Who here has a recent passport? The new ones are quite beautiful, and meaningful.

[lebkuchen]

I renewed mine a couple of months ago. This is probably my 4th passport. The pages in the current one have pictures representing the US, whether a cactus, wheat, an eagle, the Rocky Mountains, cowboys, liberty bell, Mt. Rushmore, transcontinental railroad, bears, totem poles, and space... The quotes are very inclusive, even when it comes to animal rights:

We send thanks to all the Animal life in the world. They have many things to teach us as people. We are glad they are still here, and we hope it will always be so.
--excerpt from the Thanksgiving Address, Mohawk version

I like Eisenhower's:

Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come to pass in the heart of America.
--Dwight D. Eisenhower

[Solly Mack]

1. Cool! I'll need a new one soon.

Hey! Hope you're doing well.

[lebkuchen]

13. Hi Solly!

I'm doing great here at the Arctic Circle! Lots of reindeer! We're washing the sleeping bag, and it's still in the campground drier.

[Solly Mack]

18. Sounds exciting! (and I'm jealous!)

I'm in back of the back of beyond in rural Louisiana for another 16 months.

I take a lot of bug photos. lol

[lebkuchen]

22. When do you make another move?

Lots of mosquitos where I am, btw. Thank god for benedryl.

[Solly Mack]

26. 2015. :(

But it's retirement!

We've narrowed it down to Washington state or back to Germany. Depends. Anything can happen between now and then.

[lebkuchen]

49. Congrats on the upcoming renta!

Something to really look forward to (me in particular since I've been sleeping every morning until about 11:00 a.m.)

I'm looking at 2018 or 2019....either Germany or...Oregon/Washington? It will be tough to leave all this travel behind in Europe, though I love the river culture of the Pacific northwest.

[HiPointDem]

2. and are they chipped?

[pinboy3niner]

5. I think they are delivered with First Class Mail

[mainer]

6. yes, they are chipped.

We finally caught up to Europe.

[lebkuchen]

15. What is also chipped in Scandanavia, and probably other parts of Europe, are credit cards

You can still use the unchipped credit card here, but it does make sense to have them chipped and available with a pin code for security.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Having a passport is just common sense

I got to renew mine. Combined with my Mexican passports that will be like 16th travel document. My mom had the common sense to get my first when I was three and needed to travel for medical reasons.

[Bay Boy]

12. Huh?

you needed a passport to travel to Mexico for medical reasons?

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. Last time I checked Boston is not in Mexico

But hey, I said I needed one to travel for medical reasons. That implies outside of Mexico. Is this to hard to comprehend?

Oh and I forgot, you do need a passport to travel to Mexico these days.

[tabbycat31]

25. If you can afford it, yes

People have been telling me for years that I should always have a valid passport.

I will get one when I know I will need it (I have no connections outside the country). If I need ID, I will use my drivers license.

There's no sense in me paying ~$100 for something that will get no use.

(I have a very old passport from when I was a child. I have not left the country since. I haven't traveled for leisure since 2005, and my travel for work is all domestic as I work in US politics).

[nadinbrzezinski]

28. Well, I need mine valid

Since I got family outside the US and have been challenged at elections by poll workers.

I will add, as a daughter of a holocaust survivor, that is also a compulsion.

[tabbycat31]

30. If you have family outside the US that makes sense

As for voting, I'm a perennial absentee voter (I work on campaigns for a living and I'm never around to vote in person).

I also vote in a state without voter ID laws, but my drivers license should do the trick.

[nadinbrzezinski]

37. In 2004 I got challenged in Cali

Whipped it out, voted, and called the registrar. Saith poll worker has not worked my precinct ever since

[lebkuchen]

39. When you supplied the passport in response to the challenge

did the poll workers even know how to assess it? Great reason to keep yours updated, though.

[nadinbrzezinski]

57. nope

[CTyankee]

14. oh, good lord! What's wrong with a little bit of travel abroad?

Or to Canada or Mexico?

