Our Quest for a Passport: A Story of Our Crazy Spring Break

I should probably do a spring post before summer starts next week!

Spring Break 2017. Knowing that Justin and I were going to head on a trip to Greece just a week after Spring Break, we didn't have anything crazy on the agenda. Justin was scheduled to work all week, so I created a list of fun staycation ideas - the zoo, a day trip to Chattanooga, a quick overnight to Bowling Green during the one break Justin had in his schedule, playdates, fire pit fun, and other such mini-adventures. But, alas, what's that saying about best laid plans? Yeah.....

The Friday afternoon before Spring Break, I just happened to check my e-mail while the kids were munching on an after school snack and saw an urgent message from our tour agency for the Greece trip asking for Justin's updated passport info. Umm. What? When we originally booked our trip, I had known that Justin's passport was set to expire later this year, but we also knew that it was (barely) after the two-month requirement so we had decided not to bother renewing it and risk not getting his new passport in time. After a frantic call to the agency, I found out that with the new presidency came new laws - one of which was that the passport now has to be valid for THREE months after our return date instead of two. And that's where we got ourselves in a bit of a pickle.

The agency was trying to be helpful and did some quick research for me and told me I might be in luck - the Davidson County Clerk might be able to help. Phew! However, the person I spoke with at the County Clerk's office was rather unfriendly and unsympathetic when they told me that the earliest appointment I could make would be a date AFTER we were to leave for Greece. Their only suggestion was to try the Atlanta Passport Agency (the nearest passport agency to Nashville - four hours away). I called - probably in tears - and was able to make an appointment the Wednesday of Spring Break. The kind woman I spoke to said that she couldn't guarantee that we would get the passport the same day but it would most likely be the next day (assuming that our paperwork checks out). Fingers crossed.

Side note: While I was on the phone making my calls, my sweet daughter who only understood that we needed a passport ASAP was generous enough to offer her own from her Little Passports kit (which is a pretty neat monthly subscription, BTW).

So, anyway, Justin took a couple of unexpected days off and we headed to Atlanta. Luckily, one of my best friends - and Lissie's godmother - now lives in Atlanta and was gracious enough to take pity on our situation and was willing to host us during our emergency stay. Thankfully her husband's Spring Break also coincided with ours and her own work schedule was light, so she promised we wouldn't be an inconvenience.

(Meanwhile, this whole time I kept telling Justin that if, for whatever reason, this passport situation doesn't work out that I was still going. Sorry, not sorry. Haha.)

Anyway, so we arrive in Atlanta late Tuesday night of Spring Break. We drove through some crazy storms but wanted to ensure that we were in the city well before Justin's appointment time the next morning. We went straight to bed and left bright and early to make our way downtown.

While Justin was at his meeting, the kids and I hopped on the free Atlanta Streetcar and made our way to Sweet Urban Market for breakfast and to explore the cool Farmer's Market. Fortunately, Justin's appointment was quick - but with the downfall that a new passport wouldn't be ready until that Friday. We could have it mailed to us (and risk it not getting to us in time), go home and drive back, or just stay and wait. And, since we were on spring break anyway and our friends are awesome hosts who didn't mind us crashing, Justin called work to say that he couldn't come in for the rest of the week and we enjoyed a fun family trip to Atlanta for spring break!

So we headed on our own little walking tour of downtown, finding cute playgrounds to stop at and eventually- after a yummy lunch at South City Kitchen- we made our way to the Federal Reserve to tour the Atlanta Monetary Museum and learn some interesting facts about money, as well as get a pretty neat souvenir of shredded bills.

Afterwards, we headed back to our friends' house for dinner and some bouncing.

What a life.

The next day we enjoyed a day at the Atlanta Zoo, where the kids had fun feeding the giraffes. We found a great little gyro joint to stop at for lunch (because Justin and I couldn't wait until Greece to hit one up, haha) and headed back to our friends' house to hang out with them before we got grub at Ponce City Market.

Xavier had tapped out on fun by lunchtime.
He was also quite hangry and, therefore, unwilling to pose

And finally, Friday. We started the day at Sublime Doughnuts, after hearing such rave reviews from friends who used to live in Atlanta. We had a little bit of time to kill before Justin's passport was deemed to be ready, so we headed to Piedmont Park to explore and play. We headed back downtown where Justin dropped us off at Centennial Park for us to wander while he picked up his passport. When he got back with his passport in tow (whoo-hoo!), we celebrated with Gu's Dumplings and other delicious eats at Krog Street Market (again another recommendation from another foodie friend!) before making the drive back home. Whew!

The coveted passport. Finally!

Look at that celebratory spread!

So yes, our spring break didn't quite go as planned. But thankfully it all worked out and we got some fun memories - and a valid passport - out of it! We enjoyed our emergency impromptu trip to visit our good friends and explore a different city a little further. Good times.