FINALLY!!!!

FINALLY... that is the only word that keeps running through my mind. After 3 VERY long weeks, we have finally reached our final destination and new home!

We arrived at the ferry terminal in Homer, AK this morning at 7:30 am. We waited patiently until 9:45 to finally board the ferry, which was much smaller than the first ferry we took. This one was pretty interesting... to get our car onto the ship we had to drive it onto this "elevator" type machine, where it lowered us onto the car deck, spun us around, and then we had to back into our designated spot. Stressful to say the least! Once we were on the ship we went to our room and laid down since we were so tired from waking up at the crack of dawn. We went and had lunch at about noon, and this was when I realized I had left my motion sickness medication in the car. I should have known this would be an issue when I saw the "bark bags" posted all over the place. As soon as we stood up from lunch the water had gotten so rough I could barely stand. We were clinging to the hand railings as we walked back to our room. I thought that maybe if I stepped outside and had some cold air on my face I would feel better, but that was such a horrible idea! I guess seeing the water and boat swaying made it ten times worse because all of I sudden I started shaking and was on the verge of puking everywhere! I ran back to the room where I laid down, shut my eyes, and clung to the rail on my bunk bed. I slept on and off for nearly 5 hours! At one point they came on the speaker to tell us there was a pod of Orka whales, and sadly I felt so sick I couldn't even jump out of bed (not to mention open the curtain to our window) to go check them out. Thankfully around 6 the waters seemed to calm, and we went and had dinner. Our ferry was delayed about an hour, but we landed in Kodiak at 8:45 pm! Sadly it was getting dark, so I didn't get any pictures, but I plan on taking TONS tomorrow!

When we got off the boat, Kevin's OS-2 and Chief were waiting there to meet us. They showed us to our hotel, helped us carrying all of our bags in, and showed us around. Kevin and his OS-2 went to the station so he could get his orders signed to help make the process on Monday go by more quickly. His Chief took me and showed me around town. It was so welcoming and gave me such a great first impression of what it will be like to live here. To think... these men both have families and children at home, and they stayed out until 11 pm making sure that we were all settled in and felt comfortable.

Now onto the good stuff... Kodiak itself! The town has ONE stop light... can you say SMALL town! There is a Walmart, Safeway (grocery store), McDonald's, Taco Bell, KFC, Subway, Starbucks, a Vets Clinic, several auto shops, small gift shops, etc. It looks like a cute little town, but it was dark when I saw all of this. The buildings aren't very pretty, but are made to withstand the elements. On the base there is a hospital, Commissary (grocery store), Exchange (general store), HUGE gym with an indoor pool, movie theater, bowling alley, pizza parlor, and one section of the housing. These houses look the least desirable, but still didn't look that bad. The other 2 housing "neighborhoods" aren't right down the street from the base, and both looked very nice. I am so anxious to find out if we will be able to move into something on Monday, or even sometime this week.

All I can say is, so far so good! I think I am really going to like it here! I will post again tomorrow with some pictures. Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!