We’re scheduled to spend the Labor Day weekend in Montreal and Quebec City. This trip has been planned for quite some time. We’re meeting our older daughter there as she lives in Connecticut and can drive to Montreal in about five hours, give or take border formalities.

Everything was set several months ago. We would meet Friday evening at our hotel in Montreal, spend Saturday there, then head to Quebec City midday Sunday, spend Sunday night there, and drive back to Montreal where my wife and I would fly home and our daughter would drive home.

After getting all the dates and our flights to and from Atlanta set, I was made aware that our younger daughter needed to move back to college on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. Uh oh. She was able to get an earlier move-in to Friday and thankfully, as I had booked one-way tickets on Air Canada, I canceled the ATL-YUL flight and switched to a EWR-YUL flight. By the time I booked, business award pricing was 25k Air Canada points and economy award pricing was 20k so it made sense to just grab business seats. I transferred some more points over from Capital One. Not the best redemption, but it was better than having to cancel the trip. We kept our YUL-ATL return flight on the Monday booked with cash. Trip saved!

Originally, our daughter’s boyfriend was going to drive up with her and join us for the weekend. He did not have a current passport so he had to re-apply as an adult. Unfortunately, there were some issues with the paperwork and he could not get his passport issued in time. Instead of canceling or postponing the trip, our daughter’s friend will join us. She’s flying up to Connecticut tomorrow and planning to join our daughter for the drive up to Canada. Trip saved!

A couple of weeks ago, I texted our daughter and her friend to remind them that they will need their passports for crossing the border (not something we normally think of on a driving trip). Then I get a panicked text from our daughter that she cannot find her passport. I had her call the Connecticut passport office the following Monday (within 14 days of the trip) and she was able to snag an appointment the morning she is due to leave. We’ve been calling every day to see if there’s an earlier appointment, but so far we’ve had no luck.

I sent her birth certificate via UPS last week so she would have it for the appointment. There’s apparently a thief in her building who grabbed the UPS envelope from the mail area, walked out of the building with it and slashed open the inside envelope containing her birth certificate. Seeing it was not valuable, he or she left it on the street. A (very) good samaritan found it a couple of blocks away. She somehow contacted me via Facebook (seeing me listed as father to the person on the birth certificate) and we arranged for her to meet so our daughter could get the birth certificate back. It was slashed in a couple of places but still intact. Trip saved!

So, our daughter will visit the Connecticut Passport Office Friday morning with her suitcase packed, her friend in tow, her birth certificate, and passport photos. They can print same day passports at that office, so hopefully it will go smoothly. Then, she will get on the road and meet us in Montreal. What’s next? Will our flight get canceled? Will Montreal get swallowed by a Canadian sea monster? Hopefully, my next post will be all about how much fun we are having. Stay tuned.

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