the start of a new adventure...

then...
& Now

Handle with care...

We leave on Friday for Colorado and Costa Rica on Wednesday morning at 12am. Since Michael is a world traveler he had filled every page in his passport and we needed to get more pages. We sent his passport in expedited over two and half weeks ago to get more pages added. A simple and speedy response would have been to send it back with the added pages, right? Well they sent us a letter saying the U.S government was going to keep his passport because it was damaged!! Hahaha, right? Joke? I should have expected this right, nothing is easy with Michael Paine. We were in SLO when we got the news so after calling numerous passport agencies and the L.A embassy to make an appointment to get a new passport all the doors continued to slam in our face. Finally after much rejection we found a private agency in L.A who could see us on Wednesday and get a new passport to Michael in 1-3 days. We left SLO tuesday night after a short visit and arrived in L.A at 2am! Today we spent all day gathering Michael's documents, getting new passport pictures, an official U.S seal, and driving through dowtown L.A traffic at mid-day to hand this infamous minella folder you see in the picture to a man sitting in a office building on the seventh floor. So, $400 dollars later we are still planning on leaving the country Wednesday to escape the skysraping, smog infested, cluttered streets of L.A (I have been living on the central coast for too long). We will keep you posted about the much awaited adventures of the Paines and their travels:)