Passports

We had front row seats to see Old Faithful.

Our family applied for passports this weekend. It all started in third grade when one of my friends brought a View-Master to school with pictures from around the United States. Two of the most impressive ones for me were the Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone National Park and Niagara Falls in New York. I marveled at these unbelievable acts of nature, and they became icons for me of the amazing things to see in this country. However, I never got to see them in person--that was until last summer when Ward and I saw Old Faithful. It erupted  faithfully, as it has done for countless years, and the experience was all that I imagined it would be. After that satisfying event, we started planning a visit to Niagara Falls.

It was decided that to have the complete experience, we needed to see both the New York and Canadian sides of the Falls, which these days means you need a passport. No one in the family had an up-to-date one, so we had to start the application procedure from the beginning. Soon the excitement of the trip was forgotten as the annoyances of bureaucracy took over.

A dark cloud seemed to be hanging over the process. We couldn't find Theodore's birth certificate. We couldn't find the safe deposit box key to look for his birth certificate. Wally's work schedule didn't fit with the times the post office was open to submit applications. Ward and Wally's work schedules didn't mesh with the schedule of where we could get inexpensive pictures taken.

However, the sun started to emerge Saturday morning. We found the safe deposit box key (under a seat in Ward's car). This enabled us to get the right documents, work around Wally’s work schedule, and make it to the inexpensive place for our pictures. We got our applications submitted, yeah! Now, we hope for clear skies for the people who will be processing them.

Niagara Falls here we come!