Passports, boarding passes, and other carry on items — or Sarah loses things: 07/12/15

If you travel abroad, you need a passport. Sometimes you also need a visa. Thankfully we only needed passports. That meant a passport and boarding pass for each person: eight items. As I carry an over the shoulder handbag, we all agreed I'd be in charge of them. Normally, that's a good thing.

But airports and airplanes add an extra layer of confusion. Besides having to show the passports and boarding passes at every single bloody line we queue up at, we also have paperwork to fill out and of course our carry on luggage.

Airlines try to do their part by offering the paperwork on the flight, but let's face it, there are plenty of other things they also have be doing. So the flight attendants get the paperwork passed out as soon as possible (when you don't need it and on't have the extra hands to hold it). On the flight out, we were given the entry paperwork for the UK just after take off before the first round of drinks, and just as we hit a huge pocket of turbulence over the Sierra Nevadas. On the way home, we were given the United States's customs form with our boarding passes at check in just before walking to security.

The one thing one can't lose when traveling internationally is one's passport. I was in charge of my entire family's set. As you can imagine I was so intensely focused on NOT LOSING the passports, that I wasn't thinking about the bigger picture.

The good news is, I didn't lose the passports.

But, I did lose my Olympus camera on the way out, and my boarding pass and our family entry paperwork to the United States on the way home (whilst still in the airport).

I did get all my lost things back and ended up with two cameras in the process, but that's a story for another day.
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