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Appetites and Adventures

Passport expiration dates are a joke + WIAW

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Traveling is like getting married.  

Something always goes awry.  

Vegas posted this picture on Facebook yesterday.  The day we were meant to leave for Barcelona.  This was her caption: “Sooo… missed flight to Barcelona.  The other half to explain that one later!  What’s one to do?  Find the nearest bar with the largest beer and glass of wine… Smashed finger makes it difficult but I’ll manage. BTW……… that’s MY passport in the photo.”

Where was MY passport, you might ask?  Funny story (or, I’m sure it will be funny one day soon).  It turns out, you can’t fly to Spain with a passport that expires in less than 3 months.  Who knew?!  I mean, why even bother having an expiration date?  They should have a renew by date.

We’d gotten up at 3am to drive to LAX to catch the flight.  At check in, the lady informed us that I couldn’t fly on my passport, which expires Jan 1, 2018.  I almost cried.  She was incredibly nice though.  She told us to get to the passport office and she’d rebook us on a flight at that night at 11, no charge.

So, 13 hours later, we were back at LAX with a brand new passport.  The new flight has us arriving a day later, and after 48 hours of travel… but hey, we’ll be there soon.  Right now, I’m writing this WIAW post in the airport lounge in Newark.

This day of eats is from last Friday, when I was in Atlanta for my mom’s birthday.  Check out my day of eats below, and be sure to link up to Jenn’s WIAW baby at the bottom!

WIAW - New

Breakfast:

We started out with my Vanilla Matcha Latte with mom’s homemade almond milk.  Then I made my morning cocktail.  Thankfully, mom has all of the ingredients at her house too!

Then, I made mamma birthday breakfast.  I even poached eggs!  Poaching eggs seems like SUCH a pain… I don’t know why though.  Once I do it, I remember how easy it is.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BawoIVWHyAi/

Lunch:

I ate some protein pudding while getting dressed after my workout.  We had things to do!  Also, we ate breakfast at 11.

Dinner:

Dinner was a birthday extravaganza with mom and my baby sister!  We started at a wine shop, where we had a surprise Champagne tasting ready for mom.  There were meats and cheeses there to soak up the booze tide us over before dinner.

From there, we took a Lyft (← affiliate link… with a $5 credit!) across town to Marcel, an amazing French-inspired steak house.  Mom was convinced we were throwing her some sort of surprise party, but when we got there it really was just us three.

She was surprised by the location though!  I was surprised by how many photos we had to have taken… *eye roll*

Me, my sister, and mom

Then it was one the main course.  We split all of the deliciousness below.  Steak, asparagus, scalloped potatoes, and field peas.

Plus a bottle of French burgundy.  That steak couldn’t have been more perfect.

Dinner at Marcel in Atlanta

The fun wasn’t over there!  Mom wasn’t actually wrong about a surprise party.  We nonchalantly suggested after dinner drinks and dessert at JCT, just down the street.  When we arrived, her friends were there with presents and cake.  I’d ordered a German Chocolate cake… with black icing.  Because 60. 😉

Mom was so surprised she actually squealed.  It was am amazing night!

Mom's 60th birthday

And now, I must go catch another plane.

[Tweet “Don’t miss the #WIAW link up… and a little passport drama.”]


***

One hour until take off!!!

Do you like surprise parties?  I like throwing them, but I do not like being surprised.

What does your family do most often for birthdays?

Comments

  2. OMG! This keeps happening to people I know! I am glad you were able to fix it. I just heard a story about someone I know who got to the airport, the passport was not valid AND HER BOYFRIEND WENT TO CABO WITHOUT HER. Can you imagine? Lol. He left for the trip without her.

  4. Aw SO cute you surprised your Mom for her birthday! And seriously I can’t believe that story about your passport. But hopefully it’s just a funny story now. Enjoy your time in Spain, my little sister just got back from a work trip there and LOVED it!

    • It’s such a beautiful country! I’m glad we (finally) got there. Thankfully, we only lost a day.

  7. I briefly worked for United and I hated telling people that they couldn’t travel because of their expired passport. Some countries require them to be valid for 6 months. I had to turn one businessman away who was going to Singapore because he missed the validity cutoff by 3 days. It sucked. But being fined $27,000 sucks more.

    • She told me some were 6 months! That just seems so insane to me. I didn’t know there was such a fine though! I thought you just couldn’t get on a plane. WOW.

  8. Awww what a great birthday your mom had! Happy belated to her! So sorry you had to deal with that passport issue; flight problems are the absolute worst 🙁 But I hope you have an incredible time in Barcelona <3

    • Thanks for stopping by!!! We’ve been crazy busy too… as evidenced by how far behind I am replying to comments. LOL! Here’s to relaxing a bit for the holidays… I hope… 😉

  13. I could NOT believe it when I read it on FB!! That is horrible BUT, at least it was a “quick” fix and you didn’t have to cancel the entire trip. My husband had us renew ours, even though they don’t expire until next Spring, to go to Turks and Caicos. Well, now of course we can’t go because of the hurricanes so….wah wah wah
    Have the best time ever < – – as if there were any other option!?

  17. Wow. Going to dig out passport now to check date. 🙁 Glad you were still able to make it. We were recently at my cousin’s surprise party (thrown by his kids) and The Hubs made sure to inform me that he NEVER wanted to be surprised. Happy Travels!!!

    • The funny thing was that I didn’t send it off to get renewed because I was worried I wouldn’t get it back in time. Oy!

  19. Oh my gosh, I can’t believe they wouldn’t let you fly!! I actually knew that from flying to Ireland last year, because my dad was in charge of his whole football team flying there to play, and he shared that little tidbit with me before the trip. I actually didn’t believe him at first, because like you said, what’s the point of having an expiration date then?!! So glad you finally made it there though! And your mom’s birthday sounds like such an awesome time!! You ladies all look so much alike, including your very young looking mama! 🙂

    • Thanks for telling me that!!! HAHA! So ridiculous…

      Isn’t mamma pretty?! I hope her genes come through strong in me. Or that I can find cheap Botox. 😉

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