| INVOICE INVOICE NUMBER: xxxxxxx |  |
| RECIPIENT: Steven S Long 94549 Lafayette United States | PAYER: Steven S Long 94549 Lafayette United States |
BOOKING REFERENCE NUMBER:
xxxxLONG/AUTUMN (ADT) LONG/BRYCE (CHD) LONG/NICOLE (ADT) LONG/STEVEN (ADT) LONG/ZANE (CHD) 21JUN 17:20 Flight FI670 From: DEN To: KEF | |
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
World... Here we come!
At a minimum, we're headed to Iceland! Our first of many flights have been purchased, and our trip officially begins on June 21, 2017.....which also happens to be Zany's 9th Birthday! Happy Birthday Zane, we got you a trip around the world.
Sunday, November 27, 2016
Step 1: Passports
Can't go anywhere without Passports, right? Best to get that step out of the way as soon as possible. As was to be expected, it was a test of patience and determination....
After some careful research by Nicole, diligently downloading the appropriate forms, making sure we took the appropriate photos, and figuring out where the best place to apply, we were off to the Walnut Creek Main Post Office. Yeah!
Giving to the fact that a singular nice little Asian lady (I shall call her Janet, as she reminded me of my mom) was attending the desk, we patiently waited 45 min to get to the front of the line.
"Who took these pictures?" inquired Janet.
"I did. What's wrong?" I cautiously replied, dreading the likely response.
"Background is too creamy.. "
"Excuse me?"
"It's supposed to be white."
"It's off white." I plead.
"Yeah, but too yellow, won't scan right."
Directly above Janet's head, a sign says $15 per photo. Crap, my over-reliance on self-reliance may cost us $45.
"You can go, take pictures and come back." Suggests sweet little Janet.
"Nah, let's just take the pictures here." I begrudgingly acquiesce as I considered the wasted effort thus far, and the impending restart.
"Sorry, camera is broke." Janet says in matter of fact sort of way.
"What?"
"Yeah, flash is too bright and washes out the face."
I pause, think about how much of a pain it will be to start over and say, "Hey, I know a thing or two about cameras, let's see if I can make it work."
"Ok. Come on back here and see what you can do." Janet replies. Well this just got weird, but let's roll with it.... My children, Janet, and I scurry to a hidden hallway to take some headshots.
"See, when I take the picture, the face is too bright." She snaps off a picture of little Zane, and yep, the picture is all washed out.
"Looks like your flash is too high. Take it again." I put my fingers in front of the flash, and viola, it's a little darker.
"Hey how did you do that?" Janet exclaims in amazement.
"Like this." And I show Janet that all I did was put my hand over the flash.
"Well that won't work forever." Janet realizes that she only has two hands....
"Right. How about I check your camera settings?" I suggest.
"Ok, here you go." Janet hands me their fancy government issued passport picture taking camera that looks like it was made by Bizzaro Polaroid from Kazakhstan. I surf the menus and there it is, reduce flash to 25%. Bam! Damn, too dark. Try 50%. Nope, too bright. 35%, booyah! But every time the nice lady took the picture, she couldn't keep it still. She turns to me...
"Here, you can probably do better." Janet hands me their camera and I proceed to take the pictures on her behalf.
So, after 45 minutes I had successfully taken all three photos of our kids. After an hour, a line outside the door had formed, and the nice lady had us processed. Sweet Janet considered the situation and only charged us for two pictures! Totally worth every penny.
Let the adventures begin!
Post script
Janet was right, the background was too yellow. To test her hypothesis, I went ahead and sent my home photo for my own passport renewal, and, low and behold, I was rejected. I plopped my "free" headshot we took together on the appropriate background, and two months after our photography 101 adventure, I have my passport.
After some careful research by Nicole, diligently downloading the appropriate forms, making sure we took the appropriate photos, and figuring out where the best place to apply, we were off to the Walnut Creek Main Post Office. Yeah!
Giving to the fact that a singular nice little Asian lady (I shall call her Janet, as she reminded me of my mom) was attending the desk, we patiently waited 45 min to get to the front of the line.
"Who took these pictures?" inquired Janet.
"I did. What's wrong?" I cautiously replied, dreading the likely response.
"Background is too creamy.. "
"Excuse me?"
"It's supposed to be white."
"It's off white." I plead.
"Yeah, but too yellow, won't scan right."
Directly above Janet's head, a sign says $15 per photo. Crap, my over-reliance on self-reliance may cost us $45.
"You can go, take pictures and come back." Suggests sweet little Janet.
"Nah, let's just take the pictures here." I begrudgingly acquiesce as I considered the wasted effort thus far, and the impending restart.
"Sorry, camera is broke." Janet says in matter of fact sort of way.
"What?"
"Yeah, flash is too bright and washes out the face."
I pause, think about how much of a pain it will be to start over and say, "Hey, I know a thing or two about cameras, let's see if I can make it work."
"Ok. Come on back here and see what you can do." Janet replies. Well this just got weird, but let's roll with it.... My children, Janet, and I scurry to a hidden hallway to take some headshots.
"See, when I take the picture, the face is too bright." She snaps off a picture of little Zane, and yep, the picture is all washed out.
"Looks like your flash is too high. Take it again." I put my fingers in front of the flash, and viola, it's a little darker.
"Hey how did you do that?" Janet exclaims in amazement.
"Like this." And I show Janet that all I did was put my hand over the flash.
"Well that won't work forever." Janet realizes that she only has two hands....
"Right. How about I check your camera settings?" I suggest.
"Ok, here you go." Janet hands me their fancy government issued passport picture taking camera that looks like it was made by Bizzaro Polaroid from Kazakhstan. I surf the menus and there it is, reduce flash to 25%. Bam! Damn, too dark. Try 50%. Nope, too bright. 35%, booyah! But every time the nice lady took the picture, she couldn't keep it still. She turns to me...
"Here, you can probably do better." Janet hands me their camera and I proceed to take the pictures on her behalf.
So, after 45 minutes I had successfully taken all three photos of our kids. After an hour, a line outside the door had formed, and the nice lady had us processed. Sweet Janet considered the situation and only charged us for two pictures! Totally worth every penny.
Let the adventures begin!
Post scriptJanet was right, the background was too yellow. To test her hypothesis, I went ahead and sent my home photo for my own passport renewal, and, low and behold, I was rejected. I plopped my "free" headshot we took together on the appropriate background, and two months after our photography 101 adventure, I have my passport.
Friday, November 25, 2016
We Need You
Welcome to our Blog Site. We're excited to share our adventures with you and we hope that you will add your email to the "Follow by Email" entry.
So that we can make the most of our adventure, we need your help. Please visit the "Our Path" tab and click on the map link. If you have any friends or family near one of our destinations, please send along their contact information. Our goal is to find locals that can steer us in the right direction and live the life of a local. If you have been somewhere, we'd love to hear about your experience as well. What shouldn't we miss, and, what should we miss....
Please reply to this post, or email us at: bruinmom@gmail.com
Live and Learn,
Steve
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