We lost our passports. "Where?"--you might ask? Our reply--"If we knew, they wouldn't be lost!".....
Now, in all seriousness, we did lose our passports, while on vacation in Florida. For Christmas, we surprised our boys with a last minute trip to Florida. We were fortunate to have good friends agree to meet us there! And, a surprise visit from my sister--I had no idea she was planning on showing up in Florida (although Todd did as he picked her up from the airport)!
The Story:
We left France Dec 13th to travel to Orlando, spent Christmas in the Disney area, and were then set to depart Orlando Dec 27th to meet up with Todd's younger sister in Paris, from Dec 28th - Dec 31st, before they travelled onto Rome, and then came back to Aix for a short visit.
On the morning on Dec 27th, we were packing up our last few items, and were ready to leave the villa we had rented at the 10:30 check out time. All of a sudden, Todd asks, "Where are the passports?". Todd normally asks me this after we are driving to the airport, as I never check for passports. I pack the bags, he takes care of the passports--that how we do things! So, I grin at him, and say "Funny! We ever you put them!". I then realize he isn't really smiling back.....I can see he really doesn't know, and I have no clue! PANIC......
We tore the villa apart, searching every drawer, or conceivable spot where the kids may have played and then hidden them. No such luck. So, our best guess for the location of our passports--in the large trash compactor for 500+ homes, in the days following Christmas.....
The only reason we believed that they were there, is that we had bought a new carry on suitcase as our other one broke a wheel on the way to Florida. We did transfer things from the old suitcase to the new, but since we had 3 black suitcases sitting out, we may have accidentally transferred the passports (and our train tickets for Paris to Aix) back into the old one, which we then threw out! We can't actually recall moving the passports, but it was one of those mindless things that you do in a rush, and can't really separate out in your memory.
So, since we had no luck in the villa, and figured they must be in the dumpster, we headed there next! Todd had just taken the trash down that morning, around 7:30am, so we figured it wouldn't be so bad...we figured wrong!
The landscaping company had just picked up trash from 50 + town homes, that hadn't had any garbage service since Dec 23. But, Todd was a trooper. He dug through the compacted trash for 3 + hours. A sanitation worker showed up to do something with the compactor, so he supplied Todd with some tools--a pick axe, 2 crow bars, a shovel, some gloves, a flash light, and turned the compactor off so it couldn't accidentally start!
Not sure if you are familiar with a trash compactor, but it is a enclosed bin, about the size of the industrial bins you would use to do renovations on your house. After the trash is placed in the small hatch, you push a button, and your garbage is compacted, or squeezed back into the compactor to make more room. So, your trash gets pushed along the bottom until it reaches the back, and then it rotated back towards the top and middle. So, really, the suitcase could have been anywhere in that bin.....
After 3 hours of getting maybe a foot into the compacted trash, we decided to explore other options. I think he would have been there for days! He is still my hero for trying though...
After 3 hours of digging, and not finding the bags, Todd changed his clothes, and made some calls. The advice from the emergency line at Passport Canada in Ottawa--drive to Miami and go to the Canadian Consulate. We could have made an emergency crossing into Canada, and then gone to Ottawa to have new passports printed, but the guy from Ottawa said that if we did that, they wouldn't be very lenient on us, and we would have to provide everything (which was all in France). So, we headed south to Miami.
4 1/2 hours later, around 11 pm, we arrived in Miami. We got a hotel right near the consulate so that we could go right at 8:30 am. We thought it might be busy, as the consulate had been closed for Christmas. We arrived at 8:15, and were second in line.
After 3 1/2 hours of filling out paper work--every form 6 times over, we were sent off to get new photos and to have all the forms notarized. All we had for identification was drivers licences and Alberta Health Care cards for the kids. They phoned our references while we were sitting in the office. All in all, it was quick! We were issued new passports by 3:30 pm that same afternoon!
Now, a new problem arose! We didn't have a flight out, as we had missed ours the previous day, and it was Christmas! Todd was on the phone with Delta for quite some time trying to figure something out. We were willing to fly out of Miami, Orlando, or Jacksonville. Our original flight had us on a flight from Orlando to London, via Paris. We were planning on not taking the Paris-London portion, as we were planning to meet Todd's sister in Paris. Anyways, they couldn't get us into Paris, unless we were willing to pay the change in fare of $13000. So, we booked the Miami-Atlanta-London flight, for a much smaller change in fare, for the next evening. Todd said the guy on the phone was not very accommodating when Todd asked if there was room on the flight that evening. Todd was told--"No, there is no inventory", very quickly, which indicated he hadn't even looked!
So, us being us, we drove directly to the airport to see if we could fly standby that very evening. Luckily, we went up to a very helpful ticket agent at Delta, who put us on the direct flight to London at 6:45pm! By this time, it was 5:45pm, our bags were out in the the rental van, and we still had the rental van! We
ran out to the van, grabbed our stuff, and ran back in. She checked us in, and Todd went to give the keys to the rental car agency. He left the keys with them, giving the location of the van in the park-ade, and ran back inside. The boys and I had already gone through security and were waiting in line to board the plane when Todd made it to the gate! Nothing like a rushed departure!
We made it to Paris about 28 hours later than planned, but we made it!
