I talked about this in much greater detail last week in my blog post reviewing Magical Forest at Opportunity Village, but in summary, I’ve had a renewed and more positive outlook on winter over the past handful of years, and I’ve lately been seeking out some seasonal, holiday-themed places to check out in my free time.
Another popular holiday-themed spot in the Las Vegas Valley is the Ethel M Chocolates Factory and Cactus Garden in Henderson, Nevada. Each year throughout most of November and December, their cacti are adorned with holiday lights for an annual tradition that has apparently been going on for decades. I was heading out of Las Vegas soon for my next trip, so before I left, I squeezed in a visit to the chocolate factory and garden.
I timed my visit so that it was early enough that their chocolate factory was still open, in hopes of being able to see the chocolate production process and potentially get a tour, while still being late enough that the sun would set while we’re on-site and the lights on the cacti would be illuminated.
I’m not entirely sure what went wrong with the timing—I assume I was just a bit too late—but when I showed up, the little podium near the factory area was vacant (which I assume is where the tour registration attendant or docent would have be stationed), and it didn’t seem like there was much activity going on inside the production room. There were still windows looking in though, so even though I didn’t get a proper tour (if there were even some available at all), I still got to take a look at the equipment.
After seeing all the machinery, I headed over to the retail area of the store.
The only time I eat chocolate nowadays is if I get it as part of a dessert at a restaurant off a tasting menu. Otherwise, I avoid it because I taste nothing but bitterness from dark chocolate, while other sweeter kinds of chocolate just seem to be an unhealthily high source of sugar. Knowing that, it’s probably unsurprising that I didn’t want to buy anything that was for sale. However, it was still amusing taking a look at the vast assortment of different available options.
My friend decided to buy some dark-chocolate-dipped Swiss candied orange slices.
I didn’t want to be too un-fun, so I figured that grabbing a beverage from their Cactus Garden Café wouldn’t hurt. I decided to try out their peppermint hot chocolate, which came with an incredibly steep price of US$9.00 for a 16 oz. portion size, but ended up being some of the most delicious hot chocolate I think I’ve ever had.
Warm drink in hand, I headed out into the cactus garden and stood in line to purchase an admission ticket.
The line was incredibly long and was split into multiple different lanes, but I noticed that one of the lanes off to the side was not being used. I suspect that everyone else thought that wasn’t a proper lane because they saw so few people standing in it, so they all crowded into the other lanes. I, on the other hand, am a thrill-seeking risk-taker when it comes to figuring out ways to not have to wait in line, so I walked down that empty lane to find out… that it was indeed a proper lane. I got to cut what I imagine was over a hundred people who would have been in front of me.
Admission was only US$3.00, which I guess more than makes up for the expensive hot chocolate.
In no particular order, here are a bunch of photographs I took throughout the Cactus Garden.
The garden’s path was winding and self-intersecting, so there wasn’t a clear linear route to take to walk through the garden. Because of that, I ended up doubling back multiple times and going in circles to make sure I saw everything before I left.
Even though the items for sale inside the store were pretty pricey, you can’t really beat and get much more value than what you receive with the $3 admission ticket to the Cactus Garden. You can tell that the garden was designed with the community in mind, i.e., even if the retail area was intended for profit, the garden is intended to serve as a pleasant gathering place for friends and family. At that price point, it seems like their objective is simply to break even with the garden after the extra staffing and electricity costs.
If you’re within a reasonable distance of the southeast Las Vegas Valley, I highly recommend checking out Ethel M Chocolates Factory and Cactus Garden. I thought it was quite good at instilling holiday spirit, and I felt it had a blissfully joyful vibe to it overall.
Snow would always be a hassle because my parents bought an impractically large single-family house with a gigantic driveway, so I would have to shovel the driveway. During a snowstorm, I would often have to shovel multiple times a day in multiple different passes so that the snow wouldn’t freeze onto the steep driveway, otherwise my parents’ sedans wouldn’t be able to make it up and into the garage.
Driving in the snow was a nightmare. My parents didn’t do proper routine maintenance on their vehicles because they wanted to save money, which I’m pretty sure meant that their tires were either perpetually in need of replacement or possibly the wrong type of tires for winter driving. There were a few instances of very near misses of their small cars losing traction and nearly causing a collision.
