Absurd Situation II

A few weeks ago, I had The Original Absurd Situation, trying to fly with a valid passport that expires in less than 6 months. Well, I was able to check in at the airport, no problem, with my US passport. And my parking reservation was fine. And I got to California for a nice visit. But, of course, 

The Saga continues!

I tried to check in online for my return - I'm going to France, and I have a French passport. Should be easy. But No! OK, I have plenty of time at the airport. The very helpful fellow at the Air France desk reviewed my situation, and explained that I couldn't check in online because my original originating flight (from France) hadn't been cleared up properly (it had been cancelled; I was rebooked on another day). I thought (and I'm sure he did too) that he was clearing it up. He got me checked in (and even managed an aisle seat 😁). (Do I have enough asides here (or do I need more?)?) 🤣🤣🤣

I was all set, checked in with my French passport, and thought to ask: I'm American, and I know it's illegal to enter or leave the US using a non-US passport; at security, should I show my US passport, or show the French one that is associated with my boarding pass? He said that he gets this question all the time - the pass through security is just that, it's not border control. So I should use the passport associated with my boarding pass. It's nice to have that all cleared up!

Speaking of border control...

When I was leaving France, transferring planes in Paris, getting *into* the international terminal, there were automatic face-recognition gates. They refused my US passport (too close to expiring), and I went to stand in line for an agent. That line was *not* moving, and people were all riled up (not a good place). I could see the other side, and there was no follow-up for documents (like ESTAs), so I went back to the automatic gates and used my French passport - bingo! Before they had this system, everyone went via an agent - you had to think about which line to us, depending on which paperwork they might want. Now, it's *fast!*

Once I arrived at San Francisco, I used my US passport as usual. There were no demands to see phones, just a quick question "do you have anything to declare?" - easy peasy.

All the rest of my travel back to France, I used my French passport. 

When I got home, I decided that it might be easier to have an account with Air France, so I joined. I also saw that I could apply miles from this last trip, so I did! Well... (wait for it!) My return trip was added, no problem, but the originating flight was not. More curious than anything else, I contacted them, and they looked into it. Yep, my originating flight was shown as "open, not used" 🤯 - so all that shuffling around was still causing problems! Anyway, that got fixed somehow.

I also thought, hey, my flight was cancelled! EU law says I should be compensated (beyond getting rebooked), so I filled out the form. A day or two later, the response is "denied" (in a nice way though) since it was due to a runway problem, not <enter meaningless static noises here>...

But NOW! I have my new US passport! 😅😁🎉

Passport!

We had a little excitement this morning! My renewed US passport arrived!

I hadn't realized that my old one was set to expire in September, and didn't have enough time (4-6 weeks) to get a new one before my trip. So when I travelled to the US, I had a few extra hoops to jump through. Airlines won't let you check-in online if you don't have at least 6 months of validity left on your passport...

Anyway, I got through that 🙄, and immediately (after recovering from jet lag) applied for a new one. 

Incredibly, it took 2 (TWO!) weeks and 1 day! 

I followed these instructions, and checked on the progress:

July 16 - mailed application from Sète 

July 18 - Collissimo tracking said it was delivered to the US embassy 

July 24 - Passport tracking said it was done, and mailed! Let's give them the weekend to get it from France to the US, and that's just 3 days to get the thing made!

July 28 - Collissimo tracking said it's on its way

July 31 - it's here!!!

What's the first thing I did? I added it to my airline account! 🤣🤣🤣

California Family

I had a great visit with family in California! Two weeks (well, almost), full of ...

Catching up

Empty chair for me and others 🙂 

Cooking

Duck à l'Orange

Potatoes Fondantes (sooo good!)

Making friends with the new dog

Checking out the flowers

More catching up (they demanded a selfie...)

Special times with Mom and Dad!

Photo-browsing - 1954; this is when they got Engaged!

Playing cards...

