Day 35 - Haines, AK Day 1

As I sit here and type, it’s hard to believe that I have already completed more than half of my summer project experience. It’s amazing how quickly I have progressed from “Day 1” to “Day 35”. Each day is still new, fun, and exciting and often brings a nice element of surprise.

Today I boarded the 8 AM Fairweather vessel to Haines. I knew that I would be staying with Lisa Cone and her husband, Sean, but I did not know what an incredibly open, sharing family they would turn out to be. Lisa met me at the ferry terminal and drove me around Haines before we headed to her home. The tour of Haines took about 6 minutes as I saw the grocery store, the school, the library, the restaurant, the bar, and, of course, the SEARHC clinic. There are no stoplights in Haines, and only one street through the middle of town. The population is right around 1,000, just like Hoonah. Even though the populations are similar, Haines is a bit more developed than Hoonah because of the Haines Junction.

The junction is a road in and out of Haines and is the only way you can drive from Southeast Alaska to the interior of the state (Anchorage and Fairbanks). You can also drive into Canada towards the Yukon Territory and see areas such as Whitehorse. Haines is a beautiful town. It sits right on the Lynn Canal and it surrounded by huge mountains covered with snow. Haines gets about 30 feet of snow each year so there is much more snow on the mountains here than in Juneau. Haines is known for its large population of bald eagles that come during the early part of September to feed on the late spawning pink salmon.

We pulled up to the Cone’s home around 10:30. Her husband was out and she had some errands to run so she left me alone to get settled. As promised, I found their big screen TV and sat down to watch baseball and golf. The Cone’s are hosting an exchange student who in from Vienna, Austria. His name is Stefan and he is part of a program that brings foreign high school students to the United States to see what it’s like to live here. I’m not sure how the program decided that Haines, Alaska was an accurate portrayal of life in the United States, but that’s another story.

Stefan and I watched golf together. He loves to speak English because he is still learning and sorting out certain areas of speech so he just goes on and on about anything and everything. He is a really nice kid and will be fun to have around for the next few days. Eventually, Sean came back home and asked if Stefan and I wanted to go out crabbing on the Lynn Canal. Of course, the one time I get invited to go out fishing or crabbing over the past few weeks would coincide with the final round of the U.S. Open, but in the end going crabbing turned out to the better choice.

I borrowed Lisa’s Extra-Tuffs (knee high rubber boots that are as much of a fashion staple in Alaska as Nikes or Reeboks are in the continental United States) and headed off to the canal. We took the boat out towards Battery Point and then dropped the crabbing buckets into the water. I guess in my mind crabbing sounded a little more involved that dropping a metal rectangle into the ocean but, nonetheless, it was fun to spend a few hours out on the water. There were whales, sea lions, and bald eagles all along the coastline and there were also lots of beaches and residences along the water. We took the boat as far as Mud Bay and then turned around and headed back to the crab pots.

Unfortunately, we only caught a misguided flounder and a female crab (you don’t keep the females so that they can reproduce and make more crabs) so we decided to do the next best thing – go to the grocery store and buy our crabs. There is a huge debate going on between the locals and the commercial fishing companies about who can place crab pots where. The locals are upset that the commercial fishing companies are placing their crab pots in the easily accessible places even though they have the means to reach coves and inlets that the locals cannot. Before we headed back to shore we dropped the pots in a different location so that they could sit in the water overnight and hopefully bring us some better luck.

Stefan and I grabbed a quick sandwich and then went up to the school soccer fields to play soccer with some of his friends from the high school. The weather was really nice and, since it was the day before the summer solstice, we had plenty of sunlight well past 10 PM. After soccer I walked back to the Cone’s house and took a quick shower. I was downstairs surfing the internet when Zach, Lisa and Sean’s 6 year old son, decided that it was time to play.

He was intrigued by the widgets on my MacBook and was particularly fond of the English to Spanish translator. He laughed for a good 10 minutes after we translated the word “butt”. He told me that he was at an advanced reading level for his grade so I decided to test him out. I always read the sports page from the Post Dispatch online so I sat back and relaxed while he read me articles by Bernie Miklasz and Bryan Burwell. After he finished reading me the paper, I collapsed into bed. It was a long, but fun, day.

Tomorrow I will be in the Haines clinic doing patient interviews and phone interviews. There are only another couple of work days until I have to wrap up my surveying and begin on my education materials so these next few days I’ll be working long, hard hours. Tomorrow is also the solstice, which is an unofficial holiday in the state. The sun is supposed to rise at 3:15 AM so I better remember to close the blinds…

Finally... Happy Father's Day!