My Travelin Man.......

April 9, 2008
Took my son, Luke down to our local post office today to get his passport filled out and sent off. Looks like we may have it in the mail within a few weeks. My little man/boy is sixteen and has a huge desire to travel. He has some of his momma's vagabonding blood running through his veins! We have been planning and dreaming of a family trip to London and Paris for a couple of years now. And hope to go this late summer! I have been to Europe with a best girlfriend several times, but planning a European vacation with two kiddos is a whole nuther story! My daughter, Lauren is excited and looking forward to the trip, but it is my young travelin man that is the master planner when it comes to vacation time. He is checking hotels, flights and things to do and go see, and keeping me posted about our ever-changing itinerary. We started a London and Paris notebook with all the information from Luke's meticulous planning, and it is fast becoming full and overflowing! One terrific site we both love to get on when planning a trip is Tripadvisor. They have a tremendous amount of information on just about any place you want to go. I like to go into the forum and post or ask questions about the destination I plan on going to. You can get advice from the locals and fellow travelers, and there may be something you can relay that will be beneficial for another planning a trip. Check this site out. It's fun, but I must warn you that it can become addictive!

Obtaining a passport is quite simple, and as you may know it is mandatory to have one now when traveling outside the United States. However, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean region are exempt from requiring one until June 1, 2009. You can go to the main government site, and get all the details which will help you locate your nearest passport office. There has been some pretty interesting talk about the new e-passports that are now the only ones being issued as of August 2007. These have a RFID computer chip embedded in them, which means you are walking around with a radio frequency identification chip. Wow, this high tech stuff continues to amaze me! And scare me sometimes too! Anyway, I tend to steer away from being too paranoid about most things in life, but I can't help but think we have "big brother" watching us too closely much of the time. It will be interesting to see what happens with the new technology being put into our passports and the controversy surrounding this! In the meantime, if you desire to see other parts of this wonderful Earth we live on, then I encourage you to take steps to get your passport. I will keep you posted on the big trip plans!