I love to travel now that I'm retired so I have to give up something else to do it. Maybe the OP is doing the same thing. Maybe she/he saves up money the way I do, not buying a new car or having a very reduced budget for clothes or eating out in restaurants.

Or maybe a job requires travel in foreign country. You don't know and why should you even care?

And yes, the U.S. passport is nicely designed.

[Bay Boy]

16. so who do you think is paying for...

...this extravagant travel?

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. You must be one of those Americans

That have never ever travelled outside the US...I know, icky.

[lebkuchen]

21. I'm camping in the Arctic Circle

in a super nice camper, 6.7 meters, frig, freezer, shower, 'garage' to store all the European wines.

Sleeping bag is in the drier and I'm relaxing with a dry reisling studying my cool passport.

Wish you were here!

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. Sounds amazing

I would not mind, but will have to pass on the Riesling. Will a late suffice? I got an espresso machine that works on the fire.

[lebkuchen]

29. Absolutely. Instant coffee is losing its edge.

But it's a good way to save money, when you make your own, especially in Scandinavia. Sweden is particularly expensive.

[Aerows]

43. Wish I was there, too!

That sounds great.

[lebkuchen]

53. It's my first time this far north.

It doesn't get dark, and the weather has been between 75-85, perfect, and unusual for these parts. Lots of reindeer, so careful driving is a must. I went to a husky farm yesterday and gave back-rubs to about 100 Alaskan/Siberian dogs and a little puppy (father unknown). Tonight I had a Finnish sauna. Saunas are everywhere.

There's a lot to do up here, summer and winter, so think about it! Finland isn't so expensive, and the people are really nice.

[CTyankee]

24. Is this some sort of joke?

[Hekate]

34. Apparently not joking

Just being nasty to be nasty

[CTyankee]

38. I don't understand the question of who is paying for the passport!

Can you explain that meaning to me?

[Aerows]

42. I think the general implication

was that any person that requires a passport is either fabulously wealthy or travels on the taxpayer dime.

I know, made very little sense to me, either.

[CTyankee]

44. Maybe the reasoning is that you get it for free.

That's news to me. In fact, when I had my passport stolen several years ago in Europe I had to get a train to the nearest U.S. consulate and give them $100 in cold hard cash to get an emergency passport. Since then I have always traveled abroad with enough U.S. dollars to cover the cost of one of those, just in case. But mostly I am just super careful.

[Aerows]

47. A passport being free

is news to me, too, and likely everyone else that has one

[pinboy3niner]

54. Current fees for 1st time adult passport book alone total $135

Fees are listed in a pdf here:
http://travel.state.gov/pdf/PassportFeesprintable_Feb2013V3.pdf

[Aerows]

55. I know

it certainly isn't free!

[CTyankee]

71. But it's good for 10 years, so it's a pretty good deal, IMO.

[ejpoeta]

81. if you are going to use it. i would love to be able to travel.

[lebkuchen]

83. ...and as Nadia had implied

it's nice to have on hand when going to the polls....$10 a year for voting security. It's a good payoff.

[JI7]

69. check out it's other posts, pretty sure it's a troll

[Aerows]

35. For some people

it's called this crazy thing known as "being employed".

[greatauntoftriplets]

36. I always paid for my own.

[CTyankee]

41. Of course, What is he talking about?

[greatauntoftriplets]

45. I don't have a clue.

I did stay with relatives in two countries (Luxembourg and Belgium) but there's nothing wrong or unprogressive about foreign travel. IMO, it broadens the mind and is an educational experience in many respects.

[nadinbrzezinski]

72. I do, and it is n ugly archetype

Only the very liberal, rich, coastal elite...travels unlike real Americans.

[Posteritatis]

59. I think this is the first time I've seen someone offended someone else has a passport. (nt)

[uppityperson]

62. Yup, it is SOOooooo extravagant to hop over the border in Canada, eh?

Did you know that to drive from Skagway, AK to Anchorage you need a passport as you go through Canada? And that is "extravagant"? Good grief. You are sounding like my stalker Frank.

