One of the first excursions I planned (read: told my sister I was going to do whether she wanted to come along or not) was a trip to the Hoover Dam. That post is coming (in fact it will most likely be my next blog entry) but this is going to be about how our Hoover Dam tour ended- with a factory tour of
Ethel M Chocolates.
How someone thought making chocolate (a substance that easily melts) in the desert (a place that is generally super hot) was a good idea, I'll never know, but it has proven to be a pretty smart business idea. In case you were wondering, the "M" in Ethel M stands for Mars...like Mars, Inc. As in, the company that makes some of the most famous candy in the world: M&Ms among many other favorites. Ethel was the mother of the founders of the company, and Ethel M chocolates began when one of them decided it was a good time to retire....and start another chocolate company.
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| And he named it after his mother :) |
The factory "tour" is in actuality a long hallway with windows that let you look onto the production facility. Seeing as I went on a Sunday afternoon, there wasn't very much activity going on. Only a few workers doing what looked like maintenance work.
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Wonka's Factory it was not.
Image from www.notcoming.com |
The good news is they had signs posted along the hallway that described what each section would have been doing if production had been going on. At the end of the hallway was a very nice woman with free chocolate samples. You could choose between white, milk, and dark chocolate (I chose dark, in case you were interested, though I haven't met a chocolate I didn't like yet!)
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| The Empty Factory |
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| FREE CHOCOLATE!!! |
Of course, after the hallway you turn into the gift shop, which is nothing but (expensive!) treats for you to take home. There was a man giving out samples of Chocolate Pecan Brittle...delicious! My sister and I each got ice cream (her flavor was Bananas Foster, I stuck with a plain Chocolate) and browsed the offerings. We didn't buy anything, partly because we'd only had 20 minutes to see the entire place thanks to our Dam tour running over, and partly because we were both concerned our candy would melt before we got back to our hotel room (it was over 100 degrees that day).
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| Our ice cream |
Had we had more time, I would have loved to have strolled along the cactus garden that is also on the site. A few people on Tripadvisor said it was worth a few minutes of your time to see the beautiful desert gardens. Alas, 'twas not meant to be. For such a short (and completely unrelated) add on to a much larger tour, I really enjoyed myself at Ethel M. The candy was delicious, and I highly recommend you take some home with you if you think you can get it back un-melted (you can also order some things on their website and have it shipped directly to you).
I have plenty more Nevada entries to bring you all, so stay tuned. Make sure you check out the rest of my
Facebook pictures (and hit that like button!) Thank you for reading my blog, and as always, I'll see you on the next adventure!
