3427. Visit the Ethel M Chocolate Factory and Cactus Garden in Henderson

 We got to Vegas earlier than expected and needed something to kill time before we met up with the hubby's bubby. I had Ethel M's in the back of my head in case we had time to kill and since it was not on the strip, the hubby agreed we could go check it out.

Ethel M Chocolate Factory is located in Henderson, a suburb of Las Vegas. It was founded by Forrest Mars Sr. and was named after his mother. It is the luxury brand of Mars candy. It has a factory, store, and a cactus garden. 

When you walk in, you are greeted with a sample of their candy -- milk or dark. Then you can watch the factory at work. They were making Snickers when we were there. 

Then it was off to the store. You can buy truffles or candy bars. You can pick out your truffles or get pre-packaged ones. It is a bit pricy at 3 candy bars for $10 or 12 truffles for $36. Then again any good truffle will set you back $2-$3 so not horribly outrageous considering we are in Vegas.

After a little convincing, the hubby agreed to get 12 truffles -- 6 for each of us. 12 was the smallest box that we could do of pick your own.  There were normal flavors like caramel and chocolate cream. Some had alcohol such as rum, agave tequila, Irish Cream, and bourbon. And then you had some untraditional flavors such as prickly pear and honey.

They had a mix of dark and milk chocolate truffles along with some white chocolate to choose from. I went with 6 dark and the hubby mainly went with light but did do one white. We saved them until we got home and they are very good.

With our chocolate in hand, we went to check out the cactus garden outside. It was a small garden but had several paths. There were a variety of plants and cacti. The hubby said it was better than the botanical gardens and I almost have to agree.

It is also a nice place to watch planes come into the airport if the wind is right as the flight path is right over the gardens. The hubby was thrilled so we watched planes for a bit as well.

Overall it was a great choice of a quick adventure. It was far enough off the strip that the hubby was good visiting. They do have a location on the strip in case you need your chocolate fix and are downtown. We are already planning on going back next trip.