I was always very cold in the winter. I have a pretty low body fat percentage, so I don’t have much insulation to keep myself warm. My parents kept the thermostat in the low 60s°F to save money on heating. When I told my parents that I was cold, they would tell me to toughen up. Instead of buying me an effectively functional winter coat, they treated me like a fashion accessory and dressed me up in impractical designer coats because they were obsessed with showing off brand names.
… Then I grew up.
I moved out, got my own job, bought my own clothes, and purchased my own pickup truck. Over time, living my own adult life made me realize that winter isn’t actually too bad.
During my road trip across the United States, I actually particularly enjoyed the time I spent in the snowier regions. I think back fondly to the snowy hikes I did in Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming; and I remember how cozy I felt when I got snowed in a few times in Colorado and Utah so I spent the entire day in my warm hotel room with the curtains open, watching the snow fall while a video of a fireplace was playing on the TV.
It doesn’t snow very often in Las Vegas, and in the very rare scenario that it does, it basically never accumulates. I can drive up to Mt. Charleston to see piled-up snow during the winter, which is about 45 minutes away from the Strip, but I can’t really get snowed in down in the Valley. However, it still gets cold, and the community still likes to celebrate the holidays in their own, dry way.
To get into the holiday spirit, I decided to check out Magical Forest at Opportunity Village, an annual winter celebration with Christmas lights, trees, and activities. I knew that this was a yearly recurring thing for a while, but I had never taken the time to head on over before now. I was already looking for some holiday-themed places to visit soon; when I saw that Magical Forest distributing discounted US$17.99 tickets on Groupon (down from the standard US$25.00 full-price admission), I decided to redeem the deal and finally check it out.
I showed up right when they opened at 5:30 PM PST because I thought that would be when they were least busy. I figured that, after getting off work, people would need time to commute back home, gather up their families, and drive over to the venue, which would mean that most people would show up later on in the evening.
My logic might have been sound on a weekday, but I forgot that today is Sunday. It was absolutely packed at 5:30 PM, and there was a long line stretching deep into the parking lot consisting of visitors waiting to get through the security checkpoint.
I heard that one of the prime attractions at Magical Forest is the train. Unfortunately, I had unlucky timing, because the train was apparently suffering from technical difficulties and was not in operation.
After what I think was about a ten to fifteen minute wait, I made it through security and entered the park.
For my first activity, I took a right turn directly into the forest where all the decorated Christmas trees were.
Right at the beginning, there was a “Southern Lights Fire Station” that had a small indoor section with some firefighting equipment on display, as well as a raffle for a fire- and rescue-themed toy car. It seemed like this was the only hybrid indoor-outdoor display throughout the forest.
Right outside was a railroad crossing for the Forest Express. I imagine this is the train that was out of service, as disclosed by the sign near the box office.
I continued deeper into the forest. It seemed like a majority of the displays were sponsored, so there were a lot of logos and advertisements integrated into the decorations. (These are some examples of ones where it was either more subtle, or the branding was posted off to the side instead of front-and-center.)
As I walked even deeper, I started hearing some live music. Because of the curvy nature of the winding path, I was able to see that there was something happening on the other side of some trees, but couldn’t quite reach it yet.
I think this is one of the most comically prominent examples of the embedded advertising.
After doing a few more loops and turns, I made it to the Castle Stage, which is from which I was previously hearing the live music. It seemed like it was mostly just younger teens who were preforming, likely as volunteers or as part of a community program. The frequency with which they sang the notes in tune was questionably lacking, but they all seemed to be having a great time and putting in fantastic effort.
I stuck around to listen to the music for a little bit, then continued on my way on the forest path.
As I was approaching the end of the forest, I came across the Cookie Factory. The line was quite long, so I decided against trying a cookie.
Instead, I continued down the path towards the exit. On my way out, I saw a Disney-themed display, which made me wonder what the likelihood was that this was a properly-licensed display (microscopically low), and whether the very commercial nature of the entire Magical Forest would prompt Disney to actually notice and take some form of action (also still very low).
