Since we arrived in the US Graham's passport has been through two crazy situations.
The first one happened on the day that we said goodbye to my parents and sister in Washington DC. They left our hotel in a cab to go to DCA for their flight to Boston. We left our bags at the hotel and went to the National Art Gallery for a few hours before our train to Baltimore Airport to fly to Cleveland.
When my sister arrived at the airport she pulled out her passport only to discover that it was actually Graham's! We had been sharing a hotel room and they had got mixed up in the safe somehow. Ahhhhh!!!!!! She hopped into a cab and sped towards the hotel to beg the staff to let her go through our bags. Luckily we had decided (against my better judgment) to leave our passports in our carry-on. She found the passports, made the switch and got back into the cab to try to catch her flight. She did! Phew!
Fast forward less than 24 hours when we arrive in Hudson late at night, having no idea of the adventures Graham's passport had already made that day and exhausted after a delayed flight and the drive from the airport. Graham is so tired that he just leaves his passport and cash in his shorts when changing into pjs. The next morning I get up, grab our enormous pile of dirty clothes and check two out of three pairs of his shorts, figure that is good enough (??) and shove it all into the washing machine. An hour later Graham goes to pull the now clean clothes out of the wash to discover that his Canadian passport had not faired well in this ordeal at all.
I don't have a pic but the wonders of google allowed me to find someone else who did the same thing and posted a pic of it.
Graham's wasn't as bent as this guy's but you get the general idea.
The nearest Canadian consulate is in Detroit and a call to their office quickly revealed that although they would be capable of issuing an emergency temporary passport this option wouldn't be nearly as efficient as if we just crossed the border from Detroit into Windsor Ontario and made an expedited application at the regular passport office. The guy at the consulate actually told Graham that he could see the Canadian passport office across the river from his own building in downtown Detroit. One wonders if perhaps this Detroit office is a bit unnecessary??
One hitch to this plan was that we would need to get Graham's original birth certificate couriered to us in Hudson as he only had a copy with him. So a few urgent e-mails later and the O'Tooles very nicely rummaged through our filing cabinet in Edinburgh, hurried down to the FedEx office and sent the birth certificate to us.
We had already planned a trip to Detroit to visit our good friend William (a friend from Edinburgh '06-'07 and groomsman at our wedding) so we finalised our plans with him and I arranged to have a day out from my internship (which is pretty relaxed) so we could leave on Thursday night to drive to Detroit.
This trip has so far involved lots and lots of big, long highways.
And insane rainstorms which result in crazy cloud formations:
On Friday morning we rose bright and early to cross the border so we could be at the office for opening at 8:30.
A view of the factory-filled skyline while crossing the bridge from one country to the other.
We started with a big cooked breakfast, so yummy despite the slightly worried look in Graham's eyes.
We got a parking ticket while we ate breakfast (boo). Then we walked down to the water's edge to look north to the Detroit city centre. A rare thing to do, looking north from Canada to America!
The giant complex of black highrises is RenCen. The world headquarters of General Motors. We went inside another day and it is very impressive.
Nice view of the bridge.
We then walked around the city centre a bit. It looks nice but is mostly populated with strip clubs, cuban cigars stores and an enormous casino.
The thrills didn't stop with a trip to The Bay (a Canadian department store) to get Graham some new undershirts.
3:00pm finally rolled around and Graham rushed up to the office to pick up his new passport. Will had given himself a mild case of sun stroke (from sitting outside too much while we waited) so he and I stayed at a cafe drinking water.
Graham came around the corner with a big smile and a very expensive little blue book.
And then we were back in the car crossing the border to the USA again, but this time through the tunnel.
So, a surprise trip to Canada that was pretty boring in general but achieved its purpose and was infinitely more bearable since we spent it with our good friend Will!
The first one happened on the day that we said goodbye to my parents and sister in Washington DC. They left our hotel in a cab to go to DCA for their flight to Boston. We left our bags at the hotel and went to the National Art Gallery for a few hours before our train to Baltimore Airport to fly to Cleveland.
