Against the Current

Or, my visit to Omaha, NE. The city is named after the Omaha tribe, who would have had to go "against the current," the meaning of "Omaha", when they migrated north (thank you Wikipedia!). I actually spent about two days in Omaha and two days in Lincoln. About, because with only four days total and a ten hour drive either way, a bit of time is taken up in transit. Insane? Yes. Worth it? Definitely.

I want to start out by stating that contrary to popular opinion, Iowa is not a boring drive. I generally prefer more hills (Michigan is nice; mountains are perfect) but I have been in states much flatter. Iowa has a combination of big sky and enough in the way of rolling hills to provide some shape to the land. It alternates between a horizon that falls just over the hill ahead or, when on top of that hill, stretches for miles before you and off to the sides. It's a lot of open fields (and corn) but I've never pretended not to love countryside. And wildflowers! Midwest wildflowers. The kind I'm familiar with at home, which admittedly would have been nicer if I hadn't been home for the past year+, but were still appreciated.

I'm not a fan of big cities. Omaha, with it's overabundance of multi-lane, one way, dead-ending streets, immediately drops quite a bit in my opinion. It's crowded and confusing, not confusing enough to get me lost - that takes some doing - but confusing enough to cause timing problems when I can't find a street that actually goes in the direction I need it to.

Aside from that, however, there are plenty of things I can appreciate about the city. Though I hesitate to say this about any large city (European cities excluded; also, grudgingly, Austin), it's a city I could enjoy wandering around in - in this case especially as I have it on good authority that much of the downtown and park areas can be reached on foot. Their layout of parks, statues, and random monuments is extensive and wanders in a definite pattern through the city. Beautiful fountains, tributes to ancestors and pioneers and what the land previously looked like, rivers and green areas and plenty of picture opportunities together make me a happy tourist. There was a lot of detail and clearly a lot of thought put into the designs, such as birds flying up from a fountain and out across the street and a covered wagon setup (I loved this one) that extended across the better part of a block and looked like they were actually on a trail and going somewhere as when standing before it, you could see neither the beginning or end of the trail. I also stayed in the safest-feeling and cleanest hotel I've found over the course of my last few trips, so props to the city for that one. It's nice to be able to turn the lights off in my room when I want to sleep (and to be able to turn them on when I don't!). As a side note, it was an Econo Lodge. Both hotels I stayed at this trip were Econo Lodges. I chose them because they are both under $50/night not counting taxes, but this time around both gave me unexpected amenities such as a refrigerator. One also gave me a microwave; the other, whether through confusion on the part of the staff or an actual intention due to having a room with two beds, gave me two T.V.s.

I'm not cool enough to remember the name of the restaurant I ate at, nor did I try any local beers, but I did sample their own brand of rootbeer which was sweet and good. I also managed to sample some Omaha steak.. even if it was on top of a pizza. Despite my tourist tendencies the trip involved a decent amount of sitting and wandering and coffee shops and, lest I neglect an all-important detail, finally watching Zathura. It was a fun movie, a good movie to watch with others, though perhaps a tad more amusing to me than it was actually intended to be. That may also have been a reflection of the general exhausted state of my brain at that point. Whether or not that's the case, the original point of this - not the movie, but the general note on wandering - is that Omaha is a good place to just hang out. That's important in a city, especially when you've picked the 90+ degree weekend to see a lot of outdoor attractions. Even the college campus is nice, though they have a distinct lack of available payphones.

Anyway, a few general touristy places I was able to get to:

Henry Doorly Zoo - This zoo is impressive. I've only been to a few (5 or 6 I think), but this is easily the best I've seen. The attention to detail I noted on the statues within the city carries over the the exhibits here. I was looking forward to seeing the new exhibits that had been put up since my visit ten years ago, and despite strangely high expectations to have for a zoo, it met them. A full 8:30-5pm day wasn't quite enough to see everything, though it was close, leaving out only a small mammal exhibit, many of the cats, wild dogs, and a particular set of penguins. Among my favorites for the day were the Lied Jungle, an exhibit that actually looks like walking through the rainforest, and a rope bridge up on the canopy path; the swamp setup in the Kingdoms of the Night which, as far as I could tell, looked very much like walking through a swamp at night, minus fighting with swamp boots but including starting out in a small hut; the small bird exhibit that allowed you to feed them and where I succeeded in finding the one insane bird that tried to eat my finger; and the extremely cute baby gorilla. Oh, and the Okapi!

Old Market District - A fun historic-type area to walk around in, with brick roads and flowers on the overhangs of the buildings. The one real restaurant I ate in was here, as were plenty that I missed, along with an ice cream shop, a candy shop, and carriage rides. There is a nice indoor corridor, not very long but a necessity for stopping in. If you ever go, pay attention to the walls; there are some, how to put it, interesting additions behind gratings in the form of more statues/fountains.

St. Cecilia Cathedral - Inside and outside both beautiful. I spent about half an hour walking around to examine the windows, the designs, the one side chapel, and to for the most part fail in translating the Latin inscriptions with the exception of a word here and there that wasn't very helpful. I did manage to figure out "Cecilia, virgin martyr, pray for us." I went to Mass here on Sunday morning (it was thankfully very easy to find) and, yes, did appreciate the organ, as well as the fact that they had a choir singing.

Heartland of America Park - Worth it for the fountain at night which provides a colored light show, but either way, I appreciate parks and enjoyed this one. There is an option to take a boat ride around the lake (pond-thing anyway; small for a lake) including a gondola ride, and it borders the Missouri river.

Ah, well, and there ends my rambling about Omaha. Shall we try for Lincoln?

Lincoln was nowhere near as touristy, which was perfectly okay as my main activities involved hanging out with my friend's family, playing laser tag, visiting restaurants and coffee shops, and watching and discussing anime. We did visit a Carmelite Monastery in Valparaiso, where we were able to visit the small church open to the public, and I got a glimpse of the capitol building out the car window which supposedly has a statue of a guy planting seeds at the top but, to those of us who know better, he's actually bowling. Also, the glimpse of the Sunken Gardens I got as we passed looked very nice, and next time I am able to venture out that way again I intend to place it on my list of stops.