We decided to visit Belize because we wanted to spend some time snorkeling but the place we enjoyed in Mexico (Akumal) was now overrun with tourists. Belize seemed like a good alternative. We took advice from my sister and only went to her two favorite places to cut down on the in-country travel time and maximize our enjoyment.
We had a bit of a hiccup before our trip started, however. I was at work the day before our flight, trying to check-in online. I needed Mark’s passport number, so I asked Genevieve to go into the drawer at my desk and read it out to me. She did that, and when I asked for the expiration date, said “um, it’s expired”. I said no way, I’ve checked that so many times, but she confirmed his passport had indeed expired in April. Mark was still at home so he started looking into passport services but was getting nowhere. Serious panic, it was Friday at 11:00am and our flight left at 6:10am the next day. After his phone calls got him nowhere, he called the passport office directly and they said there were no appointments available but he could drive up to San Francisco and take his luck there. So he filled out the application, stopped off at Kinkos to get the passport photos, and headed off with Charlotte to SF. Meanwhile, I took Genevieve to a concert with a friend and returned to work, where I nervously awaited news, wondering how the girls and I were going to handle the logistics if Mark had to meet us on Tuesday in Belize. At about 2:30 I get a text from Mark that they’d stopped for lunch. WHAT!? They should be standing in line at the passport office, not eating! Turns out Mark was pranking me, he knew that text would freak me out and in fact they’d already been to the passport office and dropped off the stuff and been told to return at 4:00 for the passport. Which they did do, and got home about 5:30 passport in hand. Whew! But now it was 10:00pm and Genevieve was still not back from the concert. She’d forgotten her phone so we couldn’t contact her but she finally returned home–her loss, she was going to be mighty tired when she got up at 4:00am to make the flight.
Following is a brief report of our travels:
To look at photos, go here.
The Roving Richards 