
Chocolate
lovers rejoice! You've found heaven on Earth and it's only six
miles away from the Las Vegas Strip. The Ethel M factory is where
some of the world's most famous candies are made. M&Ms, Milky
Way, Three Musketeers, Snickers and Mars Bars are all the creation
of one woman, Ethel Mars. Around the turn of the century, Ethel
started to make chocolates in her tiny kitchen. Eventually she
parlayed this into a chocolate empire.
Today,
the Ethel M factory is visited by over 2,000 people a day. You
can see every step of the process from the hand-selecting of nuts
to the packaging. There is a dizzying array of conveyor belts
and vats, but everything is labeled to make it easy for visitors
to follow along. Some days there is more action than others, but
there are always video presentations along the tour to explain
the process. The tour ends in the giftshop where you can get a
free sample of chocolate or hand-dipped ice cream. You can also
arrange to have chocolate sent anywhere in the United States.
We're
not sure how this is related to chocolate, but there is also a
2.5-acre cacti garden on the premises. There are over 350 varieties
of rare cacti. The cacti bloom in the spring, but the chocolate
is good year-round.