Sunday, December 16, 2012

vacation adventure: part 1

We were all packed and ready get on a plane to Cancun.  We were to leave Saturday morning, so Friday night Mike got online to do our preboarding.  As he entered the passport numbers, he got a very scary message stating that the kid's passport numbers were not valid.  We got the kids' passport cards when we went on the cruise three years ago, and didn't really think about it again.  When I booked our trip to Cancun, the travel agent asked for the passport numbers and I didn't really think about it again.  A few weeks ago, my mom asked me if the kids had passports.  I told her that they did, and didn't think another thing about it.  About 4 weeks ago, Mike got them out just to check expiration dates, and we thought we were set to go.  Well, what we didn't realize, although I did know when I got the passport cards, was that the passport cards are good for travel to Mexico by LAND and SEA, but NOT by AIR.  Yikes.

Mike and I had a little moment, and then went into problem-solving mode.  It became evident that we would not be leaving the next day and that we had to get passports for the kids.  We made an appointment for expedited passports at the passport agency in San Diego for Monday morning.

The hardest part was telling my parents and telling the kids.  My parents checked their schedules, and were such good sports to reschedule the trip for Wednesday.  The kids were a little disappointed.  They were planning on being at the beach the next day, but we took a few minutes to find the possible silver linings and count our blessings.  We all got some perspective and repacked our bags for San Diego weather.

                   

On Saturday morning, we went to Christian's first basketball game (which was so much fun) and then headed to Walgreens for passport photos.  


While I got the photos taken and stocked up on some snacks, Mike headed to the gas station for gas and Diet Pepsi, and then to Subway to get lunch for the family on the go.  We hit the road around 3 p.m.  We were so lucky that we didn't have snow.


We stopped in Las Vegas for dinner at Cafe Rio, and ironically had "Cancun Shrimp Tacos."  We arrived in San Diego at around 2 am, checked in at the hotel and crashed.






1 comment:

CJ said...

Sometimes our misadventures turn into some of our most fun adventures despite the speed bumps. Just glad you worked things out and arrived home safely.