Day 5 - Playing hookey

Most of the dentists and hygienists on the SEARHC staff work a 4-10 schedule (4, 10 hour workdays as opposed to 5, 8 hour workdays), so each staff member gets one day off per week. Dr. Hort happened to be off today and, by extension, that means I got the day off too!

Instead of going into the clinic today, Dr. Hort, her husband, Dr. Bornstein, and I went hiking today on the West Glacier Trail. This morning Dr. Bornstein called and asked if I was prepared to go hiking. I said sure - I have shoes, clothes, a little drawstring backpack - I'll be fine. When we met up this morning he took one look at me and laughed. He was critical of all but my rain jacket and underwear. He did lend me a pair of hiking boots which turned out to be very helpful. In my defense, I made the 4 hour hike without a word of complaint. Not bad for a Midwestern boy with cotton clothes.

We started out on the traditional trail when we suddenly began walking directly into the unmarked woods. Apparently Dr. Bornstein is an avid hiker and knows his way around most trails so he took us the scenic route towards the glacier. We hiked up and down ridges and rock seams until we finally reached the Mendenhall Glacier. The glacier has receded a lot in recent years so what used to be an hour long hike has turned into a two hour hike. We got a chance to walk on the glacier and explore some ice tunnels on it as well. I can't even describe how cool it was.

We had lunch right near the glacier overlooking the Mendenhall River. There were icebergs floating at the base of the glacier and Nugget Falls Waterfall (which is runoff from the Nugget Glacier) was in the backdrop. We hiked another two hours back to the trailhead. As Dr. Bornstein dropped me off he invited me over to dinner to meet his wife and children since his son, Sam, is attending Washington University in St. Louis.

For dinner I finally had my first seafood since arriving in Juneau - sockeye salmon. The best part about eating the salmon was that during the entire meal I was staring directly at the source of water where it came from. The Bornstein household overlooks Auke Bay. There are mountains in the distance and the harbor is right near their home. At one point during dinner a humpback whale appeared in the harbor. Not a bad view...

It was great to meet Dr. Bornstein's family, especially his kids since they are around my age. His son was really interested in learning all about St. Louis and cool things to do in the city. I gave him my Albert Pujols jersey and told him if nothing else, at least he'd look good wearing red. I told him he would be the most knowledgeable freshman on campus (at least the most knowledgeable freshman from Juneau, AK!). Dr. Bornstein's daughter, Sarah, is in graduate school at Simmons College in Boston. She is studying to be an Archiver and is home for a few weeks during the summer.

The Bornstein family is Jewish so it was really interesting to hear about the Jewish lifestlye in Juneau. They joked that, with me in town, the Jewish population has expanded to 7 people. The one synagogue in town is on Douglas Island. There is no rabbi so services are run by whoever takes the initiative that particular week. There will be a Bar Mitzvah in June that will be the first Bar or Bat Mitzvah in Juneau in nearly 2 years! Apparently, regardless of your birthday, you have your Bar or Bat Mitzvah in the summer to ensure that out of town relatives will want to visit.

I am pretty worn out after my long hike today. Tomorrow there is a maritime festival downtown so I am going to head to that with Sarah and Sam. After the festival I am going to take a run of Perseverance Trail. Should be a busy day and a great start to my first weekend in Juneau...