So it begins...

The morning dawns on March 16th, a day we have been anticipating. That night we are to fly out of Minneapolis to venture to South Korea and begin our adventure. The day was a frantic one. Between last minute packing and last minute good-byes with good friends and family we barely had time to breathe. But once we were at the airport, through security and sitting pretty in our First Class seats we thought all of our troubles were behind us...little did we know.

A few FREE drinks later, our First Class experience came to an end and we were thrown back into the hectic world of LAX (LA airport, for those of you who don't know). While running the gauntlet of people in the international terminal trying to find the Korean Air ticket counter we both had a sense of foreboding, who could have known what it meant for us. When we arrived at the Korean Air ticket counter we were greeted with smiles and kind words. We were nicely asked for our passports and Steph proudly presented hers to the ticket agent. Meanwhile, Shawn was frantically searching his carry-on bag for his passport, to no avail. *Important note to this story- Shawn's passport was last sighted on the plane from Minneapolis to LAX. Again I repeat ON the plane.

--OK, we're going to shorten this long tragic story up for you folks. Shawn had to make a mad dash to the Northwest ticket counter to report the lost passport, only to be greeted with rude glances and short responses from the less than friendly ticket agents. He was told to go to the baggage claim area and report his passport. After running to the baggage claim (Yeah, not kidding RUNNING), again nothing was found but rude uninterested employees (one actually told him he was "Stupid" for losing his passport, like he needed to be told). **Scene Change- Korean Air ticket counter** Steph is waiting alone with seven bags of luggage and no idea what is going on. OK, back to the story. The Northwest people were clearly not going to find the passport so we started planning our next move. After calling our recruiter (who INSISTED that Steph board the plane alone) we had some hard decisions to make. After a few tears we decided to stay in LA and try to get a new passport. We then had the joy of trying to find a hotel in LA at 02:00 AM using only a phone book from a pay phone outside the airport.

The next chapter of this story begins in the magical and wondrous world of Inglewood, CA (yes, that was sarcasm). We arrived at the hotel at almost 03:00 AM welcomed by a surly desk attendant and some ladies with pretty, clear high heeled shoes standing on the corner...maybe they were there to welcome us, why else would they be out so late? After only about three hours of sleep we wake up to horror of our situation. Many, many calls later (all to government agencies) we are frustrated and hopeless about our situation. Shawn, at the end of his rope decides to do what he does best...call his mom. Finally, some results! The airline had called her at about 04:00 AM (central time) to let her know that they had found Shawn's passport on the plane (we left her number because...oh yeah we have no cell phones this entire time!). The next thing we do is book new flights to Korea, we are on our way once again!

To be continued...