[Major Hogwash]

40. We didn't used to have to have a passport if we wanted to go to Canada just a few years ago.

I don't know when they started that crapola, but it seemed unnecessary to me.
It's not like all of us were smuggling backbacon into the United States.
Well, sure, some of them were, but not all of us.

[lebkuchen]

17. How absurd. The rest of the world sans the US have passports.

Are you Sarah Palin in boy's clothing?

[Aerows]

27. Who doesn't have a passport

and travels anywhere outside of the US? Having a passport doesn't mean you are a "jetsetter" it means you've actually set foot out of the US at least once.

[Revanchist]

88. Not necessarly

I've never had a passport but have been to Italy, Spain, Greece, France, Israel, Egypt, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, and Mexico. Of course, that was all due to military service, but I didn't need a passport.

[LeftofObama]

4. Good to know!

I need to renew mine soon.

[lebkuchen]

8. My friends have the older versions, and they want to renew to get the cool pics!

It's the classiest passport I've seen to date--very USA. I'm sure it must be the doing of the Obama Administration...change happens in small ways.

[MadrasT]

31. The current design was introduced in 2007

It is nice - even if it came out under Bush

Last renewed mine in October 2008 and it is the "new" one

[lebkuchen]

46. I don't recall who his Sec. of State was

but whoever came up w/the idea of turning the passport into a "walk through history" in its few pages provided had a lot more foresight, creativity and American spirit than Bush ever did.

[HockeyMom]

7. If you live in certain states, you might need it to VOTE

Tell the FEDS, I am not a citizen.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. I carry mine every election

And don't live in the usual suspects. Once I got challenged.

[lebkuchen]

11. Then there will be a mad rush to the passport office

since only about 20% of Americans have one. Could this be another ploy by the GOP to hinder the vote of those "snooty passport carrying liberals," or whatever Sarah Pallin called us?? (She didn't have one and probably still doesn't.)

[CTyankee]

32. I often travel with small groups in Road Scholar (travel offshoot of Elderhostel) and they

are the nicest group of people you can find. All are either Americans or (a few) are Canadian. We
are a little bunch of art and history nuts, way past the age where we care about what people think of us but respectful in every place we go, just squeezing every bit of travel opportunities out of each trip! Sarah Palin would HATE our company and, believe me, the feeling would be mutual!

[lebkuchen]

51. Hey, guess who I saw in Sweden about two weeks ago?

Rick Steves the travel guru. I was riding my bike in a park in Norshopping, Sweden and he was walking in my direction. He smiled and moved on. I wasn't absolutely positive until I checked his website, and yes, he's in Sweden this summer, among some other countries. An exhibit of the Titanic was in town, so maybe he went to that, as I had. I'm not too familiar with his books, but I looked him up, and he gave a super interview on Salon awhile back, expressing his political views, dovetailed to travel views. I was impressed.

[CTyankee]

52. LOVE Rick Steves! One of our Sunday papers carries his column.

At my advanced age, I prefer Road Scholar to make arrangements that I used to do...I don't like hassling with air fare and room arrangements, preferring to "curate" the art/history experience. RS lets me do that and it's liberating to me.

But, boy, do I learn a LOT from people like Rick (except that I suspect I know more about the art)...

[lebkuchen]

56. Here's the article I'd happened upon recently

http://www.salon.com/2009/03/20/rick_steves/

RS is the Dixie Chicks of travel. Who knew?

I made the plans of this trip for the 1st three weeks as there were dates that had to be established. It took up a lot of my time for ferry schedules, meeting friends, getting married (!), etc. Now we're ad-libbing, and it sure helps to have the GPS.

We've been meeting a lot of people while camping, and we've exchanged several addresses.

[CTyankee]

73. thanks so much!

My RS trips have enriched my life in so many ways. But that is now, where I am in my life...

You are in a different time sphere and it is wonderful that you have done this! BEST of luck to you in your new married life and may you be happy forever!