After exiting the forest, I walked out into the park to check out some more of the attractions. The first one I saw straight ahead was the Avalanche Slide.
Again, the line was ridiculously long so I did not participate, but I’m not really sure if I would’ve even wanted to participate at all to begin with, even if there was no wait. I’m always hesitant to slide down slides because I can’t get the image out of my head that the butt of my pants is basically being used as a cleaning rag to wipe down the surface of the slide as I’m descending…
Nestled under the height of the slide was Frost Bites. At the box office, I received a buy-one-get-one-free coupon for some hot chocolate, but I ended up not using it because I didn’t want to be double-fisting two cups of hot chocolate and occupying both my hands (because I went to this alone), thus preventing myself from taking more photographs.
In the far corner of the park was Santa’s Brewhouse, Reindeer Games, and Beer Garden. This was a 21+ area that had an additional checkpoint by the entrance with a security guard that was distributing special, age-gated credentials. I don’t drink alcohol and I didn’t feel like playing a solo game of cornhole or foosball, so I just snapped a picture from the outside and didn’t go in.
The southern side of the park had a funnel cake truck, a diner, a holiday market, and a row of holiday vendors.
At the end of the lane was a decorated fire truck from the Clark County Fire Department, along with a short row of children who wanted a tour of the inside.
In the activity area, there were some family-friendly games, like mini-golf.
This area also had Cheyenne’s Enchanted Carousel.
For those who wanted to warm up and go indoors, Camelot Hall was set up inside a multipurpose room in a nearby building that housed an arts and crafts station and some concessions.
At this point, it seemed like I had seen everything in the park, so I circled back towards the entrance/exit.
Before leaving, I peeked inside the Holiday Shoppe, which was basically just a regular souvenir store.
Right in front of the exit, there was a donation booth themed as a wishing well.
By the time I was leaving, the park was significantly less busy. I guess that makes sense, because parents probably want to get their kids in bed before it gets too late, so they likely prefer to come earlier on in the evening and leave before it becomes nighttime. If I had known that, I would’ve shown up about two hours later, and I probably would’ve had a much more peaceful experience compared to feeling like I’m trekking inside a gigantic crowd of crying children like I did today.
With that being said, I still enjoyed my visit to Magical Forest at Opportunity Village. I’m not someone who really celebrates holidays, and I usually treat every day like a regular day, so seeing festive things like a seasonal winter event once in a while helps keep things fresh and different.
I think a big part of the allure of Magical Forest is participating in the various different activities, all of which are very family-oriented. If you just want to sightsee the lights and decorations, then going alone is fine and you’ll be able to see a lot of lights in a high-density space, but you wouldn’t be getting maximum value out of your ticket. I would probably only fully recommend this for people with children who want to spend time together as a family and try everything out hands-on.
Flexibility and adaptability are two traits I value highly in myself, so I often don’t really have a set schedule or routine to my life; instead, I keep my daily agenda fluid and handle things as they come up in the order of my perceived priority of such tasks. With that being said, one thing that has still stayed fairly consistent during my adult life is that I tend to stay indoors and work during weekends so I can avoid large crowds, especially in tourist-heavy cities like Las Vegas.
However, once in a while, I will be summoned outside on a Saturday or Sunday for various different reasons. For instance, if some of my friends are in town visiting for the weekend, I will venture outdoors to meet up and spend time with them. Another example is when certain attractions have free day promotions.
That recently happened with the Rita Deanin Abbey Art Museum, an art museum located near the Centennial Hills neighborhood in the northwest Las Vegas Valley. This is a museum that I’ve had on my “want to go” list for a while now because of how unusual it is for there to be any kind of attraction like this so far and deep into the outskirts of the Valley. Admission is usually US$20.00 per person, but I noticed lately that they were running free admission promotions during the first Saturday of every month, so I seized the opportunity and headed over to redeem my complementary visit.
After arriving at the museum, I promptly found out the rationale behind the location—this used to be Rita Deanin Abbey’s property, and during the final years of her life, she oversaw the construction of the museum on her plot of land. After her death in early 2021, construction was wrapped up and the museum opened to the public a few years ago in 2022.
