I was telling a friend – a former Las Vegas resident happily transplanted to New York – that I had been in Boulder City recently. “Does the downtown still look the same?” she asked me in an e-mail. That’s one of the great things about Boulder City – it looks the same, year after year, while Las Vegas changes on a daily basis.
The newest shopping center, including a ubiquitous Starbucks, sits on the site of a former trailer park. I remember the trailer park because a good friend of mine spent a summer there, living in a trailer the size of my kitchen. The loss of that trailer park was probably a bonus for Boulder City.
My dad is buried in Boulder City, at the Veteran’s Cemetery. It’s bordered by the desert on one side and the airport on the other. The drive there takes you past a couple of lovely golf courses. This part of Boulder City feels small and slightly isolated, just like Las Vegas used to. Dad picked this as his final resting place before he passed away. He liked the fact that the airport was nearby. The day he and I visited the cemetery, we watched small planes zooming low over the graveyard as they prepared for landing. “That’ll give me something to look at,” he commented.
When I was driving into Boulder City yesterday, sky divers suddenly poured out of the sky over the airport. I considered taking a detour to try and snap pictures of them floating to earth, but a quick mental calculation told me I’d never make it before they all landed. I smiled and took it as a hello from Dad.
The newest shopping center, including a ubiquitous Starbucks, sits on the site of a former trailer park. I remember the trailer park because a good friend of mine spent a summer there, living in a trailer the size of my kitchen. The loss of that trailer park was probably a bonus for Boulder City.
My dad is buried in Boulder City, at the Veteran’s Cemetery. It’s bordered by the desert on one side and the airport on the other. The drive there takes you past a couple of lovely golf courses. This part of Boulder City feels small and slightly isolated, just like Las Vegas used to. Dad picked this as his final resting place before he passed away. He liked the fact that the airport was nearby. The day he and I visited the cemetery, we watched small planes zooming low over the graveyard as they prepared for landing. “That’ll give me something to look at,” he commented.
When I was driving into Boulder City yesterday, sky divers suddenly poured out of the sky over the airport. I considered taking a detour to try and snap pictures of them floating to earth, but a quick mental calculation told me I’d never make it before they all landed. I smiled and took it as a hello from Dad.
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Photo information: My picture of the historic Boulder Dam Hotel in downtown Boulder City.
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