how far would you drive...
... for lunch?
Today, for Mother's Day, we went to Erie, PA for lunch. It was my SIL's idea... she lives near Pittsburgh, and since she's in the process of getting her green card, she can't come home to Canada right now. Since there isn't really anything between Erie & Buffalo (I mean, there are towns between there, obviously, but no major cities), it was either them meeting us in Buffalo, or us meeting them in Erie. They have 3 kids, so Erie it was.
We left early this morning... made it to the border in plenty of time. That's where everything started to fall apart. After our crossing at Christmas, my DH realized his passport had expired. He didn't bring it today, even though they didn't give him a hassle at Christmas over an expired passport - we found out today that they're accepting expired ones through to the end of this year... good to know. Anyhow, since he was born in India, he doesn't have a Canadian birth certificate, and for unknown reasons he didn't bring his citizenship certificate with him, either. I'd almost grabbed his expired one "just in case" but in the end I didn't. I should have.
At the border, we handed over my passport, Sonja's birth certificate, and my DH's driver's licence. The Homeland Security agent who processed us didn't like that he didn't have proof of citizenship, so we were sent to the immigration office. I think we were there for an hour. Or more. I kind of lost track of time, what with a sleepy 3 year old who couldn't understand why we weren't driving - she wanted to go see her cousins, you know! The agent at the immigration office couldn't find my DH in the system. She called the Canadian border guards - and they couldn't find him either. Finally, after looking up his parents (finding them no problem, but that's probably because they have valid passports) and checking previous border crossings, she finally found evidence that he was a citizen based on the crossing we'd made (with the expired passport!!) at Christmas.
Other than that, we had a good day. It was a great day to drive, and we ate at the Olive Garden, which I miss - they don't have any in Canada anymore. Love those garlic breadsticks! After lunch, we went to the mall, and the kids got to hang out, ride some rides, and eat some ice cream. Sonja also got her birthday present from them - a Dora the Explorer boom box, which is colour-coordinated to her bedroom, and actually has pretty good sound. The first thing she wanted to do when we got home was set it up & play some dance music.
So ... I ask again. How far would you drive for lunch? How far have you driven just for lunch? Not counting our delay at US Immigration, we drove for 5-6 hours, return.
Today, for Mother's Day, we went to Erie, PA for lunch. It was my SIL's idea... she lives near Pittsburgh, and since she's in the process of getting her green card, she can't come home to Canada right now. Since there isn't really anything between Erie & Buffalo (I mean, there are towns between there, obviously, but no major cities), it was either them meeting us in Buffalo, or us meeting them in Erie. They have 3 kids, so Erie it was.
We left early this morning... made it to the border in plenty of time. That's where everything started to fall apart. After our crossing at Christmas, my DH realized his passport had expired. He didn't bring it today, even though they didn't give him a hassle at Christmas over an expired passport - we found out today that they're accepting expired ones through to the end of this year... good to know. Anyhow, since he was born in India, he doesn't have a Canadian birth certificate, and for unknown reasons he didn't bring his citizenship certificate with him, either. I'd almost grabbed his expired one "just in case" but in the end I didn't. I should have.
At the border, we handed over my passport, Sonja's birth certificate, and my DH's driver's licence. The Homeland Security agent who processed us didn't like that he didn't have proof of citizenship, so we were sent to the immigration office. I think we were there for an hour. Or more. I kind of lost track of time, what with a sleepy 3 year old who couldn't understand why we weren't driving - she wanted to go see her cousins, you know! The agent at the immigration office couldn't find my DH in the system. She called the Canadian border guards - and they couldn't find him either. Finally, after looking up his parents (finding them no problem, but that's probably because they have valid passports) and checking previous border crossings, she finally found evidence that he was a citizen based on the crossing we'd made (with the expired passport!!) at Christmas.
Other than that, we had a good day. It was a great day to drive, and we ate at the Olive Garden, which I miss - they don't have any in Canada anymore. Love those garlic breadsticks! After lunch, we went to the mall, and the kids got to hang out, ride some rides, and eat some ice cream. Sonja also got her birthday present from them - a Dora the Explorer boom box, which is colour-coordinated to her bedroom, and actually has pretty good sound. The first thing she wanted to do when we got home was set it up & play some dance music.
So ... I ask again. How far would you drive for lunch? How far have you driven just for lunch? Not counting our delay at US Immigration, we drove for 5-6 hours, return.