July 2008 - The BIG Move Over the Pacific

I'll be honest - July was very stressful. After our trip to the B.I. to secure housing, we received a call from our prospective temporary landlord, saying that she didn't think it would be a good fit after all. I think because of our dogs, she had second thoughts. This was very disappointing to hear, especially because we had spent the time and the money to come out and stay in her place one night and make sure it would work for us. So, it was back to the drawing board to try to find housing that would take our dogs and us sight unseen.

What we ended up doing, and I would highly recommend, is to go to http://www.vrbo.com/ and find a vacation rental to live in short term. There weren't a lot to choose from that would take dogs, but there were a couple. Don't be afraid of the nightly rate. Many of these owner's will negotiate a monthly rate with you that is more like a long term rental rate. We found a lovely furnished 2 bedroom, 2 bath home in Volcano for $900.00 a month. We ended up staying 5 weeks before we found the current furnished rental we have now in Keaau.

Once our housing was lined up again, I relaxed just a tad, and focused again on the physical task of packing and the logistics of shipping belongings, one car, and us and the dogs to Hawaii.

My niece, Tamara came to visit the week before we left, and she was a big help in getting things packed, and for moral support. We packed several closets, photos, kitchen items, and sorted them into "ship now" and "ship later" sections in the garage. We ended up leaving the house with all of our furnishings, wall art, and some kitchen and bath items intact, as we knew my SO, Tim would be back to mow the lawn and look in on things, and we were still trying to sell the house. I also felt having the house "staged" would help it show better to prospective buyers. So, even though we didn't pack up the whole house, it was still a lot of work.

We shipped just one car (mine) using Horizon Lines. I used Horizon because they ship in a closed container, as opposed to the open air system used by Matson. It was approximately $1100 and took 2-3 weeks. You need to drop the car off about 5 days before sailing, if I remember correctly. We ended up renting a large SUV to take all of us, our luggage, and two dog kennels to the airport on moving day. Tim left his small truck in the employee parking lot at SEA-TAC airport so he would have transportation on his return trips. (He works as a flight attendant for US Airways, which is nice that he can come back and check on the house when needed.)

July 15th - Arriving at the Airport: If you are traveling with dogs, get there at least 3 hours early to be safe. We pulled up to the curb about an hour and half before flight time and found a friendly sky cap to help us get our mountain of luggage and the dogs and their kennels to the ticket counter. Once there, there was a lot of paperwork that had to be filled out, we had no idea. We thought we had done everything we needed to do, and were surprised by all the extra paperwork required by the airline. By the time, we filled everything out, we had very little time remaining and the dogs had to go to a separate security area and be taken out and their kennels checked for chemicals and drugs (I guess). The skycap stayed with us the whole time and then took the dogs down to the plane. We tipped him $30.00 just because we knew without him, we wouldn't have made it.

After boarding the plane, all kinds of thoughts were rushing through my head - "Are my dogs going to be okay?" "Are they scared?" "Do they think we're deserting them?" "Are we crazy to move to Hawaii?" "What if the house doesn't sell?" "What if we don't like it?" Then I had to calm myself down and remind myself that 1) dogs travel in cargo all the time and they would be just fine, and we would see them in a few hours, and 2) Life is an adventure - there is seldom a move you make that can't be undone if you so desire. We could always move back if we needed or wanted to. So, once my irrational fears were quelled, I tried to imagine what life would be like on the Big Island of Hawaii and what new adventures I might get myself into.

July 15th - Arriving in Honolulu - "Where are my dogs?" Finding the Animal Quarantine station is a little tricky. After a few missteps, we finally found the office. We had brought two rolling luggage carts to pick up the dogs and check them in for their inter island flight. They were both alive and well, but we couldn't take them out of their kennels according to the officer or they "could be shot." What! I don't know if the officer was trying to scare us or what, but I thought that was a very strange statement coming from someone who takes care of animals! So, we loaded them up and took them just past the inter island terminal to the post office, where there is a fenced in area and grass. We took them out of their kennels, let them do their business (which we picked up) and gave them a little water. We walked them on their leashes for a few minutes, reluctantly put them back in the kennels, and wheeled them back to the inter island terminal to check in for the Hilo flight.

July 15th - Arriving in Hilo - "Free at Last!" The dogs came off right away even before our luggage. Tim went to get the rental car and bring it around. We loaded up the luggage and kennels and drove away from the airport and stopped at the amory area to let the dogs out to potty. They were SO happy to see us and be out their little boxes. We gave them a little exercise and then back into the rental car for our 40 minute drive to Volcano. Before we left Hilo, we stopped at Safeway to pick up groceries, and were shocked at how little we bought and how much we spent. $180.00! Well, I did send Tim into the store and he is not known to be the most frugal shopper. :)

By the time we got to Volcano, it was about 7 pm (10 pm Seattle time) and we had been up since about 4:00 a.m. We were exhausted. We met our new landlord there, where she gave us the key and showed us around. It looked better than the photos, so I was very happy. She left, and we promptly unpacked the car, and fell into bed. Whew! We made it!

The next 5 days were spent getting acclimated and collecting the daily boxes from FEDEX that we had shipped. We shipped about 10 boxes a day before we left for a total of about 40 boxes in all. Tim gets 75% off 2nd day air, but can only ship 10 boxes a day maximum. So, that worked out well. I had about 7 classroom boxes, 5 dog boxes (beds, gates, food etc), clothes, books, and kitchen items.

On July 21st, I had to fly to Honolulu for three days of orientation with my new employer, Kamehameha Schools. What a culture shock! I was introduced to Pule (Prayer), Mele (Song), and Olelo No'eau (Hawaiian proverbs and stories). I was impressed right away with everyone's professionalism and committment to education. I felt I was really going to like my new job, but felt a little intimidated by all that I had to learn about Hawaiian culture.

On July 24th, I saw my new school for the first time, started unpacking and making our two classrooms look like science and literacy classrooms. There are two other teachers besides myself and two assistant teachers that work for Kamehameha Schools here at this public school site. It's the first year the program is being done at this school. We are all in this adventure together. One of the teachers, ironically, found this blog site and we had been communicating prior to finding out we would be working together. Hi Jen! :) She moved here from New York just a week or so before we arrived. The other teacher, is also from the mainland, but has lived on the Big Island for about 6 years. One of the assistant teachers, I found out, was born and raised in Arizona (although Hawaiian), and went to the same schools as my son. She actually knew him and his friends when we lived in Arizona. That was really spooky! It reminds me of the six degrees of separation stuff . . . weird . . . The other assistant teacher was born and raised in Hilo and worked for the DOE about 30 years before retiring and coming to work for KS. So, we were quite the motley crew ready to step out into uncharted waters.