Annelise woke at 630 after a solid 4 1/2 hours sleep……I soon realized that the final JD on the rocks was a big mistake…..she wasted no time drawing the curtains (from bedside remote control) and opening her birthday cards, e cards and messages/ texts. (Thanks everyone - it really made her day). Watching the sun rise over the desert and reflecting off the top of the Wynn was quite something.

Breakfast arrived and we sat next to the window admiring the view down the strip and nibbling on diet sized pastries. Disaster - no pain au chocolate! A quick call with "but its my birthday and they are my favourite!" (spoilt brat voice) resulted in a rapid further delivery to the door.

It was one of those days when we agreed to forget about the crunch, world poverty, global warming, regular income etc and enjoy it. Next on the agenda after breakfast was helicopter trip to the Grand Canyon. So we met up with the driver taking us to the helicopter pad and his opening line was "So, how's the economy in London?"

Drove out of Vegas to Boulder City- a town built for Hoover Dam construction workers in the 1930s and is the only town in Nevada without gambling. After a (confidential) weigh in and safety video we were packed into the helicopter and took off. First sight was the Hoover Dam, which supplies electricity to Las Vegas, Arizona and Southern California. Seemed tiny, considering the size of Lake Mead which resulted.

We flew into the down stream end of the Canyon at 125 miles per hour, but as it's so huge we hardly seemed to be moving. We set down about 15 miles in. The lunch location was mind blowing: magnitude of the cliffs and the desolation was awesome. After a turkey roll and glass of Champagne we took off again and flew over the desert to base. Flew over some little houses in the middle of the desert and tracts of land for sales with no chance of power or water utilities being provided. Also flew over a retirement community (pop 3,000) which was 3 hours drive from nearest "town". (think red neck banjo theme from Deliverance). Mind you, might be something to be said for having Las Vegas as the nearest City to fritter away your kids inheritance.

Driver dropped us back at Caesars Palace. Went to the shops in the Forum and to see the Trevi fountains replica. Fountains were broken! The casino at Caesars was a far cry from the Wynn - busy, smokey, and a far lower class of waitress. Walked up the strip and stopped in the Venetian for a snack. Again - the casino was mobbed. Began to wonder why the Wynn and Encore casinos were so quiet: maybe the grubbier casinos attract more punters…

Recharged back in the room, chilled out with champagne and watched the sunset (lots of looking out of the window!) and prepared for the next extravaganza…..Elton John! Cabbed down to the Colosseum at Caesars. The show was fantastic with lots of crowd pleasers, good banter with the audience and huge phallic inflatable props. Rounded off the evening with dinner at Joes: scallops, oysters and Mahi-mahi, washed down with a fine Oregon Pinot Noir.

Think the excitement of the day got to Annelise as she passed out on the bed by midnight!`