This is probably one of the most unexpectedly and surprisingly nicest art museums I’ve ever been to. I assumed it would just be a small, cozy spot that showcased a limited collection of art pieces created by a local artist, but instead, it was a very professional and full-blown art museum with multiple galleries (with even an outdoor exhibit) and a wide variety of art. It had a very clean and modern theme to it, and I actually found it to be even nicer than many of the major well-funded city-namesake art museums found in a lot of large metropolitan areas across the United States.
When I was there, it was sparsely populated, even though it was on a free admission promotion day; I imagine that means that it’s even less busy on normal days, and this overall probably isn’t too popular of an art museum. I find that both surprising and unsurprising—surprising because this is a very high-quality art museum that I think deserves much more traffic and appreciation, but unsurprising because it’s so far away from all the other popular attractions in Las Vegas that it’s probably rare for people to make the trek all the way out there unless they are true art enthusiasts.
If you’re visiting Las Vegas and primarily staying on the Las Vegas Strip, then I think it’s unrealistic to thread in a visit to this art museum. However, if you’re staying closer to Summerlin or are making a trip to Mount Charleston to go on a hike, you’ll be closer to the Centennial Hills neighborhood, which in that case, I think the Rita Deanin Abbey Museum definitely deserves a spot on your list of places to consider visiting, even at the full US$20.00-per-adult ticket price.
Here are some photographs I took in the museum during my visit:
No matter how strong my love is for Las Vegas, one of the things I adamantly hate about it is how it is commonplace and acceptable to smoke cigarettes inside casino buildings on the Las Vegas Strip. Basically every other area of the United States has justifiably banned smoking inside buildings (and even within a certain distance of the entrance of buildings), but casinos seem to be be the anomaly and are okay with jeopardizing the health of their visitors in order to satisfy smokers.
Fortunately, there is one property on the Strip that has banned smoking indoors—Park MGM. (As a side note, the Vdara also bans smoking, but it is just a resort and spa and doesn’t have a casino, and it also doesn’t have a Las Vegas Boulevard address.) In the spirit of voting with my wallet, I like to support businesses that support my beliefs, so for dinner, I decided to dine at Best Friend, a restaurant inside Park MGM.
I dined with two friends, which made us a group of three. All three of us decided to get the chef’s tasting menu for US$75.00 per person.
The first round of food came out, and as expected from a Korean restaurant, it consisted of a lot of 반찬, pronounced as “banchan” and meaning “side dish.” In addition, it also came with a side of buns, which is less common for Korean cuisine.
One thing that you might notice is that the buns came out as a set of four instead of a set of three. This is going to be a recurring theme that you’ll notice on an ongoing basis throughout this meal, which I will point out during my review whenever it was relevant.
As the first main entrée, we got slippery shrimp. This had a great balance of crispiness and tenderness. The flavor of the sauce was great, and it had a relatively light and reasonable amount of breading, which meant that the shrimp flavor was not overpowered. This was my favorite dish of the meal.
The slippery shrimp came out as two plates instead of three, so we thought that one plate was missing. However, when we pointed this out to the waiter, he replied that the chef’s tasting menu at Best Friend is more of a communal, family-style situation, as opposed to the neat, well-presented, singular dishes that you might find in a traditional chef’s tasting menu or omakase experience. Thus, he said that the slippery shrimp came out in a way where it was intended to be shared by the entire table.
Although that was unusual compared to what I am used to or was expecting, it was understandable, and it made a decent amount of sense considering that the family-style sharing of food is indeed something that is common in Asian cultures.
On top of that, the waiter said that a group of three is a fairly unusual group size for them to see, and that their tasting menu is often sized to be compatible for pairs. Thus, he said that, in situations where they can accommodate a portion size for three people, they would do it, but otherwise, we would end up getting portion sizes intended for groups of four.
Now back to the slippery shrimp. With all that being said above, there was another funny facet to this situation. In our group of three diners, we had one person who does not eat fish or seafood. This meant that this slippery shrimp entrée, which I now noticed was definitely intended for a group of four, is now being split between only two people. Luckily, it was very delicious and I was happy to eat a large portion of it, but it was quite satisfyingly filling.
