We’re so excited and dreaming about all the things we’re going to see and experience, that we completely forgot about passports. OH CRAP. We have 6 weeks until the trip. And none of us has a passport. And Ken’s birth certificate is the original… like from the stone ages. It doesn’t meet the requirements of qualified documentation for a passport.
Ok, damage control. Contacted the county recorder in his birth city. Luckily, they move fast and got us two copies in just a few days. CHECK!
Where is the closest place we can apply for passports? A couple miles away – nice! Buuuuuut they don’t have any openings for the next 3 weeks. Ok… where else can we go? We went down the list, and the only place that had any appointment available soon enough to have a chance at getting our passports in time was in Seattle. I love the PNW, but there is little I dislike as much as driving in Seattle. Oh, well, gotta do what you gotta do, right? We booked our appointments for the very next Monday – just a few days away. CHECK!
We show up for our appointment – kept Skipper out of school that day to get this done. She’ll need it eventually anyway, might as well save ourselves a trip. We walk into the building, and Harry says “uh. I forgot my wallet.” OMG. He has no ID, we’re in Seattle (45 minutes away from home), and our appointment is in 10 minutes. The ONE TIME we’re not running late.
We go in, process applications for everyone but Harry, and they give us information for the few places around that process passport applications on a walk-in basis. Unfortunately, the rest of the day is booked solid, so the best we can do is get him to one of the other locations tomorrow.
The next day, I take him to put his application in. We ran Harry’s, Ken’s, and mine on expedited service with overnight shipping. Skipper doesn’t need hers as quickly, so we put hers through on standard processing time.
Yep. Ken and I received ours within 10 days. Harry’s was flagged and needed a new picture submitted. So we overnighted the new pictures the first business day after we received the notice. Got Skipper’s passport before they even updated the status on Harry’s. And now, we’re biting our nails and crossing our fingers, hoping his comes before the scouting trip.
Why do I feel like damage control is my default??
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