Our journey from Tokyo was tinged with sadness when we waved goodbye to Craig at the airport. With still no answer on his visa application and his passport held hostage by the embassy he had no choice but to stay behind in Japan. Myself and the girls carried on with a mammoth couple of travel days to New York via San Jose and Denver on a flight we couldn’t postpone. The first flight crossed the international date zone so we arrived before we had even left! We spent a night at a slightly dodgy motel in San Jose where some people were living in the car park and hunting through giant bins so needless to say we were keen to leave the next morning (or night, depending on which time zone) and fly from West to East via Denver.

With our family navigator AWOL and all suffering from jetlag, missing Daddy and looking forward to getting home our time in New York involved a lot of days hanging out in our hotel watching telly and eating takeaways in bed. We stayed in Flushing, Queens which is one of the largest Chinatowns in the world so we felt at home after 4 months in Asia! Flushing gave us ramen and pizza, Target and Miniso. Now we had no baggage limits the girls could spend their Christmas money and enjoyed the retail delights of NYC.

In Manhattan we visited the Museum of Ice Cream which was very pink and sugary and a lot of fun. We had some lovely Spring days in Central Park and the girls zoomed along on e-scooters whilst I attempted to keep up by jogging. I took them to my favourite bakery Magnolia (home to my famous brownie recipe), we saw Times Square (with signs to rival Tokyo) and ice skated at the Rockefeller. We ate pizza, pretzels, burgers and tacos.

After 6 months of travelling the reality was that we were over tired, over travelled and dreaming of home comforts (mine including my bed and a proper cup of tea). Meanwhile, Craig was still in Tokyo and with no passport or visa for the US he was now planning his journey back home. Then an exciting last minute turn of events occurred and just after Craig had started the process to return home he received an email that his US visa was approved. Then followed a mad dash to collect his passport, book a flight whilst enroute to the airport and he arrived in Brooklyn on the night before we were setting sail home! The morning of our departure, rising early due to jetlag, Craig managed to fit in a whirlwind tour of Manhattan before breakfast.

All that remains is the final chapter of our world tour where we sailed across the Atlantic.