We had 4th of July Fireworks! 🎇🧨🇺🇸 But no pictures 😔

I did some of the usual shopping, then to the library's book sale (which included jigsaw puzzles 😜)

I left them with this beast 🤣🤣🤣

~~~

Recipes:

Potatoes Fondantes 

Spatchcock Duck

The Absurd Situation

The absurd situation...

I have an air ticket from France (where I live) to the US (where my family is). I tried to upload my travel documents several weeks ago, but the website didn't accept my US passport. It is valid, but expires in 3 months, so I assume that is why it wasn't taken. So, since I also have a French passport, I used that - everything looked fine, except that I had to add a US contact (ok, I have that). And there was a note stating that I might need an ESTA (waiver for visa-free travel to the US); this would be automatically checked when I check in for the flight. But of course, a US citizen doesn't get an ESTA. And I can't check in until the day before my flight. It's recommended to use their website to confirm that I will be able to check in. I do this, uploading my US passport, and it states that travel is allowed. But there's no way to connect that determination with my booking number. I remain suspicious.

Fast forward to this week. My flight is on Tuesday, so Monday morning, I try to check in. Nope, not allowed, since I don't have an ESTA. A while later, I get an email from the airline, with a link to upload more travel documents. Great! I do that (upload my US passport, and comment that it expires in 3 months), and I get to check in. I print my boarding pass, and I go to sleep, comfortable with my ability to fly the next morning.

4 AM the next morning... I have a message saying that my flight is cancelled, and they're trying to rebook me. I'll skip all that detail, and just say that it wouldn't work. I start a chat (yay!) with the airline, and I get rebooked for 2 days later. My booking number remains the same (that's important, trust me). That's not ideal, but the best option. I confirmed that I would still be able to check in without reloading my document. "Yes" is the answer (but not really).

The next day (the day before my new flight), I try to check in online. (Drum roll)

Here's where it gets absurd.

It fails (of course). I get the same type of email as before (saying I need to upload more travel documents), I follow the link, uploaded the document again, then it days I'm all set, able to check in. But I still can't! OK, I try to re-confirm via the same link, but it won't let me edit (I'm thinking I'd add a comment), and it still says I'm all set! Apparently, the site "thinks" they've cleared my booking number for check-in, and so doesn't need to again. But the check-in site needs a new ok for the new check-in (new flight, but same booking number). Sigh.

So I try the chat route as before - no answer.

I try a different app to chat, and get the auto-guy, who's no help; he just says to check in at the airport. At this point, I just want to leave feedback... Hah!

Now, I'm really just hoping my flight tomorrow isn't cancelled, that my parking reservation isn't cancelled, and that I can finally check in at the airline counter and get to California.

Inflation in Europe

Inflation in Europe

We hear about the inflation in the US (7.9%); here's a breakdown of the inflation in the EU (6.2% on average, ranging between 14% and 4.2%) by country.

For more details, see here:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/225698/monthly-inflation-rate-in-eu-countries/

US Rental Cars

Everyone knows how to rent a car, right? Well, things are a little more involved in the US when you don't already have a car there - and the usual insurance!

What we found out:

• we absolutely can not apply our French car insurance to a US rental, as you normally would with US car insurance.
• we could borrow a car from friends or family, and their liability insurance would cover us if needed. But the usual required amount of coverage is relatively low; if we really needed it, we might also lose our shirts!
• we could get the same amount of insurance on a rental car. In fact, if you don't have insurance already, they're supposed to provide it (and charge you, of course).
• we finally found a place that would sell us supplemental liability insurance, but it would only cover us in a rental car; we couldn't buy it to cover us in a borrowed car.

Well, so what to do? We ended up renting cars for two short periods, buying the insurance (RentalCover, $20/day), and getting rides the rest of the time. To be fair, no one made us feel like we had put them out, but it did feel like a loss of freedom. Just a bit.

Speaking of freedom! This Mustang convertible was one of the cars! Ahhh, top down, sun shining, wind in my hair... And a satisfyingly growly engine 😀😛

It seemed we hit the rental market at a strange time - both times, I was met with the statement: "it's all we have..."

OK - the first car we aimed for was a mid-size, thinking we might drive others around; we ended up with a Spark instead (which was actually pretty roomy). The shock was that they were going to charge us twice as much! They fixed that...

The second car was supposed to be a Spark (LOL), because we needed the fold-down seats for our luggage. That became the Mustang! We put the top down to load/unload our suitcases 🙄.