Next up were Kogi tacos from Roy Choi’s Kogi BBQ Taco Truck. Because these were individual tacos, we got our proper serving of three tacos. I thought these were solid tacos, and I was not surprised when I later found out that they were made to resemble food truck tacos, as it definitely gave off that impression.
Next up was the meat. One of the plates was garlic chicken; the other was 갈비, pronounced “galbi,” which is Korean barbecued short rib.
These were gigantic portion sizes, and again, I think we got the amount of meat that was supposed to go to four people instead of just three. The galbi was good, albeit a bit heavy on large chunks of fat. The garlic chicken was passable, with decent flavor but a bit dry in texture.
With that being said, this is the point where I was getting extremely full and realized that I was getting some amazingly great value for my money, considering just how much food I was getting and the fact that I was on the Las Vegas Strip where everything is upcharged for tourists. Even though the meat wasn’t the utmost highest of quality, I couldn’t really complain about it, because it was still tasty meat, and I felt like I was getting it for way cheaper than it deserved to be.
Along with the meat, we also got kimchi fried rice. I left most of this for my friends to eat, especially the one who wasn’t quite as full as I was due to him not having eaten any of the slippery shrimp dish earlier in the meal.
Finally, it was time for dessert. I believe this is another area where we got four people’s portions instead of just two, as I think each dessert dish is designed with two people’s portion size in mind, and our waiter gave us one of each.
The first dessert was date cake. I couldn’t really tell that it was date cake; to me, it just tasted more like a chocolately cake with some good ice cream on the side.
The second dessert was what they called a “strawberry shortie,” though from what I could tell, it looked like a generic grocery store ice cream pop adorned with some sorbet and cream on the side.
Both of these desserts were fine, but at this point, all three of us were struggling to keep eating, as we were all very full.
From the outside when walking through the casino, the restaurant looks tiny because the only area you can see from the storefront windows is the front “retail and bar” area. However, once you go through a hallway, there is a much larger dining area.
Here are some photographs I took of the inside dining area and kitchen, which includes its own bar:
And here are some photographs I took of the aforementioned retail and bar area, which does actually seem to sell merchandise, as well as have some bar dining options for people who just want a quick and more casual meal:
If you weren’t able to tell already, I have one very obviously and very important recommendation: if you want to try the chef’s tasting menu at Best Friend, go as a group of three instead of a group of two or four. Surely at some point they are going to address this loophole and figure out a way to not have to give an extra portion of food to every group of three, but until then, I think Best Friend is probably the one restaurant on the Las Vegas Strip where you will absolutely get top value for your money.
With that being said, even if they do patch this loophole, I still think Best Friend is a pretty good restaurant.
For context, I’m personally not a huge fan of Korean cuisine because I usually find it to just be way too salty and greasy for my preferences, and I think Korean cuisine tends to just overload your taste buds with primitive satisfaction (i.e., through egregious amounts of salt, sugar, and fat) rather than focusing more on refined, pure flavors that are considered desirable in fine dining. Also, my parents are Korean and I grew up eating a lot of Korean food that my mom made, but she was not a good cook, so my brain sort of has the idea ingrained in it that Korean food in general is not that good.
With all that in mind, and even as someone who might be biased and predisposed to not liking this restaurant because it’s Korean, I still liked Best Friend.
Now obviously, a US$75.00-per-person meal isn’t necessarily cheap either, but prices have gotten absolutely wild on the Las Vegas Strip lately, so comparatively, $75 is not bad. Considering that they’re basically serving you enough calories in a single meal to last you an entire day (or more, if you do the three-person hack), if you take into consideration the amount of food along with the unique atmosphere and dining experience that comes along with the restaurant, I think it is absolutely worth my recommendation.
Because of some absolutely horrific past experiences I’ve had with the Rio Hotel & Casino back when they were a part of Caesars Entertainment, I’ve been pretty avoidant of Caesars properties in general. However, once in a while, a hotel under the Caesars family will have something interesting enough that it’s still worth making a visit. In my opinion, one of those things is the Wildlife Habitat at the Flamingo Las Vegas Hotel & Casino.
