Saturday, June 23, 2012

Niagara Falls 2011 and the Passport Dilemma


I wanted to use my passport in 2011 to cross from Niagara Falls, Ontario to Niagara Falls, New York. Ironically, my passport was a bit water damaged from a previous trip to Disneyland, and during trips to and from Washington Customs people were getting annoyed at the passport. I decided to get an enhanced ID but knew it wouldn’t be ready for my first Toronto trip in March 2011.  The passport office said they thought I should get a new passport, which would have required paying for the replacement costs, costs for a rush order, and cost to have the passport notarized due to the water damage.  Also I’d temporarily misfiled my birth certificate (since found).  Even without the birth certificate it became clear to me that the cost wasn’t really worth it when all I wanted to do with the passport was to cross the bridge from Niagara Falls, Ontario to Niagara Falls, New York, spend a couple hours there, and then walk back across the bridge.  Besides, if I did get turned away, the Canadian Falls were supposed to be better anyway (true).  So I decided to chance the damaged passport and… no hassle whatsoever, nothing like on the west coast; while I liked the Canadian falls more, the American ones are also great.  I saved myself a ton of money just getting myself an enhanced ID when I got back home.

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