deranged puppies, housing hunting and microwave meals...oh my!

We made it! On Monday, we spent the whole day scrubbing the house before inspection. Everyone told me not to worry about it because our houses were gross to begin with, but of course I didn't listen. I probably spent about 12 hours total scrubbing the stove and oven. The lady didn't even look at them. As I was wiping down the counter tops, she walked through the whole house and told me everything was perfect. She actually told me to stop cleaning.

We cleared post, shipped our car and got a rental car and a hotel room for the 13 hours before our flight. The rental car was much smaller than our Pilot so it was a pretty tight squeeze. Good thing it was only a 15 min drive to the airport. We got to the airport around 4:30AM. I thought I'd have a chance to let the dogs relieve themselves one last time but the dog park was located at another terminal. So the dogs were loaded into their crates for the next 18 hours. The people at the ticket counter had never done a military ticket or pets before so that was interesting. They were supposed to charge us for our extra bag but after trying to charge us for all the bags and counting the dogs twice they gave up.

The flight itself was long but uneventful. They were supposed to tell us when they loaded up the dogs but we had to wait until we got to Salt Lake City to find out whether or not the dogs made it. Our flight made it to Honolulu about 40 minutes ahead of schedule. That was nice. We got a rental car but still needed the assistance of a friend since the dogs have to leave airport property without ever stepping foot out of their crates. I could hear Scout howling from outside the animal holding facility. She didn't stop shaking until a few hours after we got to the hotel. Denny was fine but a little clingy. I was pleasantly surprised that there were no accidents inside the crate.

We're now staying at a hotel that is a little on the dumpy side but allows dogs and even has a tiny dog park that the dogs can do their business in. We even played a little fetch today. We don't have a kitchenette but we have a tiny fridge (no freezer) and a microwave. Sadly, we're already sick of eating out for every meal so we went to the commissary and bought some foods that can be microwaved. Tim is ecstatic that almost every meal on the island comes with rice!

We went to the housing office only to be told there are no prospects for us living on post. They didn't even give us a number...just told us to start looking off post. They even tried to find us a dumpy 2 bedroom. I'm glad that didn't pan out. So the house search starts today. So far the biggest problem is the dogs and the second is that rent is super expensive for these dumpy little places. The good thing is that Tim's willing to commute because there isn't anything available close to post. I think today we'll just kind of drive around and see what's available. Wish us luck!