Day 199, 200 - (We're going to) Miami, Florida & US sum up - Wednesday 2nd, Thursday 3rd May 2012

So we stopped off in Philadelphia for a three hour wait and re-fuel. By now it was 7am and it had been my 33rd birthday for a full seven hours, Sophie however said that it wasn't my real birthday until we grabbed a coffee at the airport in Philly and sat down with something to eat - then it would be my birthday and I could open some presents (girls hey!). We had some scrambled egg on toast and some French toast and coffee and I opened my cards from my Sister, mum and Soph. They were all really nice and I had already had presents from my sister and mum in the way of hotels, gambling and meals in Las Vegas (baby). So I opened my present from Soph, she had bought me a star that lies in the Taurus solar system and is visible from where we live!! Awesome!! Back on the plane (with my star in my pocket!!) we took off for another two hour flight to Miami. Once we landed in Miami we headed straight to Dream hotel on Miami beach; this was a hotel that Soph had booked as a surprise especially for my birthday - it was totally amazing! The outside was art deco, as is all of Miami beach area, and the inside was shinny with plush white with black finishes. Our room was beautiful, it had a huge, comfortable double bed and massive power shower set in a blue room with normal and neon lights. We quickly unpacked and had a quick tour of the hotel and roof top pool and bar. After the tour we went down to South beach and laid in the sun for a bit. The hotel provides free beds on the beach so we had full use and laid there for what was left of the day. Back to the room late afternoon and the concierge (Thomas) had told us that in the room was a present for us seeing that we were on our honeymoon and it was my birthday. So Soph and I being the kids that we, are raced up to the room to see what it was, we were gutted to find nothing, and believe me Soph searched everywhere. So with no present we walked to our evening reservation at Juvia. This is a really cool roof top restaurant right on South beach which apparently is really hard to get a table, but Soph had spoken to Thomas and got us a reservation. The food was unreal!!!!! We both had a cocktail for starter and for main course Soph had the Sea bass steak, cooked rare in a white wine sauce with caramelised eggplant and shredded vegetables sautéed in honey and pepper. I had the pork comfit with vegetables and steamed potatoes. We then shared a de-constructed key lime pie which was served with the best presentation I have ever seen! After dinner we tried to meet with Omar but his phone is crap so we could never get hold of him so we walked along Ocean Drive and back to our hotel room. Once at the door to our room we opened it to see champagne and strawberries on the bed!! So we got into our dressing gowns and drunk and eat the lot!!! Awesome birthday, awesome wife! x

We woke up this morning with no hangover - result! I can't actually remember the last birthday that I woke up the next day not hung-over. We had a shower and then walked down South Beach to find somewhere for a late breakfast. Our friends Rob and Lisa had told us about a place called Johnny Rocket so we headed there. Unfortunately we were too late for breakfast and neither Soph nor I could handle an American full on burger and chips lunch so we walked a bit more and found a small spot called the News Room who were still serving breakie. I had eggs and salmon benedict and Soph had scrambled on toast with fruit. We spent most the early afternoon just chatting and people watching, you could actually do this all day on South Beach, the people are totally different to anywhere else I know!! We then walked off our dinner window shopping for a couple of hours before returning to our rooftop pool where we chilled and sunbathed on a double bed with a few Coronas. After all this hard work we were pretty tired so cleaned up and went for dinner at one of the restaurants on Ocean Drive. Where I was being careful with the money (for once) and ordered accordingly, Soph on the other hand ordered a "special" which had no price so we had no idea until the bill arrived and it was three times the price of mine (it was three times nicer too!!). After dinner we said goodbye to South beach and Miami and headed to the airport - Colombia here we come!!!!!

Sum up of the USA

We spent just over a week in the US and decided that we were going to treat the week as a little holiday within our already extravagant eleven months of travelling! With this in mind we ate far too much food, drank too much booze and spent far, far too much money - but hell did we enjoy it! America is the land of extremes and excess so we decided to just get involved and go with it. We're think about the repercussions to our body, souls and wallets another time……………