[lebkuchen]

85. Thanks, CTyankee.

It's my first, and I'm 60. It's his 2nd, and he's 70. We've known each other 13 years (what's wrong w/#13? . We hope, above all else, to maintain mobility in our later years so we can continue to learn and understand.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

78. I love him. His books were immensely helpful

When I went to Europe. His travel show has been on Oregon Public Broadcasting for quite some time.

I just donated to OPB and got a whole bunch of his stuff including over 100 show on DVD.

[lebkuchen]

82. I've heard great things about his program

I don't get it here.

He sounds like a very generous person and a reasonable thinker.

[Le Taz Hot]

33. Moi.

They are gorgeous and it's nice to have a passport ready to go if you need it.

[lebkuchen]

58. ...and when you're standing in line at customs with a bunch of other foreigners

the US passport looks so "top drawer" compared to everyone else's!

[Le Taz Hot]

75. I don't know about that.

I just like to have it handy on a moment's notice should I decide to go South of the Border, Down Mexico Way.

[pinboy3niner]

80. Heh!

[GentryDixon]

48. I let my passport expire a few years ago.

Stupid, I know. When I renewed I had to pay like it was my first. It was over $100.00. My new photo shows an old woman, versus the hot chick on my old passport. But, I must say it is much classier.

[lebkuchen]

60. Mine didn't expire but I paid about that as well

...and spent about $20 until I got a decent head shot in a photo automat where ALL pictures look sucky.

[liberal_at_heart]

50. Can't really afford a trip right now, but my husband swears up and down we will go

somewhere for our 25th anniversary even if it is just to British Columbia. We're in WA, so we're close by.

[lebkuchen]

61. That could be a VERY nice trip, especially in fall

However, it makes me sad to hear Americans say they can't afford travel. Even the Russians get at least 5 weeks of paid vacation. I just met a computer programmer from Murmansk who was loving her time in Finland, understandably so since who the hell wants to live in Murmansk?

A couple of US college kids visited me last month, and one didn't have health insurance. That is unacceptable in the rest of the world, and it's just wrong in the US.

[southernyankeebelle]

63. I still have my old passport. It has stamps of the different countries am been to.

I know they have gotten pricey since I last had one. What is the cost now?

[pinboy3niner]

68. Link to pdf with current fee schedule:

http://travel.state.gov/pdf/PassportFeesprintable_Feb2013V3.pdf

[uppityperson]

64. I like the old one, less flashy and easier to read the stamps in them. "An Embarrassingly Patriotic"

The "rah rah USA" stuff annoys me.

This is not my blog but I agree with her. http://www.marketplace.org/topics/life/i-dont-want-ugly-american-passport

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-215_162-3414706.html

An Embarrassingly Patriotic Passport

So, complaining about something so superficial as the way the passport looks might seem a little like kicking the poor schlubs in the consular service when they're down. Unfortunately, the newly redesigned U.S. passport -- that document so many folks have waited in Soviet-length lines to acquire, and which they'll no doubt thumb through as they wait in even longer queues at our borders next year -- is tacky enough to make you want to do just that. Apparently, someone forgot that passports are mainly meant to be read by, you know, foreigners. Plastered like a NASCAR vehicle with cheeseball patriotic clip-art that might have been swiped from The Colbert Report's opening credits, the new books spill jingoism the way traveling Americans once spilled hard currency.


(clip)
The problems only start once you open your passport. On the inside front cover is a Fort McHenry illustration accompanied by the last four lines of the "Star Spangled Banner," apparently in Francis Scott Key's handwriting. Why is this quotation in actual handwriting? It's unclear. Other than an inexplicably capitalized passage from the Gettysburg Address that I fear will make overseas consular officers feel as if Lincoln is shouting at them, the thirteen other inspirational quotes in the book are all printed in the same sober Times Roman-style font.

Except, of course, for the text on the page opposite the passport-holder's photo and personal information. That page contains the preamble to the constitution, complete with "We the People" in its original 18th-century typeface. It's hard to say what foreign passport-stampers are supposed to make of a preamble to a document that isn't, in fact, contained in this particular little blue book. But perhaps they'll just focus on the page's graphic elements: A fierce-looking bald eagle that takes up half the page, accompanied by smaller illustrations of grain and a flapping American flag.

