Rich and Barb Kaloostian are heading for a new home in New York with daughters Sandra and Lauri. After 18 years of living in Haines, the Kaloostians say they’ll miss everyone. On the way to New York, they’ll stop at grandson Kyle Simone’s wedding in Incline Village, Nev. Kyle graduated from high school here in May. He’s marrying Natasia Batson of Gilbert, Ariz. She’s a 19-year-old health care major in Mesa, Ariz. The couple will honeymoon in Lake Tahoe, Nev. Kyle’s parents, Sherri and Gary Dub, moved this month from Haines to Fernley, Nev. Kyle leaves for the Air Force in August. Natasia will reside in Nevada, close to Sherry and Gary. Kyle’s uncle, Tim Kaloostian, will stand up for him at the wedding.

Mark Allen and dad Vernon Allen, 75, finished an eight-day voyage from Seward, Alaska to Haines on Vernon’s 36-foot Columbia sailboat, Flapdoodle, July 6. The 800-plus-mile trip included some rough seas and falling out of radio reception range west of Middleton Island, Mark said. "We had to use all the lines and sheets and every sail but the spinnaker. Dad said it was the adventure of a lifetime and it was for me, too," Mark said. The Flapdoodle made good time to Middleton, then battled Fairweather winds as strong as 20 knots for almost two days before the Allens turned north and headed to Yakutat to refuel. Seven large tacks, about 35 miles long, got the vessel to Cross Sound. Highlights included an escort of humpback whales at Indian Pass. Vernon has been sailing the boat about 10 years in Resurrection Bay. In the Gulf of Alaska, they saw only one barge near Prince William Sound. "You feel like a little grain of sand on the beach," Mark said. Vernon and Mark’s mom, Marilyn Allen, are moving into senior village in Haines. They previously lived in Anchorage. Mark learned sailing in the protected waters of New Jersey as a youth.

Four Haines residents competed in the second annual "Dry-Tri" at Takhini Hot Springs, Y.T. July 5. The "dry" triathlon entailed a 4K trail run, 15K mountain bike and 8K trail run. Greg Schlachter and Sam Hensold finished third and fourth, respectively, among individual entrants, Schlachter in 1:40:12 and Hensold in 1:41:10. Russ Lyman biked for runner Marnie Hartman on a two-person team that finished third among mixed teams.

Two students from the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas are in Haines working as interns for local organizations in adjacent buildings. They haven’t yet met. Matt Thompson is here for the summer as an intern for the Hammer Museum. A museum studies master’s degree student at the University of Kansas, he said his time here "has altogether exceeded my expectations…in all ways." Thompson has helped museum founder Dave Pahl with state accreditation projects, including a visitor survey program, an archiving project, and upgrading the front steps. Nicole McClure, a sophomore at KU studying art and human biology, is interning at Takshanuk Watershed Council, just one building west. McClure’s job at the council is coordinating between watershed groups in Southeast. She’s been traveling to Yakutat, Juneau, and Skagway, gathering information about watershed work in those communities and talking about Haines projects in the interest of future collaboration.

Takshanuk development director Emily Seward, also a KU graduate, said it was pretty wild so many "Jayhawks" ended up on the same block in Haines. "It’s amazing," she said. "It’s a Lawrence reunion."