So it Begins...

After a whirlwind week of moving our household, Carlton and I thought the last few days in San Diego would be fairly stress free. It turns out that shipping a dog to Guam can be hazardous to your stress free zone.

Carlton had booked the flight for Bubbles about three weeks prior to her flight. Even the booking was a little hairy since we received different information from the booking agents. I had called in mid-February to ask about requirements for booking a dog and we were told that Military personnel that are PCSing (permanent change of station) are allowed to have their dog travel on the same flight the service member is on. Then when Carlton went to book the ticket, he was told that is correct EXCEPT when you are traveling to Guam!

We never really received an answer as to why, but all pets traveling from the US to Guam are required to stay overnight in Honolulu, HI (at the owner's expense, of course). So then we had to book her flight for the day before we left so we could take her to the airport. So Monday morning rolls around (very early since we had to get Bubbles to the airport at 5am) and we head off. Carlton started going through the paperwork for her travel and the agent was looking up the reservation only to find that it had been canceled! No notes on who canceled it, when it was canceled or any other information. Of course no one had bothered to call us either to let us know that this change had happened. So now we had to try to rebook her flight and of course her original flight was now too full and she had to go on a later flight.

So after going through all that, we had to take her back to our friend's house and then return to the airport about two hours later. This time she was shipped without any issues.

Our flights were uneventful...it was nice to get off the plane for a bit in Hawaii and walk around. The airport is partly outside, so we got to enjoy some nice weather before getting back on the plane for our last flight. We arrived in Guam around 1:45am CA time (after leaving SD at 6am)...it was a very long day!! Here are a couple pics from the plane...not very good quality since it was taken with my phone but these were our first views of Guam from the plane.

We didn't get to see much when we actually headed to the base from the airport. It was already getting dark and we were completely wiped out! We were just happy to get our rental car and get to the hotel on base so we could crash! So ends our first experience in Guam! More to come soon!