2014
When my husband asked what I was doing, & I told him I was doing a homework assignment on 'my home town', he jokingly said "well that's easy, you can finish your assignment in two words - 'sin city', because that's the title people associate it with." Sadly, that's what people think of our city of Las Vegas, NV when they hear the name. I’ve always hated that, & Emily hates it even more than I do. I don't see our city like that. If anything, I'd say it's "Grace City", because where else can you see such an all emcompassing picture of God's grace (not to mention mercy) with us humans?
Anyway, I didn't mean to start off my homework like this.
I do want to take a different route on this homework though. Instead of giving the history of Las Vegas - how it came about ect, I'd like to give you not only a few pictures of what we all know of Las Vegas, but also a different view of the city. A view of the city behind all the glamour, lights, & glitz. If you ever visit here, & you confine your visit only to Strip, you will be missing a lot.
When people think of Vegas, most think of the 4.2 mile Strip on Las Vegas Boulevard, never stopping to think that beyond that small area of Las Vegas, is a thriving, bustling city filled with families that are just like families throughout America. Andre Agassi was born & raised here (he still lives here with his wife Steffi Graf), & he's commented on how he's amazed that people never think of our city other than anything but the casinos. We're a city of beautiful parks, 336 schools, a university, community colleges, & churches (some surveys over the years have even included Las Vegas among lists of cities with the most churches per capita.) The last survey showed we have over 500 churches. These aren't churches scattered with a handful of worshipers each week. Many of these churches have memberships in the thousands.
Here are a few more facts about Las Vegas -
The name "Nevada" comes from the Spanish nevada, meaning "snow-covered" after the Sierra Nevada ("snow-covered mountain range"). The first Europeans (Spaniards) who explored the area gave this name.
Las Vegas means 'the meadows'. It was named this because of its plentiful underground water supply & fertile ground; it was quite literally a huge fertile meadow surrounded by desert. Surprising to me, because we are in the middle of the desert & so dry.
We are in a valley & surrounded by mountains. There is beauty everywhere! This is the view from one of my windows.
We are the driest state in the United States. (See above fact?)
We're a city that claimed the title of the fastest growing city in America for decades. When we moved here in 1992, our population wasn't yet 400,000. Now we are well over 2,000,000 residents.
We have no state income tax.
We have a cultural side. We have the Las Vegas Philharmonic orchestra, a symphony orchestra, theater companies, & an Opera company.
We don't have a pro sports team here (although it's rumored we will be getting one), but we do have a minor league baseball team (the Las Vegas 51's), a professional league hockey team (the Wranglers), as well as soccer teams & basketball teams. We also have the Nascar Las Vegas Motor Speedway, with a seating capacity of 130,000.
We are home to Nellis Air Force Base (which is what brought us here in 1992) - home of the Thunderbirds -
We get 32-42 million tourists per year, & I'll bet most don't go past the Strip. That's sad, because there's so much more to this city.
This sign is at our airport, & I found it funny. It's probably what most think once they hit the Strip.
We're 30 minutes from the CA border, 40 minutes From the Arizona border, 4 hours drive from the Grand Canyon, one hour from the border of Utah, so we can go off on jaunts quite easily. We especially love being next to CA, as we’re a Disney family, & love going to Disneyland.
Of course there's the Strip entertainment. We are not called the entertainment capitol of the world for nothing! Many stars live here, as well as perform. This was Michael J's home here. It was open to the public on the second anniversary of his death.
Live here or come here, & you'll run upon impersonators. I've seen 'Elvis' many times while grocery shopping.
Some look remarkably like the 'real deal'.
This was an impersonator on the Strip - I think the sign was for him to pose with tourists for pics on the Strip.
We're probably the only city that has 'cities' within our city. What other city can you go to & see other 'cities' (& countries) too? Come here, & you'll see New York, Paris, Venice, the pyramids of Egypt, Rome, a medieval castle, & more.
And inside each of those casinos are the famous Las Vegas buffets - everyone should experience one at least once!
They seem to stretch on forever. If you ever go to one, make sure you wear pants that stretch on forever too.
I'm sure you've all heard the saying 'What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas'. Well, I love this billboard that is all over town.
One of the big downsides to living here are our summers. Our summer temps can reach 117F, & going out feels like an oven blast in your face. The rest of our year makes up for the brutal few months of temps. That, & our extremely low humidity (normally in the single digits). We get very little rain, & enjoy sunny days normally 340 days out of the year.
One other plus, Mt. Charleston is a 30 minute drive from our house, so we can leave Vegas when it's 100F & find 70F on the mountain. Not to mention, getting our 'snow fix' in the winter since we don't get snow. This is a view of the mountain as you leave our neighborhood.
We have more than 60 golf courses (& no, I don't golf). Here's just a few pictures of some of those courses. I think we have some of the most beautiful courses in the world.
To show you the beauty, & proof that there is life beyond the Strip, here are a few pictures.
I hope you've enjoyed your visit to my part of the world. I also hope that now when you hear the name "Las Vegas", you won't automatically think lights & casinos.
