Venetian & Ethel M

Sunday morning we checked out of the hotel and drove to the Venetian. D was most impressed with this hotel and wants to stay here for our ten year anniversary. I, on the other hand, was quite satisfied just walking around and checking everything out.


Close up


Farther away

They were in the midst of decorating for Christmas, aka "Winter In Venice"




Inside:


D chose this cafe for breakfast. The small latte in the back was expensive, but good--very smooth.

The lobby is kind of ridiculous:








Before heading home, we made a stop at the Ethel M chocolate factory/cactus garden. I remember going here as a kid, mostly because I bought a small cactus.

The factory is not open for tours on the weekends, but they have windows where you can see some of the process. It was a scene straight out of one of the kids' favorite books:


I could not help but wonder what happens to the chocolates that are deemed rejects and thrown into the plastic-lined cardboard boxes. We also noticed several chocolates on the ground. How sad.

In the store, we were each given a free chocolate disk which the kids enjoyed, of course. (Milk for the kids, Dark for the adults).

The cactus garden was decorated for Christmas:


It probably looks more impressive at night.





There is also an M&M store, which was a lot smaller, but a lot less crowded than the one in Vegas.

For lunch we stopped in Baker at the Mad Greek. It looks similar to the one in Stanton, but I am not clear on the connection. It is a lot more expensive, although the portions are somewhat bigger. I think the gyros were just under $10! The zucchini fries were not hot, and seemed like they had been sitting around. Boo. The gyros were warm, though, and two were plenty for the four of us.


Overall, we had a nice time on our weekend getaway. It is fun to break up the every day routine.