Saturday
We got into town in the early afternoon and checked into our hotel, the Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Omaha. The Hotel was fine, but probably a bit pricey for what it provided. The greatest advantage, and this is important for anyone who ever intends to spend a weekend in Omaha to note, is that the Hotel offered easy access to the Old Market and the Gene Leahy Mall. It was nice to be able to visit these locations for a little while then be able to walk back to our hotel. Another thing to note is that there is a lot of traffic noise at night in downtown Omaha, which is something I was not anticipating.
The Old Market is a segment of the downtown that has been and is being rebuilt to house a series of eclectic shops and restaurants. It is a nice place to visit, walk around, and eat. I was not impressed enough that it made much sense to me that lofts in one building in the area were advertised to start at about $230K.
The Gene Leahy Mall is essentially a park that has been built around a creek that runs through downtown Omaha. I don't know the finances behind building and maintaining it, but it seems to me to be one of the wisest investments that the city could have made. It is attractive, a short walking distance from the Old Market and the Qwest Center, and provides motivation for further development downtown.
After we got into Omaha we spent all of the time on Saturday when we were out of the hotel room either in the Old Market or the Gene Leahy Mall.
Sunday
The main reason that we visited Omaha was for the zoo. When we arrived Sunday morning we realized that we weren't the only people who had the bright idea to visit the zoo.
Throughout the day we probably saw about half of the zoo, but we saw most of the indoor exhibits since it was a hot day. While the visit went well overall, we did underestimate how taxing it is dragging a toddler around a zoo in the heat and crowds. We left with plenty of time before closing, but with not much left in the tank.
Since NJ fell asleep in the car on the way back to the hotel, we took the opportunity to drive around downtown. This led us to the Lewis and Clark landing. We didn't do anything here but look at the river and give NJ more time to nap.
Monday
We visited the Lauritzen Gardens Monday morning with some doubts as to whether this would be a worthwhile stop. There weren't a whole lot of good options of places to visit on Memorial Day, so we ended up there more by default than anything else.
The visit would probably have been boring for us except for a temporary exhibit on site called KidStructure. It is a series of structures that kids can play on, in, and around that are more pieces of art than anything else. NJ easily liked this the most of any part of the trip, making the botantical gardens a very worthwhile stop.
After we left the botanical gardens it was back to Kansas for us. We had an enjoyable visit, but will probably not be doing another trip as involved as this one any time in the near future. Our current thinking is that we should probably wait four or five years before the next major family vacation because going to attractions with four-year-olds is more appealing than with one-year-olds.
4 comments:
I am glad that we took the trip. I thought NJ would nap in the stroller at the zoo. Maybe we need to plan around NJ's nap time if possible.
We know how taxing pushing a stroller around a zoo can be. If you are up to the challenge, trying pushing a stroller around the KC zoo.
The bigger problem was getting NJ to want to stay in the stroller. :)
We went with the wagon with blankets and pillows and a sun umbrella. We got lots of comments about how plush our kids had it, but we actually have a picture of Nibbles taking a nap that way at the KC zoo at 1 years old.
That's the only way to go when you have two. When Woogy was 2, we planned our vacation at Lake of the Ozarks around naptimes, but with an older child who doesn't need to nap, we can't do that anymore.
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