Weekend getaway... to Nebraska

When my co-workers saw that I had a blank schedule for Friday they started asking questions about where I was going on vacation this time.  They give me a hard time because I do spend some of my downtime at work planning vacations and adventures.  I also hadn't missed work for several months so it is out of the usual for me to take any time off.  When questioned about my destination a few seemed disappointed with my answer... Nebraska, our new favorite vacation spot.  Ever since we took a weekend trip to Nebraska last fall Arthur and I have been excited to go back.  This time we planned a trip to the zoo in Omaha with his family.  Arthur can't seem to get enough of the Omaha Zoo.

We took off fairly early on Friday morning since we wanted to make sure we had time for everything on our schedule.  After a few hours of driving Arthur commented about how a self-driving car would be awesome but if he wasn't driving he would be paying attention to his surrounding or appreciating the day.  It was a beautiful spring morning with flora in various stages of bloom driving through rolling farm country.  We were tuned into Nebraska Public Radio which was relatively pleasant despite it being the spring pledge drive.  Our first stop was Nebraska City and the Lewis and Clark museum.  The museum was on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River where Lewis and Clark camp on their trip.  The museum had a lot of information about the plants and animals they found and documented for the first time ever. How in the world do you describe a prairie dog, badger, or bison.  It also shared some about the daily tasks- navigating and making maps, recording in journals, how they ate or handled medical needs.  It always astonishes me that 31 men cross the country that was basically unknown for 2 years covering 8000 miles and only one man lost his life-- to a ruptured appendix which would have been fatal even with the best medical care possible at that time.  The museum had a few trails to wander about on so we went down the bluff to the overlook of the Missouri.  Let's face, we really don't have any concept of rivers in Kansas.  Even most of the biggest rivers in Kansas don't have water in them a certain times of the year. After enjoying a few of the other trails we headed off to lunch.

Lunch was the main event for our day.  Ever since last fall when we had brunch at the Lied Lodge Arthur and I have been thinking about the meal, especially the smoked salmon.  While salmon wasn't on the lunch menu we both really enjoyed our chicken sandwiches.  The dining room was quiet and elegant with classical music softly playing-- making us feel pretty fancy and genteel.  As we were enjoying the fine dining experience it started to rain and hail just a little bit.  This was going to put a damper on our plans of hiking the trails around the Arbor Day farm.  We sat by the huge fire place for a while waiting to see if it would clear up and Arthur may have dosed off in the comfy leather chairs.

The weather continued to look iffy so we ventured on to Ashland, home of Mahoney State Park, which was our stop for the night.  On our drive I had read about all the wonderful things to do in Ashland, most of which are outdoors in this small community, in the Nebraska Tourism Guide-- I can't pass up a map or a tour guide.  One of the listings was for an art gallery with a museum of taxidermy wildlife and waterfalls.  This sounded intriguing.  It was an art gallery for a local artist and another man had donated his hunting collection to be on display.  It was like a miniature Cabela's diorama complete with caribou, moose, polar and grizzly bear, a jackalope, and baby alligator.  We chatted with the ladies working at the gallery and found out there were several other galleries on the two block Main Street.  I found out one of the artists did watercolors which I was interested since I'm trying my hand at watercolors these days (more on that later).  He was in the gallery working on a project and he talked to us for quite a while.  He is a former art teacher and decided to open a gallery here since it is half way between Lincoln and Omaha.  He gave me several tips about getting started with watercolors and told us about some of the techniques he had used to create the works hanging around the shop.  Even though we didn't plan on poor weather the side trip to the art galleries was a highlight for me.

Later in the afternoon the skies cleared up so we headed to the state park.  We were staying in the lodge for the night but decided to take a hike to the observation tower before settling in.  The state park is on the banks of the Platte River (yet another sizable river) with the tower overlooking the river and the surrounding valley.  Truthfully we didn't take in much of the view for the 70 foot tower because the wind was causing it to sway enough we stayed pretty close to the railing.  On our hike around the park we kept running into a herd of 6 deer.  Later that evening they hung out just outside our balcony.  After the hike Arthur settled in to an evening of NBA basketball and was as happy as a clam.  His parents, sister, and brother-in-law rolled in later that evening after their drive across the state.

Saturday morning we rose and got ready for the day.  We started off right with the breakfast buffet at the lodge dining room.  It it the spot-- especially the bacon and apple crisp.  The gang loaded up in the minivan and it was off to the zoo.  This zoo is really one of the best in the country and we wandered around it for 6 hours admiring the variety of animals.  Some of our favorites were the penguins, otters, sea lions, giraffes, sloths, jelly fish, and kookaburras.  My favorite animal on this trip was the frogsmouth, a bird from Australia that had the grumpiest glare on it's face.  This picture is close but doesn't quite capture the disdain in the bird's expression at the zoo.

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After the full zoo tour it was time for a steak house.  We headed back out of Omaha to a restaurant, Round the Bend, I had found that was a few miles off I-80 in the middle of nowhere.  We pulled up about 4:45pm and the parking lot was already full.  Luckily we were able to be seated right away.  Arthur had a sirloin and reports that it is the best steak he has had in his life.  Once again he was a happy camper after being well feed.  It was a fun dinner to share with Arthur's family before we had to go our separate ways.  We thoroughly savored our drive home as the sun was setting driving through rural Nebraska and Kansas.  Yet again we tuned into public radio for The Prairie Home Companion and an hour of Irish folk music.  It is a wonderful feeling to take pleasure in the journey and not just the destination.  Overall we had a fantastic weekend in Nebraska and can't wait to go back because each time we run across new things to explore that we just don't have time for.  I also think there may be more Fridays off in my future because even a short vacation is relaxing (maybe even more so that our regular vacations that leave us worn out with blisters and sore muscles).  Omnia Vincit Amor.