Omaha

So, this last weekend John and I decided to take an impromptu trip to Omaha. I had never been to Omaha and John hadn't been there in quite a few years. So we drove the 2.5 hours south on Interstate 29 to the beautiful city of Omaha. We left about 12:30pm on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon.

Since I am the better city driver and John is a much better navigator, I drove and John navigated. My first impression of Omaha was "This city is huge" and my second was "This interstate is insane". The interstate was the type of road that splits off and suddenly you are on another interstate going a different direction. Needless to say John and I tried to stick to city streets and avoid the treacherous interstate.

We navigated ourselves to downtown Omaha by around 4:00 pm on Saturday. We really didn't have an agenda and decided to wander around until we found something. Omaha's downtown is called "Old Market" and has brick roads and wonderful shops and restaurants. They offer have horse carriage rides and live music on street corners.

John and I wandered around the Old Market and found a beautiful park to explore. There was a body of water with a path that went all the way around with streams and flowers along the way. We also stopped to see the Missouri River, which flows through the city. Once we were done in the park, we explored downtown some more and ate at a wonderful brewery called the Upstream Brewery with Omaha steaks. It was wonderful.

For those of you who don't know much about Omaha, it is the nation's 40th largest city with a population of about 454, 000 people (so about three times as big as Sioux Falls). I realize it's no New York City, but it's pretty large compared to what I am used to.

Omaha is well known for the Henry Doorly Zoo. The zoo is over 130 acres and features the largest cat complex in North America, "Kingdoms of Night" is the world's largest nocturnal exhibit and indoor swamp, the Lied Jungle is one of the world's largest indoor rainforests, and the "Desert Dome" is the world's largest indoor desert (Wikipedia). To say the least, the zoo was awesome. We spent 6 hours at the zoo, and could have easily spent more time there, but we wanted to get back to Sioux Falls at a decent time.

John and I had a great couple of days in Omaha. We discovered a wonderful city that is located pretty close to us. We plan to go back and explore more the next chance we get. My advice, go visit Omaha if you haven't yet, it is a beautiful city with plenty to do. Thanks for reading!