Welcome to GTMO

I decided to start a blog to keep all of our family and friends back home updated as we start this new adventure in Guantanamo Bay.  I will start off with Day 1: the day we arrived.  We left our hotel around 6:00am and headed for JAX NAS so we could return our rental car and check all of our luggage. The sunrise was beautiful, a sure sign of what was to come! Dakota did very well considering he had to stay in his kennel the entire time we waited for our plane to arrive.  We didn't have any problems checking our luggage (we were worried about weight). We had to leave Dakota at the gate as we walked out to the plane, I was so worried he was going to flip out but he did good.  The flight had a little turbulence but nothing to bad.  They fed us sub sandwiches, chips, and cookies!!  2 hours later we got our first view of Cuba, it was absolutely beautiful.  Mountains and clear blue water for miles!!  After getting off the plane we had to walk to customs to show our passports and ID's.  They almost didn't let us enter because the people at JAX kept all of our paperwork.  Thank GOD I was organized and kept everything in one binder so we just showed our DEA letter and we were cleared.  We knew Dakota had survived the flight because we heard him screaming as soon as they took him off the plane.  I met some people online before we came down here, it was so nice seeing a familiar face as we stepped off the plane into a whole new world.  Sarah, was fabulous!! She grabbed Dakota for us and welcomed us with cold water!!  We had to wait a little bit for the next ferry to take us over to the side of the island we would be living on.  Dakota was able to get out of his kennel and check things out. He adjusted instantly and loved every minute of exploring all the new things.  The ferry ride is about 20 minutes from Leeward side to Windward side.  Once we got of the ferry Alison was there to greet us!!! I cant even begin to say how nice it was to be welcomed aboard!! We went and picked up our luggage and then headed for our new house.  We share a garage with 3 other people (not something we love but we can live with).  Our house is quirky, we have a fridge in the hall way and a huge stand up freezer right dead smack in the middle of our dining room!!!  Totally random but those are the things we will be talking about for years.  Our backyard is one of the biggest I have seen so far and we have a laundry room upstairs!!! Sarah and Tim invited us over for dinner, we brought Dakota to meet their dog but they didn't get along well.  Dakota is such a wimp and doesn't play well with others so we brought him back home. Dinner was great and it was so nice getting to know new people!!  Our house was furnished with Flintstone furniture(loaner) it's nothing to be desired but it sure beats the floor.  We were treated to a beautiful sunset, I hear those are plentiful down here!!  After a long exhausting day of traveling we turned in early.  All in all our first day in GTMO was a good one.  I think we are going to really enjoy our time down here!!