Arrival (written on Sept. 5)

I’m working on getting settled in to our new home in Nassau. First of all, our house is amazing! Way better than anywhere we’ve lived before. And much bigger in person that in the pictures we’d seen – a nice surprise. We’re currently struggling with some gas/hot water issues in the house, which is a little annoying, but at least we’re in a climate where lukewarm showers are doable. We have a big yard for Laika to run around in (for about 10 minutes at a time, then the humidity gets to her and she has to retreat to the air conditioning and her water dish), and with said humidity combined with the heat, our pool is a blessing. So far in the yard we’ve discovered a mango tree and a cherry tree. But what I’m most excited about is the fact that our neighbor’s avocado tree hangs quite a way over the fence into our yard, so I’m claiming anything that lands on our side…that’s fair, right?

If you remember our struggles figuring out how to get Laika to post, you’re probably curious about how it all went. Well, the drive from Washington to Ft. Lauderdale was a long one. Both pets did well, though, so that helped with our survival. We did end up staying in separate hotel rooms for our one overnight, though, so that everyone could get a full night’s sleep. A dog and a cat that don’t get along in a small hotel room seemed like a recipe for disaster. The second day of driving was a little worse than the first – we were nervous about making it there on time (I’m never really confident trusting Google’s time estimates.) and we drove through a lot of rain and thunderstorms. But we made it to the airport right on time.

We were also a little worried about how much stuff we were taking with us and whether it would fit on the plane. We had rented an Expedition for the drive and had somehow managed to completely fill it. Yikes! When our co-pilot came out and saw how much we had, he recommended we drive over to the plane and load it directly from the car. This was the first time I got a look at the plane we would be flying on, and I have to admit that I started feeling a little nervous about the flight at that point. It didn’t help that the car actually looked bigger than the plane when they were sitting next to each other.

Shawn and I took care of the pets while the pilot, co-pilot, and an airport worker loaded the plane. (Did I mention that our co-pilot looked much, much younger than us? Another moment of concern…) Then I took Laika for a walk in an attempt to burn off some of her energy while Shawn returned the rental car, and we were off to board the plane. It was pretty weird, but extremely nice to not have to deal with security and an airline schedule. We all managed to fit in the plane, even will our stuff taking up half of the back. I sat behind the pilot, Peema sat behind the co-pilot, Shawn sat behind me, and Laika paced the aisle for most of the flight. She did stand up on the seat by Shawn to press her nose against the window and get a better look out at one point, which the pilot thought was pretty funny.

And then as quickly as it began, it was all over. I was amazed at how smooth the flight was. We had to go around one storm (which I know because I spent a good portion of the flight watching the pilot’s control panel), but that was it. We unloaded everything, went through customs (a much less painful process than when we arrived in Kyiv), met our sponsors, loaded everything back in their cars (they were smart enough to have brought two!), and in 15 minutes we were home.

We didn’t have to deal with jet-lag this time, obviously, but a general sort of exhaustion overtook us by that evening. I think it will probably take a few days to recover, plus there’s the general confusion of being in a new place and figuring out how everything works. But we’re finally in Nassau. For our first dinner out, our sponsors took us to a nice restaurant where we sat on a deck over the beach and watched the sun set while the moon rose over the ocean. I think I can get used to it here.

Click here to check out some photos from our trip.