The best part about being in Haines is the two-minute walk to work in the morning. In Juneau, I have to leave myself time for a 35 minute commute when planning my morning routine, but here I can just roll out of bed. I started early and got a few interviews out of the way. There are only two chairs in the Haines clinic (one hygienist and one dentist) so it isn’t difficult to complete the interviews. During the actual appointments I can use the empty desks to make my phone calls to the patients who missed their appointments.
The Haines clinic is unique because it is the only SEARHC clinic that serves patients that are not Native Alaskans. Since the population of Haines is 80% non-Native Alaskan the clinic sees the other patients on a sliding scale fee based on income. It’s a great service for the residents of the village and also leads to a smaller missed appointment rate. It’s interesting to note how the missed appointment rate declines when a percentage of your patient population is held fiscally responsible for their dental treatments…
For lunch, I went to the Mountain Market. The Mountain Market is an organic food store that is known for having the best cup of coffee in all of Haines. The also have great lunch sandwiches which is why I went this afternoon. The weather was great again today so I sat outside and enjoyed my lunch along with several eager crows.
After lunch I went back to the clinic to continue my phone calls. I met the physical therapist, Marnie, and got to talking to her about her job and life in Haines. It turns out she is a runner and so we decided to go for a trail run after work. I left a little early and walked back to the Cone’s home to hang out with Stefan. I helped him edit a powerpoint presentation that is a timeline of his time in Alaska. He is going to surprise the Cone’s by presenting them with all of his thoughts and pictures as a giant thank you for hosting him for the past six months.
Marnie picked me up and the two of us, along with her friend Leslie, went running up Racer Trail. The trail is named because it is host to a 4th of July race that starts at the bottom of the mountain, goes all the way to the top, and then goes right back down into town. The three of us ran the same route as the race – up and then back down. Marnie and Leslie were eager to run on the trails because they have just now dried up from the melted snow. Since Haines gets a lot of snowfall runners are reduced to street running during the winter months. In Haines running the streets is no fun since there is only one street and to do any kind of distance run you have to run in circles for hours. It took us about one hour and fifteen minutes to complete the loop.
After the run we went to the hotel in town to get dinner. Marnie’s boyfriend is the bartender and waiter at the restaurant so everything was on the house. Hopefully I’ll get to run with these two a few more times before I go back to Juneau.
I headed back to the Cone’s and decided to relax in their hot tub for a few minutes. I’ll post a picture of the view from the hot tub because it is impossible to describe how beautiful it is. It must be even more spectacular in the winter when everything around you is blanketed in snow.
That’s about it for today, but I don’t want to go to sleep because it is the summer solstice. Like I mentioned yesterday the sun rose around 3:15 this morning so I want to see how late it sets.
Until tomorrow…
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