I was up at 6am, drinking tea and shoving down a croissant whilst Julie gradually came around. I spent much of this time on my phone checking the weather in Florida. Hurricane Milton was battering the sunshine state. President Joe Biden had called it the "storm of the century"!

Despite our final destination being Lima, Peru we were connecting through Miami. I should have thought when booking, that Florida in September/October was not a good idea!

"Oh no, here we go again" I thought to myself. We'd been through another "storm of the century" in 2022 which ended in an emergency landing in Heathrow.

Today, flights to Orlando and Tampa had already been cancelled. So far, Miami flights were still showing. I decided to keep quiet about it, allowing Julie to be blissfully unaware, for as long as possible.

By 7am we were down in the foyer waiting for the Jones'.

We were in no rush; the Heathrow Express left Paddington every 15 minutes so we didn't have a particular train to catch. 

On the way to platform 3 we passed a shop front advertising the new Paddington Bear film Paddington in Peru. For those who don't know the story, the talking Andean bear came from "Darkest Peru", stowing away on a boat to London. It was such a coincidence that we were going to Peru. It made us smile so much.   

All on board we were transported rapidly from central London to Terminal 3 inside fifteen minutes. They weren't kidding when they called it the express train!

We checked-in our luggage with Virgin Atlantic, waltzed through security and were ambling through duty free within the hour.

In addition to the usual champagne and tolberone, Julie wanted a Jo Malone perfume, a special edition aroma of Orange Marmalade, in honour of Paddington Bear, of course.

We saw it when we last flew from Heathrow and I said "don't buy it now, buy it when we go to Peru." It was a mistake because the special edition was also a limited edition and it had sold out. She was so disappointed.

She was further disappointed when we discovered there was no Fortnum & Mason Champagne Bar in Terminal 3. She didn't see a Tiffany's store either. (We do enjoy our Terminal 5 routine!)

It was soon time for breakfast, which we found at the bar called the Curator. I didn't hold out much faith but the fried gnocchi in a tomato sauce, which they called "pan hash" was really tasty. Of course I had a Bloody Mary to wash it down.

Julie wasn't hungry and was happy with some buttered toast with marmite.

An hour later our gate number came up. "Well, they haven't cancelled the flight yet" I said, finally admitting to Julie there was a risk.

Julie grabbed a sandwich and two small bottles of Dutch courage from Pret-a-Manger before making our way to gate 26.

Boarding went smoothly and we sat in the back row of the Boeing 787. We had purposely paid to sit here because on the seat map the tail narrowed and they were suppose to be just two seats together. The type of plane must have changed and we were sat in a regular row of three sheets. Fortunately no one else turned up, so we still had the row to ourselves.

Sonya and Garry had also paid for seats to be sat a row in front of us.

We took off more or less on time, 11:30am.

After an hour, hot meals were being served. My pre-booked lacto-ovo vegetarian meal was a tomato and mascarpone pasta, which coincidentally was one of Julie's choices. Either that or a sausage and mash. She opted for the cheesy pasta so I could help her out if she didn't like it.

Unfortunately it wasn't very nice. It tasted really processed as if it was made from that horrible orange fake cheese popular in America. I'm sure it wasn't but that's what it tasted like. 

Despite all of Julie's inner turmoil she was holding her anxiety in check and was busy on her iPad playing a new game Sonya had introduced to her, called Zen Colour, a virtual colouring-in game.

I watched a film called Kinds of Kindness by Yorgos Lanthimos which was a very odd film but strangely entertaining. It was similar in its oddness to the director's other film The Lobster.  

There wasn't much to see out the window. It was sea for almost all the way across the Atlantic. We did see land very briefly, which I assumed may have been Bermuda, famous for its triangle where ships and planes disappear in bad weather.

Fortunately, so far, it had been a comfortable flight without any turbulence.

However, when we got close to landing in Miami it was a different story. The plane bounced around and shuddered violently. The hurricane was further to the North but the wind was still very strong in Miami .

Julie had her eyes closed for most of the approach, wishing it was over soon. It came to an end with quite a bump, which only to be expected but we landed safely.

In baggage reclaim it was a relief to see our rucksacks coming towards us on the conveyer belt.

Next up was Border Security. Transiting through the US meant having to go through passport control and actually entering the country. Fortunately we had seven hours before our flight to Lima, so standing in queue for over half an hour wasn't as stressful as it could have been for connecting flight. 

