Passport
I finally got my act together and gathered everything I need to apply for my passport, and I'm going to the Post Office tomorrow! (All of you world travelers stop laughing at me, this is my first passport and I'm excited about it, because it means my trip next May is really happening!)
The quarterly Women's Luncheon Group met at a Chinese place today. A couple of years ago the coordinators got tired of the hassle of having 20 or 30 people each order something different and then trying to collect the right amount from everyone, so they now just plan and order a meal in advance and collect a fixed amount that covers everything -- meal, tax and tip. Today's was more expensive than usual -- $12 -- but the food was good and I had a good time. I don't always end up with good conversational companions at large group things like this, but I did today.
I'm not sure what everything was, but it was very tasty, especially the shrimp! It was lightly battered (stop shrimp abuse!
) and served with green and red pepper strips and pineapple cubes -- the waiter had a heavy accent but I think it was sweet and pungent shrimp. (As opposed to sweet and sour with heavily breaded shrimp/pork/chicken smothered in day-glo red heavily candied sauce.) The sauce was very, very light and had just a little sweetness and a little bite to it. There was a pork and asparagus dish that was terrific too. The other one was moo goo gai pan, which was okay but I wasn't crazy about it. (Some others who like moo goo gai pan said it was very good.)
After the luncheon I went over to the mall and headed for Ritz Camera, which Meredith had recommended. But there was a photo studio directly across from it, so I checked both places. The studio gives four pictures for $15, while Ritz gives two for $15.99, and the studio was obviously more professional as well as a whole lot quieter and more peaceful, so the choice was easy. I thought I could give the two extra photos to Meredith and A as wallet pics, but as soon as I saw them I realized that they will never see the light of day except inside my passport!
The photographer was a young woman who fired off about a dozen shots at different distances, to make sure there'd be a good one of the right size. They had just converted to digital last week, I found out, so they're not familiar with the computer system, and getting them up on the screen took a few minutes, but they finally managed and the photographer, another employee and I all conferred about which one was best.
There was one that I might actually have considered giving my kids -- you're not supposed to smile, but I had kind of a half smile in that one and it didn't look too bad -- but it turned out to be a bit too big, so we had to pick another one. I kept gasping over how awful I looked, and each time the photographer reassured me that a straight-on shot like that with a blank expression never comes out good. The other employee was looking for one the right size, while my contribution was "Is there a better one than that? ... How about this one? ... Oh, it's too big. Well how ab- No! Not that one! No!" We finally picked one that was the right size that I could look at without cringing, but once my passport comes the other two copies will be shredded.
While I was at the mall I also stopped in LL Bean and got a new little keyring flashlight. The one I had started going on by itself and staying on for awhile, and after that the battery -- which doesn't appear to be replaceable -- wore out pretty fast. I was going to get the newer version of the same one -- a very nice, plain basic little light -- but it came on so easily with such a gentle squeeze that I was afraid it would do exactly the same thing. So I figured it would be cheaper in the long run to get the better one that would last longer, and bought the Photon Freedom Minilight with a white LED.
It's really cool -- it comes with a clip so you can fasten it to your hat if you want a headlamp (assuming you can find the clip after you've had the light on your keyring for awhile
) as well as a keyring and also a loop cord. It has a dimmer and a really nifty safety blinker. You can choose slow beacon (flashes once every 5 seconds); medium beacon (on-off-on beat in 1-second intervals); fast beacon (a very rapid strobe); or SOS, which continually flashes S-O-S in Morse code. How cool is that?! (I doubt I'll ever use the SOS, or even the beacons, but they make turn an ordinary micro light into a gadget-lover's dream!
)
woofiegrrl had sent me a wonderfully helpful email with links to each Web page I'd need, and I found that you don't have to print the application out and fill it in by hand -- they have a page where you can fill in a form on the computer and it generates a pdf file to print out with the info already on it. So I have the form filled out and printed, my birth certificate, and the photos, and my picture ID (driver's license) and checkbook are in my wallet. So tomorrow I'm going to the Post Office and hope I did everything right!
I hope they don't look askance at the fact that I'm only going to Canada. The idea of needing a passport to go to Canada still feels silly to me. I've been in Canada several times (though only once for any distance -- most of the visits were at Niagara Falls, where the touristy stuff is mostly on the Canadian side) and each time we just went back and forth with barely a pause at the border. "How long were you in Canada?" "About three hours, we just looked around Niagara Falls." "Do you have anything to declare?" "No." "Okay, go on through." So I feel almost like I'm getting the passport under false pretenses because I'm not going to an actual foreign country ... just Canada!
And on top of that I'm only going to be in Canada for a few hours, because I'm actually not going to Canada, I'm going to Alaska, which, last time I heard, was still part of the US. But virtually all large cruise ships are foreign flagged, so they have to dock at a foreign port some time during the cruise. (A cruise ship remaining in US waters the entire time must be US flagged, which means not only paying more taxes, but also complying with the US's pesky safety and personnel regulations.)
