We celebrated Christmas on December 21 since we were going to be in Costa Rica for the holiday. We drove to the AC Hotel by LAX so that we didn’t have to wake up super early for our flight. The hotel was very affordable and really nice. Very European with a cool bar and good red wine from Spain. Wine from the Rioja region, one of my favorites. Warm olives. Two queen beds. Cozy bed. Comfy pillows. Dark curtains. The hotel ticked off all of my boxes. Definitely a keeper.
We woke up at 7:30am, got ready quickly and went downstairs for breakfast and coffee. They had a good buffet, filled with pastries, yogurt, Jamón Serrano from Spain, cereals, breads, and good Terrafazzione coffee. Two hot entrees to choose from with eggs, jamón crudo and cheese. Delicious. The girls had fruit loops and juice.
After our delicious and relaxing breakfast, we ordered the car from valet at the hotel, piled in and drove to Wally Park where we dropped the car off at valet and hopped on the bus to go to Terminal 6 to check-in and board our flight to Tamarindo, Costa Rica.
Once we arrive at the terminal, we check in using the self-service kiosk, slide all passports through the passport reader. For some reason, the machine gives us only two boarding passes and no luggage tags. We approached the nice lady at Alaska Airlines and she directed us to the baggage counter. We handed the baggage agent our passports and he started with my husband, checking his passport, printing the baggage tag and putting it on the conveyor belt. His bag was gone. The ticket agent then moves on to me, same thing, and my bag is gone. Then, he starts on the girls tickets and looks up at me and says, “ohhhh, that’s why the machine didn’t print the girls boarding passes, their passports are expired.”
Ok, I am thinking I am in a dream when what he says to me is processed in my sleepy head. The kids passports are expired. Wait, what did you just say? It couldn’t possibly be true. I grab the passports and look at the expiration date … 2018. I recall being in Mexico recently but I realize the kids weren’t with us. What a nightmare. The passports are expired and the flight is leaving with our 4 seats that the airline will fill with stand-by passengers. I have one daughter that is about to start crying, another one complaining and my husband who looks defeated. To boot, both our bags are already gone and on some conveyor belt headed towards the aircraft. I am still imagining being in the Alaska Lounge, instead, we are on the floor of the airport trying to figure out what to do.
I’ve traveled all my life and my brain works pretty well in difficult situations. I’ve been stranded at airports for days on end, main difference is that I was always on my own and not with three extra very grouchy people. Did I mention that I have two hormonal teenager girls? At this moment, they are all downward spiraling. All eyes are on me, I was the one that forgot to check the passports when I took them out of the safe and threw them in my backpack. I go to the bathroom to get a moment for myself. I have a lot of work to do and not a lot of time.
In the bathroom I type in emergency passports into my safari browser. I call the first company that shows up and a nice man with a thick Indian accent answered the phone. I am having a really hard time understanding him and hearing him. The man on the phone is busy having breakfast with his family and hurriedly says something about being able to get passports in 24 hours. He also says something about needing social security numbers. Other things are said but it is loud in the airport and I am having a hard time hearing him.
I call the airline and let them know what happened. It is December 22 and all flights out on the 23rd are sold out. I ask about the 24th and the nice lady says yes, they have room. No change fees, thankfully, full-fare tickets. Unfortunately, the return tickets are lower class fares and have some steep penalties and change fees. I’ll deal with the return tickets later. Focus on the passports, I keep telling myself.
By this time, I’m with the family with some good news: I spoke with a company that can get us emergency passports. My husband goes downstairs to recover our luggage after the baggage agent got on his walkie-talkie to let them know we need our bags. He is back in 20 minutes. We leave the airport and wait for the Wally Park shuttle to arrive.
We shove the luggage in the car, leave Wally Park and go straight to Same Day Passport & Visas office located on Santa Monica Boulevard. By this time, it is 12:30pm.
We are greeted by a man behind a desk, the other guy is helping another frantic traveler. I let him know it was me that called while he was having breakfast with his family. I remind him that we need two expired passports to be ready in 24 hours.
First thing he says is, I told you to be here at 11:00am when we opened. Uh oh, not a good sign. He only has one slot left. I am not sure what this means. Apparently, these emergency passports companies get an allotted amount of 24-hour slots per month, and between 11am and 12:30pm while we were struggling to get our luggage back, wait for Wally Park shuttle, get our car and drive to his location, he had given one slot away.
