How did the Brady Bunch all get through customs?

Phew… Late last night I made it safely back to San Francisco. I’m pretty sure that over the past 2 weeks, I’ve traveled on all forms of transportation and today feel completely knackered (exhausted). I felt like I was in the movie Planes Trains and Automobiles. (BTW one of the best movies. Have you seen it?) So forgive me as I rest a little today and write to you something small about my travels.

Our story begins last Sunday as we were passing through customs from Toronto to Buffalo…

My family and I flew on JetBlue to the Buffalo airport and then took a bus to Toronto and tried to do the reverse this weekend, but were caught in the horrible East Coast storms. Even though I was born and raised in Toronto, this was my first time not flying directly in. If you haven’t known the joy of entering another country via bus, then let me explain some of what you’ve been missing.

There was five of us traveling together; my father, stepmother, little brother P, little sister D and moi. We had five pieces of luggage and carry-on between us. As soon as we sat down on the bus and got situated, it was time to get off of the bus pick up our luggage and go through customs.

Even though we’re a blended family, we look a lot alike. My stepmother and I have been mistaken for sisters, as there’s ten years between us.

Could this be confusing to a customs official? It sure could.

We handed him our passports and I noticed that he was looking at me and then to my stepmother with a curious look. Finally my father said pointing to us, “This is my wife and this is my daughter. “ The customs official stared at me again and then I placed my hand on H’s shoulder and repeated, “This is my stepmother not my mother.”

“Oh,” the customs official stated with a smile on his face. “I understand now. I was trying to figure out how she had you, when she was only ten years old!”

We all laughed. What travel or border stories do you have? Am I the only one that these things happen to?