Even after last night's adventures I was forced to get up early this morning. We were due to meet the others at 11.15am and Grumpy wanted to get breakfast on the way. Having missed out yesterday we joined the queue for the Bellagio Buffet. Took a while to get to the front, but once we were seated we started to relax.

For those that haven't been, imagine every kind of food in vast quantities and you're probably about half way there. You can stuff yourself silly all day (and clearly some do). I hadn't expected so many people to be eating roast beef and chicken curry at 10.30 in the morning.

Grumpy and I stuck to traditional breakfast fare, but I did snaffle some muffins for us to have later in the day (well, you never know, do you?!)

Our moderate breakfast over, we headed out to the lobby to meet the others. They were early too. We all set off for the underground tour pick up area. About 20 mins later a huge black limo pulls up, and the driver announces he's there for us! That was the first surprise - I thought we were going on a bus!

The limo takes us out, and we're all jabbering in the back, until a short while later we pull up in a car park. I've completely missed the tails of the planes around the carpark. Grumpy mentions something about getting a bus, so i figure that's what we're off to do. Sucker!!!! As we walk past a sign announcing 'Grand Canyon helicopter tours' the penny drops (finally).

After an hour or so, several loo stops and a safety video, we head out to the airstrip to meet our pilot. There's just us in our helicopter, so we jump in and get cosy.

It's about 45 minutes to the Canyon, flying over Las Vegas, some desert, Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam before the skyline fills with the hugest mountains. We clear the top and fly about 12 miles through the canyon itself. Incredible. Really incredible.

Then we land on a naturally flat area that has some picnic tables on it. The vista is stunning, and the pilot lays out snacks and nibbly bits, before pouring us some champagne. Yummy! Unfortunately I was feeling pretty queezy from the ride, but the champagne seemed to settle my tummy a bit!

We took a million photos before jumping back in the 'copter and heading back to Las Vegas. This time we 'buzzed' the Stratosphere and flew up the strip, before landing back on the airstrip. Again a little queezy, but deleriously happy, we stepped back into the lounge to peruse the magnets in the gift shop.

Magnets purchased, and we were whisked back into the limo and back to the Bellagio. And that's where we are now. Hannah is doing a reccy on the shops over in Caesar's Palace and Grumpy's on Dad-Watch. Mum's having a bit of a snooze (she's still jetlagged). Later we'll be going to get cheesecake and coffee (and maybe some proper food as well) amd then watching the Bellagio fountains at their very best.

So far I have to say this is a spectacular birthday!!!!!