is my 17th season, uh, being one of the narrators on board or commentators is, is our sort of our official title and we try to knit together. All of these different points of interest along the river. Mm-hmm. You know, things that in some cases are contemporary.

'cause people that come to visit Alaska want to know how people live nowadays. You know? Yeah. Is it, is it modern or is it, you know, like you would've thought of 50, 60 years ago. Does everybody live in a cabin? Yeah. You know? Right. Do you have utilities? So we answer a lot of those questions. And then of course the other points of interest like bush flying and dog sledding and most, I think most especially our Native culture.

Yeah. That gets all woven in into kind of this story and, and overarching all of that are the experiences that Captain Jim Binkley had. Yeah. He and his wife who started this now 75 years ago here. Mm-hmm. In 2025. And these were all things that they experienced when they started out and people would ask them questions about things and that would gradually make its way in.

And I mean, I've found that over the years I've been doing it that what I, the information I share has, has morphed to a great extent. Based on questions that people have asked, and there's clearly certain things that they want to know. So we try and answer as many of those as we can and, and just, you know, kind of give people an overview of what Interior Alaska is like.

Yeah. That's awesome. So how did you get into this? I know that you're a born and raised Fairbanks and mm-hmm. How did you get into, working on the riverboat? Well, actually through my dad. Okay. Much like the binkley's, you know, hand down skills through the generations. My dad, uh, was a broadcaster in Fairbanks for 40 or so years, and, he and Jim, captain Jim knew each other years ago, I think they used to maybe even do some radio work together.

When Jim got to the point that that, well, both Jim and Mary, when they got to the point that they didn't want to be responsible for narrating anymore. My dad, Jay Lewis would always joke.

He, he'd say, Jim came up and said, Hey Jay, I know you can talk for three hours nonstop, and I got an opportunity for you. And so he did that for many years, I think 27 years. And I came into it a little bit later. Mm-hmm. And took turns with him for, for many years. And then Jay stepped away in 2019. So then I became the old guy and there were some other younger people that came in and yeah,

I give a lot of the credit, you know, to my dad for the opportunity, and then of course, Jim and Mary for, for basically plowing the road that we just had to figure out how to tell the story in our way and, and it's just kind of gone on from there.



 Well, I want to thank, Wade and JR again for taking the time to talk to me a little bit on a busy day, that was just really fun. So similar to that moment where I just happened to see people I could talk to and. Could record a little bit with their permission, of course. There was another time where I was sitting around an amazing dinner table with a bunch long-term and short-term Alaskans and we were talking about the podcast and someone at the table said, oh, we should all share our favorite Alaska food. And then Jennie, you can put that in the podcast. And I thought that was such a fun. Idea. And so I just recorded this little conversation on my phone, and if you've ever wondered what Alaskan's favorite Alaska foods are, well here's a bunch of answers.

Okay, so we're sitting here eating dinner. I'm at the table with a bunch of Alaskans. And we're in a remote, undisclosed location, and so we're just gonna pass the mic around the table and each person is gonna say their favorite Alaska food and their first name.

That's all you have to say. And I'll go last because everybody knows me already. Okay. Stevie. What's your favorite Alaska food? Rice. Your clams. All right, Eli. I know you answered before recording, but say your name and your answer again. If I had to choose one for the rest of my life, it would have to be king salmon, barbecued king salmon with some fresh veggies.

I mean, come on. Mm-hmm. Loretta, do you wanna answer Jack? There's so many. I don't know that I could choose just one. So diplomatic. So my name is Debbie and if I had to pick one favorite Alaska food, it would be spot shrimp from the water of Alaska. The Prince William Sound, um, amazing. Mm-hmm.

My name is Jeannie, and I'm a vegan, so my favorite Alaskan food is Matanuska Valley potatoes. You might get a boo on that one. You know, I'm actually really glad you said that because a lot of times people ask me like, I don't like seafood. Will I be able to eat? And I'm like, yes, of course you will. Okay, Aaron.

All right. My name's Aaron. Favorite Alaskan food. It's going to be cod tips. Mm, wow. Black cod tips. Sable fish. Cod tips marinated in yahs and grilled. Mm. I was gonna ask you to say how it would be prepared. Okay. Yeah. I'm still thinking about my answer.

Should I ask the other table? Yeah. I don't wanna, you know, should I? Okay. You think about the vegan thing, but you gotta go with Alaska. Carrots.

Sorry to interrupt. We just we're passing the mic around and everyone was seeing their favorite Alaska food. Do you wanna participate? You don't have to. I don't think I have any yet. What are you sure?

No. What you had most, most recently. Maybe it doesn't have to be seafood. It could be like Kenai dip or something. I haven't, I I haven't had Kenai dip. Okay. You have to fix that when you're in Kenai on the way home. , It's the hali it for me. Okay. How do you like it prepared?

Uh, Chris did a, it was like a curry sauce uhhuh with like the cru, like the chopped pistachios on top. Yeah. And it's, I love it. That was really, really good. Yeah. That sounds amazing. It's a good thing we're eating dinner while having this conversation. Okay. Uh, giant Pacific octopus. Ooh. How do you like it prepared?

Just boiled. I don't like it fried. It makes it all like. Screeny. Okay, so just boiled? Mm-hmm. Okay. Sweet. Thanks. Yeah. Kinda like pokey. Yeah. Oh yeah. Okay. Right on. I'm gonna see if anybody at the next table wants to answer

any, any anybody wanna offer up to the mic? Their favorite Alaska food? It was Deb's idea, but I thought it was a good one. It doesn't have to be seafood.

Or any food? Willie. Willie. Salmon. I think. Salmon. Salmon. Okay. Anybody else? If I have, if I have to go with, uh, it's probably, uh, crab and salmon, if I could do two. Okay. Crab and salmon. I think you can do two. Thanks everybody. Do you wanna answer Moran? Okay. It's crab for sure. What kind of crab? Dungy. Um, I like Dungy too. How prepared? How. Mm. With lots of butter. Yes. Lots of butter. Awesome. Alaskan King grab with butter.

Oh, that's, yes. All the butter. Yes, all the butter. All the butter with garlic is also good. Oh, yes. Garlic butter. Even better. Yeah. 📍 

Oh, yeah.

 



I hope you all enjoyed this episode. I really enjoyed making it and reflecting on my summer. And in the next three weeks I will have more, things recorded from the field and,, sharing some cool experiences for you as you're getting ready to plan your own trip. So don't forget. Join the Alaska Uncovered Planning Club on Patreon, or have me, plan your trip for you.

We can do a 30 minute session. I can point you in the right direction or I can do the whole thing. The show notes includes all the other ways that I can help you. So check that out if you're looking for help planning your trip and I'll see you next week. Bye for now.