He then said that he needed birth certificates and social security numbers. I don’t know about you, but I do not travel with my kids birth certificates and I don’t know their social security numbers by heart. Omg. Uh oh, another uphill battle. My eyes were bulging and my mind was whirring thinking of any creative ideas to solve our puzzle fast.
The man reminded us that social security numbers are on tax documents, so my husband went to the car to get his laptop to log into his server at work and pull the tax documents to get the numbers. I was frantically thinking of a way to get the birth certificates. They were at home in Laguna Beach in a file in the kitchen island. My first thought was to get in my car and drive but that wouldn’t work, that’s at least three hours there and back with no traffic and the passport office closed at five. We hadn’t even started the paperwork. Time was of the essence.
I called a neighbor. She answered, I couldn’t believe it. I was frantic, it went something like this, I need your help, key is hidden, stay on phone, I’ll walk you through how to find the birth certificates. I’ll call an Uber, please give him the envelope. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I owe you my life.
The Uber was 10 minutes from my house. I watched on the app as he headed towards the house. I texted my neighbor that he was close and I called him to let him know that it was not me that was getting in the car but an envelope that I needed to be delivered to me with my kids birth certificates. He said no problem. I hung up.
Mind you, we are still short one slot. While I was on the phone trying to get the birth certificate part of the puzzle solved, the man was making his frantic phone calls trying to find another 24-hour slot. My husband found both social security numbers so that was checked off the list. The man had said for us to just wait, that he had made all his calls and was waiting for a call back on the other 24-hour slot. We just waited patiently at this point, there was nothing we could do. It was just a waiting game. We either were going to get another slot or have to wait for the 26th. The passport office that issues the passports was closed on the 24th and the 25th for the Christmas Holiday. Great timing.
About twenty minutes later he approached us and said another company had an open slot. It would cost another $100 on top of the price he quoted us. You don’t want to know what we paid. It was ridiculous. It was our only hope. We had pre-paid our hotel for a week and booked flights. It was all a sunk cost otherwise.
We started on the paperwork. The Uber was en route with the birth certificates and the man was working hard and fast to get it all done quickly. We wrote a big check. Then they explained the next process.
Of course, they waited until the end to explain the next process. We needed to go to the only Passport office open on Sundays. It is located in the Beverly Hills Library. Since we didn’t have an appointment, we needed to sweet talk our way into an appointment. We needed to pretend like we knew what we were doing and avoid asking the location of the passport agency at the library, if we did that, they would ask if we had an appointment and when they found out we didn’t, they would ask us to leave and we would be SOL. That was not an option.
I changed the drop-off location for the Uber and we headed to the library with the two envelopes. We found the passport office and avoided the front desk. Phew! The only lady working was with another family that was at the Same Day Passport and VISA office with us. They left. I walked in and asked if she could help us. She asked if we had an appointment, I sheepishly said no and attempted to explain the situation. Next, she asked for the envelopes and started looking through the documents. She was very grouchy, she noticed the missing birth certificates and kicked me out, “I can’t do anything without the birth certificates.”
The Uber driver was 15 minutes away. I thanked the Uber driver profusely and tipped him well. I said a prayer and went back in hoping the grouchy lady would be nice. She had an appointment and was busy. We sat and waited.
It always seems impossible until it’s done.
Nelson Mandela
After waiting what seemed like an eternity, a nice man named Charles walked up to us and asked if we were waiting, no mention of an appointment or anything, and directed us to his office in the back. He was nice and patient and kind. He finished his paperwork, sealed both envelopes, stamped them and taped them closed. There’s a whole process that needs to be followed. Who knew. We left and drove back to the Same Day Passport office and dropped them off in the slot for mail. They were closed already it was 4:30pm. We drove back home to Laguna Beach after a long and exhaustive day.
Today is December 24. I’m on the flight with my family en route to Liberia, Costa Rica. All I have to say is, where there is a will there’s a way. All you need is a little resiliency, good attitude and a little luck. I am thankful we had all three. Happy 2020 and Cheers! XOXO, Jenny
