Anyone from Kodiak Alaska?

hello, my husband is aplying to get a coast guard job, flying fix winged airplanes, he has been in the navy reserves for 4 years already training pilots out of pensacola florida. It looks like he has a good shot of getting the job with the coast guard because of all his experience flying, and the people that did the interview seemed very happy with him. Anyways one thing they told us is that we will probably have to move in a year from Pensacola to another location, one of the options is Kodiak AK, he loves to hunt so he thinks this is the best place, I love to fish and we both like the outdoors so it looks like the perfect spot, but I still have some questions, I have heard that Alaska does not get any sun during the winter months and that is always dark, how many months does this last? Also I have two little kids one is 2 and a half year old boy, the other is 8 month old baby girl, is there activities for younger kids? How is life there in general?

I would apreciate any kind of imput.

I moved from Fairbanks AK last year. We lived there for three years. I can't speak to specifics of Kodiak, but I can answer general questions. The first thing to keep in mind is that Alaska really is huge. The full distance of it covers 4 times zones, though they only keep one official Alaska time. Yes, the light shifts are grand, but Kodiak is fairly far South, and that mitigates the light changes considerably. To sort of give you an example of the the scale, and how that matters, the distance from Fairbanks to Anchorage is roughly the same distance from DC to Boston. Not all of that was straight South, but Anchorage did get a good hour or so more sun in the winter than Fairbanks did. As far south, as Kodiak is, I would guess they have closer to 7 maybe even 8 hours of sun through most of the winter. Fairbanks got five hours of light in the darkest of times. If you go much further North past the arctic circle, you will reach places where the dark lasts for months, but in Kodiak you need not worry about that.

Coming from Florida, you would need to buy a whole new set of clothes, and winter gear. You would also have to learn your way around a snow shovel. The coastal areas get tons, and some parts get wind too.

For the kids, that depends some on Kodiak, and what the have there, like most of Alaska, it is no doubt a very very small town. If it were me though, I'd look for hockey.

Feel free to ask more questions. It is a jarring jump to move to Alaska, but it can be done, and it is a glorious adventure.

Hi~sarazen has many wonderful points about Alaska.
We came up 30 years ago, and live about 50 miles from Anchorage. It was "jarring", to say the least, but it's now home and we'd never go back.
My DIL was born/raised on Kodiak. She likes to return to visit, but wouldn't want to live there; not much in the way of roads, shops; but; it's beautiful and would be a great adventure.
The ferry runs year-round between Kodiak/Whittier so there's access to Anchorage shopping. Plus flights, too.
Link to State Ferry System:
http://dot.alaska.gov/amhs/Sailing/index.html
Happy thinking:)
Kiska