Early morning this morning as I had an 8 AM ferry ride to Sitka. Today was my lasy day house-sitting. I am going to miss the dog when I come home after work, but I am not going to miss the dog begging to walk at 6 AM. I drove to SEARHC to pick up my toothbrushes and toothpaste giveaways and pick up my bike from Dr. Hort.
I loaded onto the Fairweather vessel right before 8 AM. The Fairweather is a “fast ferry”. It goes directly from port to port at 35 knots so it takes less than half the time a normal ferry would take to get to Sitka. It doesn’t have any cabins because it is strictly for quick transportation. I grabbed breakfast and a seat near the window. I got lucky today as the weather was nice so I was able to spend some time out of the back deck. The view was great the entire time. We passed snow capped mountains and spruce trees along the shoreline. At times, whales swam alongside the ferry which was pretty neat. I spent most of the ride reading and writing. I am getting really into this book called The Bullpen Gospels. It’s about a career minor league pitcher and what it’s like to play in the minor leagues. If you are a baseball fan I would definitely look into it. The ferry ride took about 4 and a half hours until we arrived in Sitka.
I grabbed my bike from the bottom of the boat and hailed a taxi to Mount Edgecumbe Hospital. I was supposed to stay at the short-term housing facility, but when I arrived nobody had any record of my reservation. Talk about disconcerting. I stood stunned for a few minutes but eventually became friendly with the receptionist and got a hold of Karen Fredrickson, the housing director. She felt so bad about forgetting about my reservation that she set me up in a different housing unit right next to the hospital. The facility I am staying in now is a bit older than the short-term housing facility, but it has a T.V., cable, and internet so I was sold. Not to mention, Karen and SEARHC have agreed to take responsibility for all room charges. So that means two free nights in this room and free breakfast, lunch, and dinner from the hospital cafeteria. Even better, the Cardinals are playing the Mariners this week (Seattle is Juneau’s adopted sports city) so the Cardinals are on local cable all week.
After settling into the room I went to the dental clinic to meet some of the dentists and residents there. This week is a great week to be in Sitka because it is Prosthodontist Week. Every year the Sitka clinic brings in a prosthodontist, Dr. Tayler, and his residents from the University of Connecticut Dental School. They spend a week in the clinic making as many dentures as possible. They do everything in the clinic – from initial impressions to the final lab touch-ups. Sitka dental patients get dentures for a very minimal cost and the UConn prosthodontist residents get good practice making dentures and crowns. I spent the afternoon shadowing and watching the residents do lab work. They had quite the assembly line going in the lab with everybody working on varying stages of the dentures. Dr. Tayler is the head of the Prosthodontist Residency at UConn so he’s a good contact to have for the future.
Dinner is at 6 at the hospital and then I am going to take my bike into town to explore a bit. Tomorrow is a big day as I will be interviewing OB patients all day long. Off to dinner…
**New pictures in the album**
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