Ok - so - chewing fingernails to get kids passport back expedited and make it in 8 weeks with the NH/69 national center being shipped back to CA.

4/28 applied in person California USPS office / Expedited
5/3 check cashed (electronically), locator 69, indicating "National Center" in New Hampshire
5/3 status "In Process"
...
6/24 departure from the US (maybe)?

We didn't read the whole notion that it may have been better to just get an in-person appointment 14 days before departure at one of the CA processing centers (SF, LA etc.) - and now we are sort of in this awkward "maybe it will work" moment. We had 8 weeks to departure when we applied - so - right on the cusp...

Question - based on SOME comments it appears that the "69" processing center has been faster than some others (notably 62), and the latest we saw in this thread was a locator 69, 3/23 application that arrived in the mailbox 5/2 (indicating 5.5 weeks turn around from the NH/69 center). Are we deluding ourselves thinking that we can get it in 7 weeks based on those (sparse) datapoints? Can we make an appointment NOW for 5 days before departure (in June) or do we need to simply wait?