The main reason I actually decided to go for a midday walk to the Flamingo was because I heard there were some renovations to their pool that was finally open to the public after a few delays, and Caesars played it up as if it was going to be some kind of revolutionary, innovative, state-of-the-art renovation, so I wanted to see it for myself and find it if that was true.
Funny enough, I could not figure out where the entrance to the pool was. The only entry point I could find had a security guard that said only registered hotel guests were permitted access, and the other meandering path I came across ended up spitting me out at the taxi and rideshare zone. I don’t even like pools, so I wasn’t particularly motivated to keep searching. Instead, I just went to the Wildlife Habitat to see the flamingos.
You need to calibrate your expectations properly when going to the Wildlife Habitat, because if you’re hoping to see a ton of flamingos, you’re going to be out of luck. I think there are fewer than ten flamingos on the property, along with a small, assorted collection of other birds, fish, and sea life spread throughout different sections of the habitat. It’s nothing too crazy, and it’s nothing even close to what you’d find at a zoo or aquarium, but it’s free to go in for a quick stroll, and it’s amusing to see something like this outdoors on the Las Vegas Strip.
I also had an opportunity to see the Garden Chapel. I don’t know if this is usually just open to the public or if I had some fortunate timing, but this back area was very serene and nearly devoid of tourists. There was the occasional sign saying that the wedding coordinator was away and would be returning shortly, which I guess implies that the area is only open during certain business hours, but I was lucky enough to be able to sightsee uninterrupted due to the attendant being busy.
Here are some photographs I captured during my visit:
On a day that I didn’t really have much going on, I decided to break up the monotony of my work day and spend an afternoon checking out the Infinity Museum at the Boulevard Mall in the unincorporated town of Paradise in the Las Vegas Valley (different from the BLVD on the Las Vegas Strip). This is apparently a relatively new attraction, having opened only about a month ago
The Infinity Museum is a collection of eight rooms using lights and other visuals to create immersive experiences (along with a few more smaller displays in the hallways between rooms), some of which included a simulated starry night, a room with gigantic helium-filled orbs, a walk-in dodecahedron, a mirror maze, and a kaleidoscope.
This obviously reminded me of my visit to Arte Museum Las Vegas, another interactive and immersive light show experience. The Infinity Museum and the Arte Museum are similar, but have a few distinct differences.
It feels like the Infinity Museum wants to focus more on pushing boundaries and setting records, by way of designing things that haven’t been made before and being more innovative with their rooms. For a lot of the rooms, it also made me feel like I was basically a doll in a dollhouse—the rooms are large and spacious, so it almost gives the impression of there being a giant peering in through the ceiling and watching as you interact with their creation.
On the contrary, the Arte Museum had smaller rooms, which had the effect of feeling like the walls were pushing into you; this made it easier for you to get “lost” inside the immersion and truly feel like you are in the middle of what’s going on around you. Also, I personally like having multiple senses stimulated at once, so the fact that the Arte Museum integrated scents and aromas into their experiences made them very pleasant and memorable.
I personally liked the Arte Museum a bit better, but I enjoyed the Infinity Museum as well. I would recommend both; but, for different kinds of people who are looking for different things, I think one option will be notably better than the other.
I recommend the Arte Museum if you are an adult going alone or with a small group of other adults and have the patience to really take in what’s around you and want a multi-sensory experience (because remember, Arte Museum has a café too). I would recommend the Infinity Museum if you are going with children, or if you are big on taking cool-looking pictures to post on social media that will give a nice visual pop to your feed.
I personally paid US$29.00 for admission, but I think there was something bugged with the online booking system at the time of my purchase (I checked again just now, and it seems like the point-of-sale platform is fixed). When I went to buy my ticket, there were around three or four adult general admission ticket prices listed that made it seem like you were allowed to pick how much you wanted to pay (and I obviously picked the cheapest option). With that being said, I am a Las Vegas local and went during off-peak hours, so I feel like I deserved the cheapest ticket price anyway.
It looks like tickets are currently in the $40s per adult if you want to go on a weekend during surge hours, and they cost a little bit more if you also want to add on a VIP package.
Here are some photographs I took throughout all the exhibits:
