Cactus and Chocolate

I hope everyone had a nice Easter. It turned out to be a beautiful spring day in Taunton.

I want to back track a little on the Vegas adventure. I missed a part of the tour when we went to Hoover Dam.

The “Dam”Tour was great but there was one more stop before we went back to the hotel and that was at the Botanical Cactus gardens and the Ethel M. Chocolate Factory.

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When the bus first pulled up I only wanted to see the gardens. Dropping into the Chocolate factory could wait. I don’t need more candy. My time share has been showering us with boxes of Ghirardelli Squares since we checked in.

So into the prickly garden I went.

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They had all sorts of cactus.  Rabbit Ears

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Saguaro

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Prickly Pear

But soon it was time to stick my nose into the chocolate factory.  Inspired by Ethel Mars‘ pursuit of the perfect chocolate, Forrest Mars Sr. created Ethel M, named in his mother’s honor. Using her timeless recipes. It’s not all about M &M’s.

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My favorite turned out to be the pecan bark. Since the chocolate is made without preservatives in small batches it meant that I’d have to eat this chocolate in a hurry. But it was sooo Yummy!