The Final Countdown

Wednesday was to be our only full day in Miami.

We'd decided to try and get up earlier for the last few days so as to try and get into GMT and soften the jet lag blow, so at 6am we were awake.

We got up and went next door to one of Miami's many smoothie bars for a healthy and nutritious breakfast!

The sign above my head is for me, not anything to do with the shop ;-)

After this we got the bus with all the locals to Miami's famous South Beach and walked a few miles down the beach, paddling in the waves.

My stunning wife

After an hour's walk we made our way to Ocean Drive where we ate lunch at a Crab Shack.

We got the bus back to our hotel, chilled for a while and then headed out for the last night of our 3 month adventure!

We decided to have a few drinks in the Hard Rock Cafe first (very near our hotel).

A jacket from the "Thriller" music video, signed by Michael Jackson.

Hard Rock venues have walls filled with this sort of music memorabilia.

Our waiter recommended that I try a new mojito, made with Gin rather than Rum, which I did and it was surprisingly lovely!

Lauren tried a raspberry lemonade cocktail with elderflower vodka.

We started chatting and just didn't stop.

We reminisced over the past 14 weeks and the amazing memories we'd made, once in a lifetime experience we'd had and the fantastic people we'd met. We discussed what we'd learnt and what the future looked like for us personally and together. It was one of those moments that you wish would never end. I'd just spent 14 weeks with my best friend and shared experiences we would never forget.

So, we never did end up going anywhere else. A couple of drinks turned into a couple more and so we ordered food and continued talking about our hopes and dreams.

As we'd been up so early I started to flag around 10pm (a surprise to all my friends I'm sure!!) and after a 2 minute detour via a local club dancefloor, we made our way back to the hotel.

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Thursday 5th February was the day we were due to fly home! We couldn't believe it had arrived so quickly!

As per our plan, we awoke at 5am (so we'd sleep that night on the plane) and after a chill time we walked around the corner for a one off, Macdonald's breakfast!

It turns out they had a breakfast option designed in heaven! It was called "Sausage egg McMuffin Griddle" and was basically a standard sausage & egg McMuffin but with pancakes instead of buns on the outside! Devine!!

Sadly it was a miserable day constantly raining so we ended up chilling at the hotel most of the day with a trip across the road to the boutique shops and restaurants at lunchtime.

At 5pm it was time for us to bid farewell and we got a taxi under the sunset to Miami International Airport for our last flight of the trip. Destination Heathrow.

We checked in, spent the last $11 dollars we had left and boarded the plane.

That's one shiny head!!

Goodbye Miami, farewell trip of a lifetime, England we were on our way!!

Final thoughts and a trip summary to follow.