London and drama

Today I’m sharing images of our last three days in London.

Despite the passport issue, this was a good trip. But before you see that, you must hear all about my “passport saga” – because a trip isn’t a real trip until you have a dramatic story to tell!

It’s a long, but rather entertaining story, with a lesson attached. That being said, I’ll intersperse the story with my London photos… just to add a little lightness and joy to it instead of all ulcer-inducing – which is what it is.

Our flight to Heathrow was scheduled for 7:40 PM on Friday, July 11th. At about 1:00 PM on Wednesday, July 9th, I received this email from Dave;

“I’m sure you have already thought of this, but just making sure that all 3 of our passports are on site and you don’t need to go to the bank to retrieve them from the safe deposit box.”

Of course, I’ve already thought of that. In fact, I retrieved all three of our passports back in March when I got mine out to go to Spain. I was pretty proud of myself and was going to grab the passports from the shelf above the kitchen desk, where they had resided these last 4 months. Instead, I responded to another email from Dave about another issue and then I had to do some research and follow up on that issue. Once I was done with that, about an hour later, I got up to get the passports. I looked at each one and then I saw it…

OMG! How could this be? There is no way this is true! I can’t believe I didn’t notice this when I took out the passports four months ago! Connor’s passport was expired! EXPIRED! It expired in February of 2012! Holy Sh#t! Now, what am I going to do!?!

When the four of us (Marissa included) last got our passports, either new or renewed, back in 2007, they were good for 10 years! How could Connor’s be expired!?! Mine doesn’t expire until 2017. Dave and Marissa’s expire in 2017. How can his have expired in 2012?

Well, time makes you forget. When Connor got his passport in 2007, he was 4 months shy of his 16th birthday. His was considered a “child’s passport.” Children’s passports are only good for 5 years.

Holy Cr#p! I am in deep doo!

I immediately got online and began searching for “expedited passports.” I called the Scottsdale Post Office to talk to a live human. I did everything I could think of to solve this crisis so that my son could get on the plane with us on Friday!

It was now about 2:10 PM Arizona time, which meant it was after 5:00 Eastern time. I could not talk to anyone on the east coast, which is where all the offices for expedited passports are. The post office worker, who was a sweetheart, told me there was a Department of State office in Tucson where they gave out expedited passports, but the phone number was an 877 number and it was on the east coast. Everything was closed! Damn!

Finally, out of sheer desperation, I went to one of the online “24-hour” passport sites and began the process of filling out all their paperwork and paying $449, upfront, to get the expedited passport from NYC. I ran Connor down to Walgreen’s to get passport photos, paid FedEx another $79 to “get it there” by 10:30 AM the next morning, and began to pray. Then I set my alarm for 6:00 AM so that I could call the NYC office at 9:00 EST to see if they had received my package and if I was going to get the passport in time.

I had one of the most restless nights of sleep that I’ve had in a long time! I dreamt about passports in every scenario imaginable.

At 5:55 AM, before my alarm even went off, the phone rang. Steven from Fastport Passports was calling to inform me that I could not renew an expired child’s passport! At least not with what I had sent him. I nearly cried. He then said to call the 877 number for the Tucson office and try to see if I could get an appointment for that day (Thursday now) and that maybe, just maybe, they would have a cancellation.

Then I really did cry, just for a minute or two. I pulled myself together, called the number, and went through the arduous automated recording process to try and get an appointment in Tucson. They had one for 9:30 AM!

Really?!? I could get to Tucson by 9:30! It was about 6:30 now and it was a 2-hour drive. I nearly took the appointment … until I remembered that I had to go to the bank and get Connor’s birth certificate out of the safe deposit box … and the bank didn’t open till 9:00 AM. OMG!

I called the number again and started the process all over, praying that there would be a later appointment. After nearly 15 more minutes of the automated rigmarole, I got it! An appointment for 11:30.

Connor went back to Walgreen’s to get more passport photos, I went to the bank to get his birth certificate and we were off to Tucson. Believe it or not, by 2:30 PM on Thursday, July 10th, we had his new passport in hand! I have never been more relieved in my life! By the way, I also got back all but $65 of the $449 I paid to Fastport Passports. The $65 was their cancellation fee, which was fine with me.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

Tomorrow – a post from IRELAND!