AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
Passport is expired!!!!!!!
Called Air Canada and they said they would not let her on the plane with an expired passport.!!!!!!!
Can't fly to Toronto from Boston!!!!!!
Passport office is closed!!!!!
Darn! Darn! Darn! - (well maybe a little stronger than darn)
Could drive her to Camp Kodiak, but that's two days in each direction, plus she can't fly back on her ticket if she doesn't use the outgoing flight.
Montreal is only 5 hours away - border crossing there is always easy - there's never a line (unlike Buffalo where there's always a huge jam of traffic), and they barely check credentials.
Yes, Air Canada can change flight to start in Montreal (1pm flight) and arrive between 1 and 3 in Toronto (window for Camp pickup)
OK, first submit an "expedited" passport application at the post office since she'll need it to get home, then we'll drive to Montreal early Sunday AM - hoping they'll let her cross the border with just a birth certificate She'll fly from Montreal to Toronto where she'll meet her camp bus
Should be OK, but some web searches dredge up:
1) As of June 1, 2009, everyone from every country that comes to Canada by air, land and sea needs a passport
2) U.S. and Canadian citizens ages 15 or younger with parental consent will be allowed to cross the borders at land and sea entry points with certified copies of their birth certificates rather than passports. (Tia turned 16 on June 18)
but also this:
3) When you enter Canada, a border services officer may ask to see your passport and a valid visa (if you are arriving from a country from which one is required). If you are a U.S. citizen, you do not need a passport to enter Canada; however, you should carry proof of your citizenship such as a birth certificate
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After a night of tossing and turning, get up at 4:30 and we're on the road at 5:01am
Canadian border at 9:00am - birth certificate fine for Tia so they let us through - no problem. Big big sigh of relief. Even if we have airport trouble, we can just drive her all the way to Parry Sound. (we packed for 4 days away, just in case).
Hit Montreal at 10am - P-L-enty of time since her flight left at 1pm. Of course the highway to the airport was a parking lot - huge, huge backup. After 30 minutes of crawling, we made a wrong turn and ended up having to do a big loop back to the airport, but I think we actually saved time that way and got there 30 minutes later at 11am.
Checked Tia's luggage, got her boarding pass, had lunch, showed her the Gate and Flight numbers on the boarding pass and the receipts for her luggage and watched her as she went through security (they didn't even ask her for ID) - thankfully it was almost empty.
Had her call when she reached her gate, and when she was boarding, and when she was in her seat. Then we headed back home (had to survive 2 more detours) and had just crossed the border, when Tia landed. There was no one there to meet her at baggage claim, so Eileen called our camp person who told her that Tia had to get her luggage by herself, but they would meet her right after. So Tia got her two huge duffel bags by herself and found the camp people and woo-hoo!!! She was such a good trooper the whole day.
A long, long, long, but ultimately successful day.
And a good test of a marriage, I guess. Eileen and I both took the blame for not checking to make sure the passport was valid, and we rallied around each other to fix the problem. I'm not sure that either one of us could have gotten this done by ourselves.
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