The passport's subsequent pages -- the ones that are supposed to be used for foreign visas and entry stamps -- follow along with illustrations as predictable as a junior-high American-history project. Cacti! Mountains! Independence Hall! A gargantuan rendering of the Liberty Bell! The whole romantic panoply, from coast to coast. Literally: There's a New England schooner sailing through pages ten and eleven, a Mississippi paddleboat floating towards the edge of page 17, and some sort of Pacific Northwest image involving a salmon-eating bear and a totem pole on pages 24 and 25. I suppose it goes without saying that the pages in between feature cowboys, bison, a train, and the Statue of Liberty.

[lebkuchen]

65. considering open borders, stamps are nearly passe

except for countries like Russia. Their customs people seemed confused by all the fancy pages; they stamped me on the last one.

[lebkuchen]

66. It's 1:20 a.m. here now, and it's getting a bit darker

Think I can sleep now.

Thanks for the great conversations, ya'll! Nite.

PS Santa sends his love.

[Butterbean]

67. I just got my first passport in April, so I don't know any different.

All I know is I needed something RFID blocking to carry it in 'cause it's chipped. It got frisked almost as much as me on my trip overseas. Good times.

[locks]

70. Nothing like travel

I have very little money but worked hard and with help of my daughters and granddaughter have had the joy of visiting Europe, Provence, Spain, Portugal, Machu Picchu, Galapagos, Mexico, Africa and Costa Rica. Although there are some real travel hassles as you get older I know there is nothing like seeing the beauty in so many parts of the world and to learn how other people live. Highly recommend Rick Steves trips (he is on PBS TV here every week) and my friends recommend Overseas Adventure Trips. Get in shape and get a passport just in case you get the chance!

If you can't leave the country, there are so many wonderful sights and people in the US.

[lebkuchen]

86. The US is tops for anything involving nature

jaw dropping stuff to see across the pond per the pics in the passport.

Galapagos?? In my dreams! How was Equador? I've never been to South America.

[FirstLight]

74. I've never traveled...*sigh*

not even the US very much, so much world to see, so much $$$$$

I hope someday, just like I hope my career will finally happen in my 40s once I get my BA, that I can have a real job with enough income and actual 'vacay' then I could start traveling for once

[lebkuchen]

87. I've seen a few bicyclists with full panniers riding to Nordkapp, Sweden on this trip

Under one's own power and camping, prices drop immensely. I did that in my 30s in Europe. Best time of my life. There are even bicycles available these days with little motors.

[FirstLight]

94. I keep threatening the kids

that when they hit 18, I am selling everything and hittin the road... I'll backpack across Europe and then go live in the Ashram for a while

Life begins at 50!

[liberal N proud]

76. Mine is about 5 years old

It has landscapes from Yellowstone, Arches and other federal landmarks.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

77. Yep. I got mine in 2008 and love the scenes.

Not sure if the same as what you're referring to. Mine doesn't expire until 2018, but the pages are getting full. May have to get a new one by next year.

[lebkuchen]

89. That would be the one

Where have you been to fill all those passport pages?

You can get extra pages sewn in rather than apply for a new one.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

90. Yes, I'll have to check that sewing in pages

I've been to Dominican Republic, England, France, Italy, New Zealand...but my multiple business trips to Hong Kong with multiple transits back and forth to mainland China have filled up most of the pages.

[MADem]

79. I give passports as gifts....

Well, I give the application and a check to pay the fee as a gift.

Mine has expired--I have to get a new one, myself!

[lebkuchen]

84. THAT is a great idea.

There are lots of people with dual citizenships. Those carrying a US passport in addition to another country's are wise NOT to let it expire due to difficulties in ever getting it back.

[oneshooter]

91. I let mine expire in 98, when I retired from what was my work.

Never felt the need to leave the U.S. since, so I don't have one.

[JaneyVee]

92. Have mine. Illustrations are great.

[grantcart]

93. And they are issued very quickly too.