Vegas: Ethel M. Lights of Love 2018

The Ethel M. Lights of Love event at Las Vegas's own chocolate factory is a limited time shindig and will, unfortunately, already be closed for the year upon the publishing of this post. By limited time I mean severely limited, lasting only ONE week, and they close it up at 8pm! That's right, from February 7th through the 14th the cactus garden outside of the chocolate factory will be open to the public, completely free, to enjoy the beautiful romance themed lights. We went to check it out more or less immediately after our adventure at Sunset park photographing some of our tie-dye and hanging out with the local wildlife. We were surprised by how sparse the crowds were, considering, and enjoyed our stroll through the grounds. We did pop over to the factory for our pieces of free chocolate, however the actual factory area was mostly under construction as they reconfigure their manufacturing processes a bit. We didn't spend too long here as the grounds themselves aren't very expansive, and it was pretty chilly for the boys. I found a onesie in the van and slipped into that to heat up, but the boys were limited to jackets. If you're feeling a bit of deja vu with this post, it's probably because we went to the Ethel M Cactus Gardens not too long ago for their Christmas lights. I, personally, still like to call them illuminations because that sounds more romantic to me, but they're whatever you want them to be. Either way, the lights are lovely to look at and fun to photograph. We weren't the only ones with a camera out as I think there was an engagement photoshoot or something going on, too. A trio of photogs with their tripods out and ready were dutifully chasing a cute couple around the grounds, occasionally offering suggestions or asking for them to make some adjustments. Everyone was courteous and scooted around trying not to interrupt anyone else's photos or strolls, which was nice. It's not hard to see why a romantic photoshoot would be so apt here! If you happen to be in the area around next Valentine's day, this is certainly something to consider checking out. You can always buy a hot chocolate in the gift shop to warm up, and don't forget your mints lovebirds!

More photos below!

Vegas: Ethel M. Chocolate Factory Cactus Garden Illuminations

Ethel M. Chocolate Factory is a true Las Vegas institution, having been in the city since1981 after being opened by Forrest Mars Sr., of the Mars chocolate brand- if you didn't know, Mars is the company behind Snickers and M&Ms so you know that if their mass-produced candies are reliably good then their specialty stuff is going to be something else. Their goal at the Ethel M. Chocolate Factory is to produce some of the finest chocolates in the entire Mars company's portfolio using recipes handed down from Forrest's own grandmother Ethel. Ethel was the inspiration for what Forrest later went on to do with chocolate in his company later on, so we're pretty lucky to have this place in our little valley. There are some real world class chefs and culinary artists throughout Vegas due to our profile as a world-class tourism destination and the locals get to reap the rewards of that, too. 

The factory will be especially familiar for any Vegas locals who went to school here, I bet.  I grew up in the city and attended several schools around town and one of the strongest memories I have is going on a field trip to the factory! It's a lot of fun and you can catch a glimpse at the magic going on behind the scenes. During this visit we were stopping in with a lot of other folks as the factory has a large cactus garden that lights up for the holidays and is free to the public! Not surprisingly it's a popular attraction and a great boon to the profits of the factory too, as people stopping in to see the free tour will get a delicious piece of chocolate before finding themselves in the gift shop. The sweet taste of the decadent chocolate lingering on the tongue makes it hard to resist when confronted with multiple displays of glossy, sprinkled, filled, cream, dipped, assorted chocolates here! There's bound to be one for every taste, whether you're a fan of nougat or chocolate covered cherries, hot chocolate or boozy barrel chocolates bursting with depth and flavour.  You can make your own boxes, too, which is genius! Never again will you have to nibble your way cautiously through a box of unbeknown flavours trying to avoid a landmine. Take that, Forrest Gump! This is 2018, baby, and we can select whatever chocolates we want in our boxes, thank you very much. 

The illuminations in the garden are, of course, stunning! We had a lot of fun wandering the paths and looking at the displays, hot chocolates in hand. If you stop in for a visit during the winter we can definitely recommend their hot chocolate, they were delicious! Photos of the lights and the rest of our visit will follow below.