Saturday, September 08, 2018

Concluding Our Epic Road Trip: Omaha

I love it when good things come full circle.  Six weeks ago I wrote this blog post, Our Epic Road Trip Part One: Omaha.  Unsurprisingly, I-80 brought us back through Nebraska as well.  I don't have many pics from this time around, but that's okay.  We've done Omaha before and we are certain to do it again.  

No matter how many times we visit the Heartland, there are some things we never tire of, particularly the zoo.

Papa Kay spoiled us with a visit to the stingrays...

...and a pretzel.

It's hard to believe that anyone could be hungry after a pretzel that size, but here we are eating Chinese later that day.  The place is called Three Happiness Express, but our group had six happy customers.

 The weather may have been hot, but we still braved the downtown slides at Gene Leahy Mall.

After the slides, Papa Kay took the big girls to the Durham museum, where they tried to survive their pretend journey along the Oregon Trail.  I'm assuming Papa Kay didn't make it since he came home with a sticker that said, "Be Nice to Me, I'm Dead."

Meanwhile, Eli, Annika and I headed to the Omaha Children's Museum.  I was surprised by how much it had changed.  I particularly liked this new exhibit they had on China.  We used it as consolation since Eli's choir nearly took a last minute trip to China, but it got cancelled due to visa issues.

Annika loved the panda, especially after the panda iMax we'd seen in Detroit.

Other big milestones: Annika learned to ride a bike.  I think she's our third child to learn on the bike path behind Papa Kay and NomiAnn's house.  (Brooklyn learned at Winfield Village.)

Here she is exploring at Two Rivers state park.  The water was too warm for cooling off, but we enjoyed a lovely evening anyway.

Of course, the very best part of being in Omaha was hanging out with Papa Kay.  After all, he treats us like royalty.

By the time we made it back to Salt Lake, we'd traveled over five thousand miles and logged 77 hours of drive time.

Three cheers for Home, Sweet Home.

1 comment:

Jason said...

What an incredible journey you guys had this summer. It’s been fun to hear about your adventures over the phone and in person, and equally fun to read the details in these posts. Welcome home, and here’s to many more adventures still to come!