So we're docking in Victoria, BC for six hours, and I'm told I'll need a passport to get off the ship -- even in Canada. And I want to see the city, and I'm especially looking forward to meeting ms_interpret, who lives there!
The quarterly Women's Luncheon Group met at a Chinese place today. A couple of years ago the coordinators got tired of the hassle of having 20 or 30 people each order something different and then trying to collect the right amount from everyone, so they now just plan and order a meal in advance and collect a fixed amount that covers everything -- meal, tax and tip. Today's was more expensive than usual -- $12 -- but the food was good and I had a good time. I don't always end up with good conversational companions at large group things like this, but I did today.
I'm not sure what everything was, but it was very tasty, especially the shrimp! It was lightly battered (stop shrimp abuse!
) and served with green and red pepper strips and pineapple cubes -- the waiter had a heavy accent but I think it was sweet and pungent shrimp. (As opposed to sweet and sour with heavily breaded shrimp/pork/chicken smothered in day-glo red heavily candied sauce.) The sauce was very, very light and had just a little sweetness and a little bite to it. There was a pork and asparagus dish that was terrific too. The other one was moo goo gai pan, which was okay but I wasn't crazy about it. (Some others who like moo goo gai pan said it was very good.)
After the luncheon I went over to the mall and headed for Ritz Camera, which Meredith had recommended. But there was a photo studio directly across from it, so I checked both places. The studio gives four pictures for $15, while Ritz gives two for $15.99, and the studio was obviously more professional as well as a whole lot quieter and more peaceful, so the choice was easy. I thought I could give the two extra photos to Meredith and A as wallet pics, but as soon as I saw them I realized that they will never see the light of day except inside my passport!
The photographer was a young woman who fired off about a dozen shots at different distances, to make sure there'd be a good one of the right size. They had just converted to digital last week, I found out, so they're not familiar with the computer system, and getting them up on the screen took a few minutes, but they finally managed and the photographer, another employee and I all conferred about which one was best.
There was one that I might actually have considered giving my kids -- you're not supposed to smile, but I had kind of a half smile in that one and it didn't look too bad -- but it turned out to be a bit too big, so we had to pick another one. I kept gasping over how awful I looked, and each time the photographer reassured me that a straight-on shot like that with a blank expression never comes out good. The other employee was looking for one the right size, while my contribution was "Is there a better one than that? ... How about this one? ... Oh, it's too big. Well how ab- No! Not that one! No!" We finally picked one that was the right size that I could look at without cringing, but once my passport comes the other two copies will be shredded.
While I was at the mall I also stopped in LL Bean and got a new little keyring flashlight. The one I had started going on by itself and staying on for awhile, and after that the battery -- which doesn't appear to be replaceable -- wore out pretty fast. I was going to get the newer version of the same one -- a very nice, plain basic little light -- but it came on so easily with such a gentle squeeze that I was afraid it would do exactly the same thing. So I figured it would be cheaper in the long run to get the better one that would last longer, and bought the Photon Freedom Minilight with a white LED.
It's really cool -- it comes with a clip so you can fasten it to your hat if you want a headlamp (assuming you can find the clip after you've had the light on your keyring for awhile
) as well as a keyring and also a loop cord. It has a dimmer and a really nifty safety blinker. You can choose slow beacon (flashes once every 5 seconds); medium beacon (on-off-on beat in 1-second intervals); fast beacon (a very rapid strobe); or SOS, which continually flashes S-O-S in Morse code. How cool is that?! (I doubt I'll ever use the SOS, or even the beacons, but they make turn an ordinary micro light into a gadget-lover's dream!
)
woofiegrrl had sent me a wonderfully helpful email with links to each Web page I'd need, and I found that you don't have to print the application out and fill it in by hand -- they have a page where you can fill in a form on the computer and it generates a pdf file to print out with the info already on it. So I have the form filled out and printed, my birth certificate, and the photos, and my picture ID (driver's license) and checkbook are in my wallet. So tomorrow I'm going to the Post Office and hope I did everything right!
I hope they don't look askance at the fact that I'm only going to Canada. The idea of needing a passport to go to Canada still feels silly to me. I've been in Canada several times (though only once for any distance -- most of the visits were at Niagara Falls, where the touristy stuff is mostly on the Canadian side) and each time we just went back and forth with barely a pause at the border. "How long were you in Canada?" "About three hours, we just looked around Niagara Falls." "Do you have anything to declare?" "No." "Okay, go on through." So I feel almost like I'm getting the passport under false pretenses because I'm not going to an actual foreign country ... just Canada!
And on top of that I'm only going to be in Canada for a few hours, because I'm actually not going to Canada, I'm going to Alaska, which, last time I heard, was still part of the US. But virtually all large cruise ships are foreign flagged, so they have to dock at a foreign port some time during the cruise. (A cruise ship remaining in US waters the entire time must be US flagged, which means not only paying more taxes, but also complying with the US's pesky safety and personnel regulations.)
So we're docking in Victoria, BC for six hours, and I'm told I'll need a passport to get off the ship -- even in Canada. And I want to see the city, and I'm especially looking forward to meeting ms_interpret, who lives there!