Depiction of original sin by Peter Paul Rubens

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

This biblical account of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is what I was reminded of as I crossed the border between Mexico and the United States yesterday. Oh, yes, THAT southern border which is so much in the news lately.

Last year since I do so much traveling to foreign countries, I thought it would be expedient for me to apply for the Global Entry pass which I hoped would speed up my entry into the U.S. Part of the application process includes an interview in which I was asked if I ever was stopped at the border for any reason.

Why no, I don’t remember being stopped, and then the agent reminded me, “How about in 2003?” I had completely forgotten about any such incident so many years ago. I had a long layover in London and had taken an apple from the United Club—but never ate it! And there the apple lay in the bottom of my carry-on until it was seized by the border patrol agents. Apparently, that apple has become part of my permanent record! However, I did get the card, but AFTER I came home from Switzerland last summer, my last European trip of the year.

So when my son and daughter-in-law scheduled a trip to Tijuana, Mexico, yesterday I asked if I could go along. Since they do so much shopping and visits to doctors in Mexico, they have a SENTRI pass which allows them to re-enter the US in an express lane. I assured them that I had a Global Entry card and should be able to ride in the car with them. We certainly did not want to get into the regular entry lanes which have sometimes taken hours to get through. Also because of the government shutdown, there may be further delays because of staff shortages.

At the San Ysidro border crossing

It only took us ten minutes to get to the front of the SENTRI line, and we handed our cards to the agent.

“Who’s Katherine? When did you receive this card? This Global Entry card has not been validated.”

“Wha-a-a-t?”

“After receiving your Global Entry card,  you have to go online to validate it. The card is not needed when you enter the US through an airport, only at land crossings.”

Yikes! Of course when I received the card last summer, I just stuck it in my wallet and forgot about it. I had not read any instructions about validating the card.

Because my card was not validated, we had to undergo a secondary inspection, requiring us to get out of the car while they opened the hood, all the doors, and starting taking things out of the trunk. The agents said the baby could stay in his car seat, but then they asked, “Is he going to cry?”

Probably.

So one of the men played patty-cake with my grandson and thoroughly entertained him while the others inspected the car. Of course they found nothing and waved us through.

Here are some of the pictures I took in Tijuana. We bought Three Kings Cake at the Costco, where they had boxes and boxes of cakes on sale. (Check out my post about Three Kings cake here.)

Abraham Lincoln in Tijuana. He is considered a hero in Mexico because he was opposed to the Mexican-American war.

On the way, we stopped at the Irvine Spectrum shopping mall and look what shop we found!