When my sister arrived at the airport she pulled out her passport only to discover that it was actually Graham's! We had been sharing a hotel room and they had got mixed up in the safe somehow. Ahhhhh!!!!!! She hopped into a cab and sped towards the hotel to beg the staff to let her go through our bags. Luckily we had decided (against my better judgment) to leave our passports in our carry-on. She found the passports, made the switch and got back into the cab to try to catch her flight. She did! Phew!
Fast forward less than 24 hours when we arrive in Hudson late at night, having no idea of the adventures Graham's passport had already made that day and exhausted after a delayed flight and the drive from the airport. Graham is so tired that he just leaves his passport and cash in his shorts when changing into pjs. The next morning I get up, grab our enormous pile of dirty clothes and check two out of three pairs of his shorts, figure that is good enough (??) and shove it all into the washing machine. An hour later Graham goes to pull the now clean clothes out of the wash to discover that his Canadian passport had not faired well in this ordeal at all.
I don't have a pic but the wonders of google allowed me to find someone else who did the same thing and posted a pic of it.
 |
| photo from here |
Graham's wasn't as bent as this guy's but you get the general idea.
The nearest Canadian consulate is in Detroit and a call to their office quickly revealed that although they would be capable of issuing an emergency temporary passport this option wouldn't be nearly as efficient as if we just crossed the border from Detroit into Windsor Ontario and made an expedited application at the regular passport office. The guy at the consulate actually told Graham that he could see the Canadian passport office across the river from his own building in downtown Detroit. One wonders if perhaps this Detroit office is a bit unnecessary??
One hitch to this plan was that we would need to get Graham's original birth certificate couriered to us in Hudson as he only had a copy with him. So a few urgent e-mails later and the O'Tooles very nicely rummaged through our filing cabinet in Edinburgh, hurried down to the FedEx office and sent the birth certificate to us.
We had already planned a trip to Detroit to visit our good friend William (a friend from Edinburgh '06-'07 and groomsman at our wedding) so we finalised our plans with him and I arranged to have a day out from my internship (which is pretty relaxed) so we could leave on Thursday night to drive to Detroit.
This trip has so far involved lots and lots of big, long highways.
And insane rainstorms which result in crazy cloud formations:
On Friday morning we rose bright and early to cross the border so we could be at the office for opening at 8:30.
A view of the factory-filled skyline while crossing the bridge from one country to the other.
We arrived by 9:15 and after filling in a whole lot of paperwork and getting a notorized letter confirming what the passport lady called "Graham's tale of woe" we were told that the passport would be ready by 3pm. This left us with approximately 5 hours to kill in Windsor. This is about 4 hours more than is necessary.
We started with a big cooked breakfast, so yummy despite the slightly worried look in Graham's eyes.
We got a parking ticket while we ate breakfast (boo). Then we walked down to the water's edge to look north to the Detroit city centre. A rare thing to do, looking north from Canada to America!
The giant complex of black highrises is RenCen. The world headquarters of General Motors. We went inside another day and it is very impressive.
Sitting in the sun.
Nice view of the bridge.
We then walked around the city centre a bit. It looks nice but is mostly populated with strip clubs, cuban cigars stores and an enormous casino.
We enjoyed the cheeky signs in this store:
 |
| They were having a sale on capes. Somehow i didn't have that particular item on my list of things to buy... |
The thrills didn't stop with a trip to The Bay (a Canadian department store) to get Graham some new undershirts.
3:00pm finally rolled around and Graham rushed up to the office to pick up his new passport. Will had given himself a mild case of sun stroke (from sitting outside too much while we waited) so he and I stayed at a cafe drinking water.
Graham came around the corner with a big smile and a very expensive little blue book.
And then we were back in the car crossing the border to the USA again, but this time through the tunnel.
So, a surprise trip to Canada that was pretty boring in general but achieved its purpose and was infinitely more bearable since we spent it with our good friend Will!
Glad that all worked out! Windsor is known in Michigan as the place to go if you're interested in drinking and you're underage. There were a few people from my college who made fairly regular trips but I've never seen it. So based on that reputation I'm not surprised about the bars, strip clubs, and casinos! -Becca
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