Central Region Teen Ministry: June 2011

I'm HOME!

Wow. Well, this trip was an adventure. It was fabulous until today. And EVERYTHING went terrible. To fill you in here is the entry I posted in my personal blog-a-ma-jig (warning: its LONG):

Well. That was an interesting way to end a wonderful vacation. I spent this past week on a the beautiful Diamond Princess cruise ship. I had a fantastic time on my Alaskan adventure and created many memories. On our first day in port in Skagway I was able to go on a beautiful scenic train ride. I took many pictures, and the sight was amazing. The following day in Juneau I went dog sledding on Mendenhall Glacier. That was a once in a life time experience that I will never forget. And to finish off our days in Alaska I went zip lining in Ketchikan with my dad. Yesterday our boat docked in Vancouver, Canada where we stayed the night and planned on leaving today on a direct flight from Vancouver to Los Angeles at 6:30PM. That was until my dad’s backpack was stolen.

Today was crazy. So I guess I’ll start at the very beginning. This morning my family and I were in Vancouver, Canada just exploring the beautiful city before our 6:30 flight back to LA. Little did we know that we were in the crime capital of North America. So, at about 9:30 my mom, my sister, and I meet up with my dad and my brother at the Starbucks near our hotel. We just arrived, I had ordered my usual tall mocha frappuccino when my dad realizes his bag is gone. Panic sets in once my dad yells, “My bag is gone! It had EVERYTHING in there! My brand new camera! A weeks worth of pictures! OUR PASSPORTS!!!” Crap. The workers at Starbucks immediately look shocked. Apparently some guy with a beard walked in and picked up a bag by the counter and said, “Oh this is my bag, I forgot it.” LIAR. We call the police and they attempt to help us. They filed a report and tried looking at the security tape. Too bad it won’t be ready until tomorrow. We were scheduled to leave tonight. Meanwhile my dad is circling the block in hope that maybe, just maybe the scumbag decided to ditch our passports somewhere. No luck. But wait! Some lady who was in the Starbucks at the time went to her family who was eating breakfast outside next door and they said the saw some man run into a van with a backpack. My dad’s backpack.

The police did what they could at the time, and we began to walk back to the hotel in disbelief. We talked to the people at the hotel to figure out what to do. We were advised to go to the embassy, so we did. Too bad it was closed. Then we call my aunt to try and email us scanned copies of our passports. Well, we didn’t have a copy of my little sister’s passport, AND my brother and I had copies of expired passports. Just our luck.

However, about an hour after the incident, my dad get’s a call from an unknown number. (Keep in mind we are US citizens and on US phone network so now our phone bills are going to be outrageously high after all of our international usage) Turns out some lady found our passports. Four of them. There are five of us. My passport was still missing.

Luckily, this new policeman went through a lot of work to get a hold of my dad. Apparently my Uncle is an emergency contact in my dad’s passport. But they moved a couple months ago so the number provided was no longer in service. However the policeman looked up my uncle online and found him and somehow figured out he was married to my dad’s sister so he knew there was some relation. He then found my uncle’s work office number and decided to call it even though it was a Sunday morning. Fortunately, my uncle was in his office because he had a brief due tomorrow (he’s a lawyer). So he was able to give the Canadian police officer my dad’s number and we eventually got our passports delivered back to us. But we were still missing one passport. My passport.

My passport was nowhere to be found. We called the emergency embassy, Alaska airlines, EVERYTHING to try and find a way to get me back into the states. But it looked like there was no way I could fly without my passport. So we had two options. One, stay in Canada an extra two or three days and wait for any “emergency” passport (which isn’t really an emergency passport considering it takes days). OR we could attempt to get sneak across the border by land. We chose the second option.

So it turns out there was a flight from Bellingham, Washington to Seattle that would then transfer to LA. We were determined to get on that flight. There also happened to be a Quick Shuttle that could take us across the border. We had about 15 minutes to catch it.

As soon as my dad hangs up with Alaska Airlines (they gave us the info regarding the new flight and shuttle), we pick up our bags, explain what will happen to the rest of our family and jump in a cab to get to the shuttle. We get there, and the shuttle was gone. It left 5-10 minutes before we got there.

My dad and I soon begin to panic. We don’t know what to do. So we decide to jump in another taxi and go to the airport, rent a car, and attempt to drive across the border. Our taxi driver is extremely nice, and offers to drive us across the border. Another decision we must make.

He told us it would be extremely expensive to rent a Canadian car and leave it in the US. According to him it would only cost about $120 to take the taxi all the way to the Bellingham airport. We decide to trust him and take a taxi across the border. But wait! He still needs to pick up his passport from home which happens to be somewhat near the border. Really?!?!

Instead he calls his wife and asks her to meet him on the way so we can pick up his passport without going out of our way. Too bad she does not have a car. Their son has one of them on vacation far away, and their daughter is out with their other car. Luckily his daughter was able to get it and bring it to us.

So we get to the border, and we are stopped since I only have a printed copy of any expired passport that we printed out by email at the hotel. Thankfully we had enough paperwork and whatnot to “sneak” if you will across the border. And then we finally made it in Bellingham, Washington where are final bill for the taxi was just about $183. The guy originally said $120. Great.

Everything else worked out fine. We got home safely with the rest of our family. Actually, we were traveling with extended family so they were able to take care of my mom, my twelve year old brother, and my four year old sister. So everything worked out. Except for the fact that we lost a brand new camera, 3 lenses, a flash, a week worth of memories in the form of hundreds and hundreds of photos, my dead grandfather’s old binoculars, and many more valuables. But right now all I can say is I’m glad everyone is safe. And while my dad and I snuck across the boarder in a taxi, the rest of our family took two limos to the airports. It’s funny how things work isn’t it?

Well after everything, I guess all we can say is that we learned our lessons. Always carry copies of passports. And NEVER EVER leave anything where you cannot see it. I guess what had happened was my dad had his backpack at his feet, and he was distracted dealing with my whining brother and attempting to get directions to the nearest church. When some dirtbag moved his bag a little to see if he was paying attention, and picked it up and ran off with it in a van. But now all we can do is look back at this whole experience and laugh at what we did and hope that maybe, just maybe we could recover those pictures. That’s all we want now is those darn pictures. But it’s late, I’m exhausted, and I’m off to bed. Peace. Love. And Lessons Learned.

But all I can say now is that God worked everything out, and we're all safe and sound. Luckily I still have my pictures and I'll be sure to somehow figure out a way to show you all. I can't wait to see you all!