Delays in L.A.

I’m sure many of you are more up on current events in the news, but for some reason(maybe the lack of time/desire to watch the news nowadays) I missed the memo on the need for an infant to have a passport. But, effective October 1, 2007 all U.S. citizens (including infants) must have a passport to leave and re-enter the country. I had heard about the Mexico/Canada requirements, but nothing about infant passport requirements. I had called our airline, AirPacific to review infant flight options and required documentation. They told me all we would need to travel with our baby abroad was his U.S. birth certificate. I should have followed up with the US Dept of State to confirm the necessary travel documents.
When we got up to the AirPacific counter in L.A. they told us the infant could not travel because he did not have a passport and then referred us to the immigration office in L.A. I was devastated and upset...and you can imagine how Patrick felt. We called the immigration office and the good news was they could issue a passport same day, but the bad news was only by appointment and the next available appointment was 5 days out. So, we made our appointment and checked into a hotel.
We tried to make the most of our time there. We made it to the Manhattan and Santa Monica Beaches for a day and had a great time. Gabriel just LOVES the beach and the feeling of the sand on his feet. When it was time to go he got quite upset and screamed while we left We also checked out nearby Culver City, which has a really nice, upscale, quaint downtown area with beautiful architecture, fountains, and of course the center for motion picture.
The day of the passport appointment we arrived for our 9am appointment, applied for Gabriel’s passport and picked it up at about 1:30pm that same day. We flew out to Fiji later that night – Thank Goodness!