Passport, smassport, who needs a passport?

As it turns out, we did!

The passports that took us around the world in 2018 were due to expire in August 2020, a scant 4 months after our trip to Alaska this coming May. We almost learned the hard way that you can be denied boarding if your passport isn't good for at least six months after you're planning to return home. (It was a seven day cruise out of Boston to Bermuda and we had barely a week's wiggle room on our passports then. I'd had no idea about the 6 month rule and would've been devastated to be denied boarding--without a refund!)

Anyway, we had new photos taken at our local Walgreens. Sadly, I always think if I look like my passport pic, I'm clearly too sick to travel, but the computer assured me that the photo would meet US State Department requirements. We sent our old passports off to be renewed, hopeful that our Indian visas which were affixed in them would be included in the new 56 page passports we ordered. They weren't, but our old passports were returned. So if we ever go to India again, we'll need to present both of them!

We weren't the only ones in our merry band of Alaska trekkers who needed passports. #2 Daughter had let hers lapse almost ten years ago and Nephew had never had one. I convinced them both to go for the passport booklet instead of just the card. Granted the card is a little cheaper and might have been okay for this Alaska cruise, but on the off chance we had to disembark in Canada and fly home, they'd have been stuck. A passport card is not adequate for boarding an international flight.

My parents, #1 Daughter & Daughter-in-Law all have valid passports so our whole party of eight is travel legal now!

Our flight times have changed twice. Now it appears we'll be leaving on the evening of May 8th out of St Louis instead of at oh:dark-thirty on the 9th. So we plan to arrange hotels rooms for everyone in Seattle instead of STL. We'll check every week to keep on top of the flight plans. It could change again.

Staying flexible is kind of a requirement for travel. Especially when you're bringing your own entourage!