Stuck in Anchorage... why not blog!?

So, in my official indoctrination to Kodiak travel, I have been stranded overnight in Anchorage, something I think I need to get used to! I was in Juneau the last couple of days, visiting our District office, and ran into typical Kodiak weather conditions on the way out of here. I'm almost certain I got the last hotel room in Anchorage, too. Summer in Alaska is a busy time!

We've been a bit derelict in our updates. Our apologies to everyone. Since I am stuck in Anchorage, no pictures for you this time around, but at least there's stuff to share.

We finally got our household goods last Tuesday, on the day they were "guarenteed" to be there by. You should've seen the two of us literally dancing around the house after the moving company called!!! After many promises of "it'll be on the next barge/ship," it was nice to actually have it show up!! The moving company called us right as we were headed out the door for work, feeling dejected that we were going to have yet another few days of waiting til the next ship came... imagine our surprise!

In about 6 hours, all 15,000 pounds and 12+ crates of stuff were offloaded and kinda in the right rooms. Technically, we could've had the movers stick around to help us upack boxes, but since I didn't know where I wanted stuff, I did the kitchen while they were still working, and then sent them on their way. One guy stayed behind to help Jason put stuff together, and then, in an absolute surprise move, the company offered to leave the truck at our house so we could continue to unpack and just put the empty boxes in there. They ended up leaving the truck for 2 days, giving us the opportunity to get rid of almost all the boxes! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, we're now slowly working our way through the rest of the stuff, and we'll start to think about hanging pictures and all that sooner or later. We still have 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a hallway to paint, so pictures might have to wait awhile. Jason is determined to get the rest of the fence up (the neighbors behind us put theirs up finally, so we "just" have one side to go!), so I might have to wait for my paint. I'll live, though... I want Fred in the backyard!

I think that's it for now. I'm using the business center at the hotel and the keyboard is annoying me, let alone everyone else in here. Plus, I have a 6am flight tomorrow morning (fingers crossed!), so I should get some sleep!

We'll take "after" pictures of the house as soon as it's worth looking at so we can share those with everyone. Miss and love you all!!!
Becca

Finally, pictures!

After calling the internet company and figuring out that they had us signed up for the wrong package, AND resizing the images to mke them smaller (DUH!), I can finally share some pictures!

So a couple of these are from some of our hikes, some are from my Change of Command, and then there's a random shot from the midnight fireworks on the 3rd/4th.

First up, the view from Ft. Abercrombie State Park. Fred and Jason seem to be enjoying this one together. I think Fred was asking if he could go swimming!


Next up is the view of the base from mid-way up Old Woman. Beyond the base is Women's Bay and the far end of Kodiak Island. Way out on the third spit of land is the Kodiak Winery at Chiniak. We haven't made it out there yet, but plan to. There's also a herd of buffalo out that way! It's about an hour's drive out that way, so we have to plan ahead!


Next up, Change of Command stuff. The first one is me offering my relief to the outgoing CO. Doesn't it look all official and what-not?
This one is after the ceremony. Pardon the hat-head! Aren't the fish in the background awesome?!?!
Next up is the front page of the Kodiak Daily Mirror. Yep, front page, right below the fold.And the actual story, complete with black-and-white picture. FAMOUS!!!!

And, finally, here's a shot from the fireworks the other night. One of Kodiak's self-professed claims to fame is that we have one of the earliest 4th of July fireworks displays in the country. This picture makes it look like it's dark out, but it wasn't quite completely dark. But, it was a pretty decent show for a small town, and it seemed like just about everyone in town showed up for it. Everyone gets there about 11-ish, parks their cars wherever they can across from where they set the fireworks off, and then sits in their car waiting til almost midnight. At about 5 minutes before midnight, we all walked toward the water and just stood there to watch the fireworks... it's too cold to stand outside or do the picnic thing like we always did growing up! Too funny!

So those are the latest shots from Kodiak. Once we get our stuff and get the house set up, we'll be sure to post pictures of the house for everyone to see! For now, there's not much to look at, so it's not really worth it! We're hoping our stuff will be here mid-week next week, so by the end of next weekend, the house should be livable! YAY!!!!!!

Love and miss everyone!

Becca

Busy week so far!

We've been a little derelict in our duties as far as keeping up to date on the blog, but I think we have a good excuse, really!


This past weekend, we painted the kitchen, and, using our holiday time today, we painted the living room! We're trying to get as much of the painting done as we can before our stuff gets here. (I'm trying really hard to look at the positive side of the fact that our furniture still consists of only 2 camp chairs, a TV and an air mattress!)

Besides painting, we've been getting out and seeing a lot of the area, trying to find the good hiking/walking spots to keep Fred happy! Last weekend, we hiked "Old Woman" which is one of the mountains around here. It was a good hike, and took us a little over 2 hours to get up and down, including stops for pictures. Fred enjoyed the snow pile we came across (yes, snow in June), and we enjoyed the views.



Here is the part where I had every intention of posting a couple pictures from two of our hikes, but the internet and/or my computer is acting up right now, so I can't seem to upload a picture at all. Hopefully that will change tomorrow, and I can get a few pics up.



Meanwhile, the other thing that's kept us busy is work. Jason finally checked into work on Monday, and is already scheduled for his first duty day and his first deployment. Of course, he still hasn't flown since the middle of May, so they may change their minds on that! I've been busy getting up to speed on my new job, and had my official Change of Command yesterday morning. So I'm now the Commanding Officer of the North Pacific Regional Fisheries Training Center, which is VERY exciting to me!!!! Again, here is where I would post a picture from the ceremony, but I can't!

I made the front page of the Kodiak Daily Mirror, though, so, at least until the next edition of the paper comes out, you can check out the article here: http://www.kodiakdailymirror.com/?pid=19&id=4932. And, before anyone gets too excited, the whole paper is only 13 pages, so we're not talking major news here! But it's still pretty cool anyway!

So, as I said, I'll try to get some pictures up as soon as possible. Hopefully the computer will cooperate later! That's all for now!!!!