I made sure today when I headed to the airport that I did not make the same foolish mistake 
that I have made before, much to my embarrassment. Last year, Jeff and I had a television program in Vancouver in Canada that we had to go to and so we packed all of our things and headed down to the airport a bit late as usual, pull up to the counter an tried to check in and the lady says, “And your passports please?” and we kind of looked at her blankly and went, “Oh my goodness, we are going to Vancouver, Vancouver is in Canada, Canada is another country, oh my!” And we realized there are so many similarities between the United States and Canada with the language, the accents, the culture, the easy cross-border travel that it simply never occurred to either of us that when we were traveling to Vancouver that we are traveling to another country, it was quite embarrassing.
Thankfully, we just happened, I would say the hand of God made sure, that we were on the only airlines at that time, United, that was allowing passengers without passports to actually board, because they were just starting to crack down on passports, and if they weren’t sure you were going to be able to get back into the country they wouldn’t let you board.
Thankfully they did, it was the only airline that did, and we were able to get faxes of our passports and it all worked out, but that would not have worked this time since they have gotten so much stricter. So a few days before I left, I went to where the passports are kept in our house and I stuck it in my bag so I couldn’t possibly forget, which as I was driving down at the airport, I realized I would have done again, but thankfully I had it with me, and I was able to take this trip without being totally embarrassed about me being a foolish American.