We also hit the near-peak of gas prices! We paid $6/gallon...

Both cars required a $200 deposit, and took 30-45 minutes to check out (gone are the days of my premium membership - here's your car number, and the keys are in it. Hah!). Both deposits were returned 🙂. Both cars had relatively minor issues - they had definitely been brought out of retirement! The nice thing was, returning the car to SFO, we got the platinum treatment! Just us in an SUV, driven directly to our terminal - nice chat while we were at it, too! 

I'm toying with an idea for next time. If I owned part of a car, I could probably get the insurance I need. And the cost for a year might be better than a month of temporary insurance - plus, I could borrow cars again! Anyway, it's something to think about...

Cancellations and Refunds

We just received the last of our refunds for our trip-that-was-not. 

Every one of our six flights - Norwegian Air, Southwest, and Air France - was cancelled! Even though we bought our entire trip as non-refundable, because we waited for them to cancel, we had the option for a refund, and took it.

Our Airbnb in New Orleans also cancelled and refunded.

We did have to jump through some hoops, but eventually World Nomads refunded our trip insurance as well.

The one place that doesn't seem to be able to refund, despite their assurances on their website, is Expedia, for Quality Inn. Fortunately, we only had one night booked for our arrival.

UPDATE July 13 - finally used the last of our reimbursed funds; we've been using them for groceries 😉

USA Pinochle Championship

Here are the scoresheets from the 2018 USA Pinochle Championship. (Not included are the warm-up games, in which "Player J" was poorly represented)

Game 1 - Player J

Game 2 - Player P

Game 3 - Player J

Game 4 - Player J

Game 5 - Player J (with a major assist by Player V)

Special Exhibition Game - Partners J&K

Note that all three players will go on to the 2018 French Pinochle Open :-)

Homecoming!

Homecoming was today!

That's the Football Game, as opposed to coming home, which will be soon for us!

It's Fall, so Football Season, and in high schools all across America, students are getting ready for the big Homecoming Game. This Icon of Fall starts days (weeks?) before the big day, with the marching band getting all practiced up, student committees planning floats and banners, and nominating candidates for Homecoming King and Queen.

Today, we saw the early fruits of their labors, at the parade through downtown

The Grand Marshal, followed by Cheerleaders

On a motorcycle!

Hello!

Flags and Band

A whole lotta clubs

FFA Horse (and rider)

International clubs - Latino and French!

And in case you needed a close up (really, who doesn't!), here it is

Later tonight, the actual game is played. During one of the breaks, the Homecoming King and Queen are crowned, and after the game, there's The Dance!

I think I lost 40 years today ;-)

California Hellos

Said Hello to a few Californians :-)

Three "sisters" and a "cousin" - LOL, my aunts go a little crazy with nomenclature...

Then there was the peach...

My Little French Sailors!

More new family!

It looks like they really do like the French Sailor look :-)

Fritz, the Newest!

His Big Sis Addy

They're on notice - France is in their future...

Falconry in California

The other day, we went to West Coast Falconry, and learned all about an awful lot about the sport/art/larder-filling-ancient-activity of falconry!

We got there about 8 am, and met Amber and Kathie - they fitted us with gloves, and introduced us to Hancock, a Harris Hawk.

I had a little fun looking at their driveway garden - it's full of tasty-looking bird treats ;-)

We heard all sorts of interesting facts about falconry. Here are just a few:

• There is archeological evidence that humans used birds of prey to hunt for food as long ago as 12,000 years ago!
• Many of today's sayings are rooted in falconry - "wrapped around your little finger" and "under your thumb" come from the ties used to hold the bird to your hand
• Harris hawks (like Hancock here) are the only raptors that hunt in groups - and they'll take to a new hawk pretty quickly!
• These raptors usually like a small rodent to eat; hunting larger animals, like rabbits and snow leopards =-O takes special training

After a little while, we got to fly Hancock - it was really amazing just how light he was, and how easily he landed!

After our class, we meandered around the pens, looking at the other birds (pictures here, and descriptions here).

Wee Hamish was just too cute!

~~~
West Coast Falconry (#westcoastfalconry) is in Northern California, off Hwy 20 in the Sierra Nevada foothills. They run classes/birding sessions ranging from one hour to several days.

In addition to falconry, Kathie is also an artist - you can see her work here: http://kathiemiller.com

New Family!

We've been in France for year and a half, and have a few new family members to meet!

We gained our new niece yesterday, when Rachel Joined The Joyners (#joiningthejoyners)

Joyned!

Keanan and Rachel

And we met this little girl for the first time!

Cheryce and Jojo

 We even got some special Jojo time (in exchange for some ear LOL)