Our plan was to drop off our luggage then head out to Miami Beach but at the LATAM airline's check-in desk we were told we were too early, three hours too early to be precise!  So we had to take our luggage with us.

I ordered an Uber taxi and we all stood outside entrance gate 24 to be picked up. I then noticed we were at departures gate 24, whereas the pick-up was from arrivals gate 24. So I rushed into the elevator, which went down at first, and then back up. I hurried out, phoning Julie to let them know they needed to join me up a floor.

I walked outside to see Julie, Sonya & Garry already there. But they hadn't moved. I had just returned to the same place thinking I had gone up to the arrivals level. I felt so stupid!

Anyway, after a conversation with the driver he came to the departures level to pick us up. He wasn't cheap at $60 for the twenty minute ride.

He took us to an Italian restaurant on Washington Avenue called Limoncello. I had originally booked a table for us here but then cancelled it because I was unsure of our times.

We went inside and we rebooked a table for 6:45pm. We tried to leave our luggage with them but they didn't have the space. The hotel reception with which they shared a foyer wouldn't accept our bags neither. Rather unhelpful.

So we had no choice but to carry our bags the short distance down 14th Street, crossing Collins Avenue to reach Ocean Drive and access to the beach.

The wind didn't seem too bad walking along the streets. We seemed to be sheltered from the worst of it. But when we stepped out onto the exposed beach we really caught the full force of its power.

Every now and then even stronger gusts would try and blow us over. All the while the sand was whipped up, blasting in our faces, giving us one hell of an exfoliation.

Julie and Sonya headed down to the water to dip their toes in the Atlantic. It turned out to be colder than they expected.

We regrouped, sheltering behind a storage container, like stowaways in a storm. Then to make the moment even more surreal Julie decided to pop open the champagne to celebrate being alive.

To be fair, battling the elements did make us feel alive. Every now and again I would raise my head above the precipice only to be slapped hard in the face.

I wanted to take a photograph of the famous quirky lifeguard huts. They were dotted every couple of hundred metres. There were now about 38 of them, in several different designs and the whole spectrum of bright colours. Apparently the trend to instal these art deco inspired huts began in 1992 after the last severe hurricane to hit Miami destroyed all the previous towers.  

Obviously we had the beach to ourselves. No one else were mad enough!

It was soon time for us to leave. So we picked up our luggage, put our head down, and pushed our way against the wind, back towards the shelter of 14th Street.

Limoncello was only a small place. We asked the waiter if there was somewhere to store our luggage. He just shrugged and didn't offer any help. "Perhaps we should try the Mexican over the road?" I suggested, thinking it would encourage a solution.

It didn't.

Fortunately it wasn't busy so we took matters into our own hands and chose the table in the corner where we could pack all our luggage behind us, out of the way. 

We sat down and browsed the menu. It was really expensive. I saw a Cacio e Pepe with truffles that I liked the sound of but it was $48! ... for pasta!!

Despite the exorbitant price I couldn't stop thinking about the cacio e pepe, so I ordered it. It did come with a bit of a performance as they created the dish by bringing a large wheel of parmesan to the table, tipping in the cooked pasta and swirling it around to make the cheese sauce.

Then, with the pasta transferred into a bowl, they shaved a large amount of black truffle over the dish. It looked the part but the truth was I didn't get the truffle hit. It should have been pungent, almost overpowering aroma but it just wasn't there.

Julie enjoyed her steak, even if it was served on a slab of wood. With the addition of mashed potatoes on the side she was a happy bunny. I think Garry and Sonya also enjoyed their Chicken Parmigiana and Rigatoni Cabonara.

When we came to pay our bill I couldn't believe it came to $400!

It escalated quickly with a 2% resort tax, then another 7% tax, which was not included in the prices shown on the menu. Then they had automatically added a 20% gratuity, TWENTY percent!?

Anyway, we left Limoncello and returned to the airport in a Uber taxi that cost half the price of the first one. The driver was very chatty. Originally from Lebanon but had been living in the USA for forty years. We talked about religion, politics, the meaning of life. He was a really nice guy.

It was 9pm when we returned to the LATAM check-in desks and we finally dropped off our luggage. It felt good. The relief was enhanced because we knew the flight hadn't been cancelled, despite the high winds. 

The airport was very quiet at this time of night. All the shops had shut but at least the bar remained open. Thankfully there were plenty of seats available to sit down because I needed to after paying $28 for a glass of wine!

Shortly before midnight we began to board the plane. I didn't note the type of aircraft but the seat layout of 2-3-2 was excellent. We had our own space.