Oh right.... Passports?!?!

So 15 days ago I was in my home office and decided to gather all our travel documents and passports together to be the "well organized" international traveller.  Got my passport... Check!  Got Michele's passport... Check!  Got the Girls' passports... Check!  HOLD ON!  Wait a second!!!  The Girls' passports expire June 1, 2014 and they fly out of the country June 4th... CRAP, CRAP, TRIPLE CRAP!!?!?!  What are we going to do!!!

After the first initial shock of my grave mistake kicked in, we kicked into hyper mode to figure out how to renew them in time.  We called the San Francisco Passport Agency... hmmm, we need an appointment, plan on taking ALL DAY, pay through the nose, and we have to provide travel documents proving the Girls' are leaving within 2 weeks.  Well it looks like we have EXACTLY 3 weeks, maybe enough time to shift to Plan B....

The next day we pulled both Girls out of school at lunch time; met in Reno at the Post Office; made copies of our drivers licenses; had pictures taken; filled out all the paperwork; etc.... ~$410 and an hour... we had both passport applications in transit with approximately a 3 week turn around time.  It turns out you can pay some hefty "extra" fees to have your application "fast tracked" or "expedited".  While they don't guarantee a 3 week turnaround time, it sounded like it shouldn't take more time than that.  Talk about cutting it close?!?  It must be a Presto thing, because I think my Dad normally does this all the time. ;)

Anyhow, the good news is the passports showed up 3 days ago this past Saturday of a 3 day holiday weekend.... 12 days after we sent them in.  This is once instance where a government agency definitely exceeded all expectations.  Yeah for the State Department.  Phew....

So it looks like things are back on track and the biggest thing is for all of us to keep cranking on learning French.  DuoLingo is awesome!! 

Maps and Rainy Days

Us little "Mountain Mice" are so excited! In just under two weeks, we'll be leaving Truckee and on our way to Europe. In the meantime, we've been busy planning everything from where we're going, where we're staying, and (at Dad's urging) what we're bringing (see this weekends post for more details on that). Anyway, one of our biggest helpers in the planning has been this big 'ol thing:

That's our handy-dandy map. Dad ordered it off the internet a few weeks ago and ever since then we've been using as a reference guide and a tracker of our possible destinations. The fact that it's laminated is very handy indeed....

Outside the weather is pretty yucky, so in the meantime I've been going over some of my French and failing to pronounce the names of various towns we're visiting. Practice makes perfect, so I'd better keep trying. Until next time!
-Mountain Mouse Mikaela

Mountain mice?

Do you remember the book "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse"? The kids loved this story when they were little. Basically, City Mouse visits his friend Country Mouse and is bored silly. Country mouse visits City Mouse and is overwhelmed. They both prefer where they live, but are happy they have someone to visit.

Hiking with our friend, Skids, a little Mikaela told him confidently that he must be a city mouse. Skids' answer? "Nope, I am a country mouse living in a city."

The Prestos are a particular brand of country mice (and at least one city mouse living in the country) - we are Mountain Mice.

Shopping and "test" packing...

This past weekend, we got busy shopping in Reno on Saturday.  REI did very well where the girls scored some shoes, dresses, etc.  Slowly we have been checking off the list of last minute items to pick up.

And then on Sunday, we did a "test" pack where everyone went through a dry run of all the clothes, shoes, electronics, etc that they would need for wandering through Europe.  The goal is to have NO checkin luggage.  Fortunately, it seems that we were all able to pare down to the essential clothes that would fit into a carry on bag.  In case, people were curious... this includes 6 days of full outfits, rain jackets, extra layers, and 3 pairs of shoes each.  Other items include a laptop, a couple of cameras, 3 iPads, 2 iPhones, 1 Kindle and all the various chargers and cords.  Anyhow, it looks like we were all able to pack everything in with some room to spare!

Too bad the girls still have 2 weeks before they leave and Michele and I have 2 more additional weeks after that.  Anyhow, very exciting and the list of a few last minute things has been whittled down.  Time to continue to brush up on the French :).