Under normal circumsances passports are a reasonably priced form of identification but times are changing. Normal circumstances are few and far between these days. At least that's what my experience has shown.

The entire fiasco started over a year ago when on a family vacation to Hawaii. While visiting family and connecting to the Hilo Airport our waist pouch containing our identification dissappeared. A big deal you might think, but I really had no idea how big of a deal it really was.

We didn't realize our id was missing right away. Included in our id pouch were two passports for the adults, a citizenship card for our oldest daughter born in the United States and four boys' Canadian birth certificates. When travelling...