Las Vegas
Awaking in Vegas can be a quiet affair as many people are just leaving the Casinos. Having said this, many people are also still in the Casinos, as Las Vegas runs 24 hours a day.
We went for a swim though the dilemma you often come across is how to dry the swimming costumes. This calls for female logic and with the temperature breaching 40, the solution was quickly found.
We decided to drive through the Strip, starting Downtown, at the other end from the MGM Grand. Downtown is actually the original Las Vegas, with the old time casinos and hotels and it is a trip back in time, compared to the modern, high octane insanity of the Strip.
This means you can see Stratosphere, The Little White Chapel, Treasure Island, Caesars Palace Gardens, The Bellagio Fountains, The Venetian, Paris Las Vegas and many other places. Las Vegas Boulevard is very busy with traffic though, so set aside plenty of time.
Tip 31 – Driving the Strip takes ages. Might be better to go really early to avoid it.
Once we got to the other end, we decided to check out a few of the recommended daytime attractions for kids. First stop was the top ‘Things to Do’ on TripAdvisor. The Silverton Aquarium.
Stuff for kids
Where TripAdvisor is good for finding hotels with the right filters, it is terrible for finding things to do. The Silverton Aquarium is a big fish tank in the middle of a casino. On the other side is a large Bass Pro Shop, which to it’s credit has some remarkable stuffed wildlife including lions, deer and a giraffe!
Someone may be spoofing the listings to get their hotel higher ranked as it is barely worth a detour.
At least there was a mermaid in the tank. And yes, it was a real one.
Tip 32 – TripAdvisor is not a great place to find ‘Things to do’
We used a brochure and map we picked up at the hotel to find another place to go – Ethel M’s chocolate factory. This sounded interesting but at the same time boring, but was only a few blocks away, so we headed there next. It was pretty cool actually but not because of the factory.
Ethel M’s Chocolate Factory (and Cactus Garden…)
It turns out that Ethel M is not all it seems. When Forrest Mars decided to retire, he headed for the obvious place for a billionaire – Las Vegas. Evidently, gambling was insufficient to keep him occupied so he started another chocolate company. This time, he wanted to return to the old fashioned way of making chocolate so he named it after his mother, Ethel.
The chocolate factory shows the hand made production process through a wall of glass. It’s ok but the chocolate shop at the other end is the main attraction, but it isn’t cheap. We bought some peanut brittle and a few chocolates for many dollars, but the coffee is ok.
It turns out that Forrest had a thing about cacti. Outside the factory, he started a cactus patch and now it covers several acres and has over 300 plants and 150 types of cactus. For cactus amateurs, they also a few of the ones with the big arms, which is what I was interested in.
Tip 33 – Ethel M’s Chocolate factory is pretty good and sunbathing while eating expensive chocolate in a Cactus patch, is cool at 43 degrees centigrade.
After the Chocolate factory/Botanical Cactus Garden, we headed for Los Angeles.