Coming down through the clouds over Newark on Saturday evening was painful. For a moment, there were clouds above and below us and I could imagine myself floating in that space – weightless, thoughtless, completely peaceful. And I readied myself for touchdown.

We had Sunday to familiarize ourselves with the layout of the bustling NYC and create a gameplan for the craziness we’ll call Monday and Tuesday. The plan was to be fingerprinted Monday morning and then drop off our biometrics receipt and visa applications with a courier to get same day processing of our documents. The plan was to emerge from a big building on Tuesday evening with UK Entry Clearance visas in our passports. (We’ll let you know how that goes when we know the ending to the story.)

Sunday was a beautiful day. Ah, Central Park.

Sitting in the shade of the park, looking over the trees at the skyline was a metaphor for how I felt. The storm of the next two days was heavy on my shoulders.

We snapped a few shots as we wandered toward the Visa and passport services office.

Hey Dad, hey Mrs. Church – it’s Caroline’s!

We wandered and we waited for Monday to sneak up on us. And then we let Monday wear us out.

See you again tomorrow, then?