We stayed at the downtown Courtyard by Marriott. Just your average Courtyard but great location within walking distance to most Omaha activities including the Market area.
Bill lived in Omaha back in the 80's so he was familiar with the area which was helpful and fun for him to show us around. We saw where he used to work and the house he owned while living in Omaha.
The weather was not the best when we arrived - cool actually. We just happen to hit a pocket of poor weather. The weekend before we arrived it was in the 80's and the day we left was supposed to pop back into the 80's. Friday I'm not sure it made 60 degrees! We made the best of it however as we always do. You sure can feel that fall is in the air.
On our first afternoon after visiting the area Bill lived in we headed over to Council Bluffs, Iowa on a short drive and took in a Railroad museum and a park downtown. Not much going on in Council Bluffs!
We went to a park on the out skirts of town - a Lewis and Clark memorial that overlooked the Missouri river - nice park where we saw a bunch of wild turkeys.
We also took in another museum back over in Omaha that was in the old train station which was beautifully restored. The museum also had several passenger cars on display and other exhibits on local history.
The city of Omaha seems to have a great deal of civic pride. The downtown area was well maintained and there are great parks and public art was abundant.
Did a little shopping - fall is in the air and Halloween is just around the corner!
We ended our first evening by taking in a steak dinner at The Drover - a steakhouse that was recommended by a several people. The steak was amazing! We ran into other Husky fans having dinner and former Husky head coach Jim Lambright.
Dinner was followed by a movie - we saw The Driver, which despite the violence, I really liked.
Saturday was game day! Football is huge in Nebraska! They take their sports very serious and red is everywhere! Kent and I have been to a lot of away games and I have to say that the Nebraska fans were by far the most welcoming nice people we've experienced! Such a contrast to the worst experience of the Oregon fans! It's really to bad because traveling to away games can be a lot of fun. Kent and I go out of our way to welcome and greet fans who travel to Husky Stadium. We heard over and over that Colorado fans are bad too. I hope that not to be the case since they just joined that PAC 12 and we look forward to traveling to Boulder for an away game.
Although we did not get to see much of Lincoln it was a nice college town. We took in the local Farmers Market before the game and took time to walk the campus and visit the college bookstore.
Despite the fact that the Huskies lost to the Cornhuskers we had an awesome game day experience! Following the game we found a great place for an Italian dinner back in Omaha and then the best sports bar I've ever been in where we took in the last of the Stanford and Utah games. I counted no less than 45 TV screens of all sizes!
Sunday started out with light rain but Kent and I both took in short runs.
I've said this before but I just love running in new locations while traveling. This run was a first in that I ran across state lines during my run!
Here are a few pictures I took while out running. There are great trails in the area for running although many were closed due to recent flood activity.
Bill headed home on Sunday afternoon so following lunch we dropped him off at the airport. Since the weather was still cloudy with rain we took in another movie - Contagion. Kent liked it - I gave it a C.
Our timing was perfect because by the time we got out of the movie the weather finally broke and the temperature actually reached the low 70's! We took a drive recommend by our waitress from the night before on the Old Lincoln Highway.
We capped off our trip with a fine dinner of Mexican food and called it an early evening.
Glad to be headed home. As I finish writing this post we are getting ready to land in Minneapolis - Seattle is just a short time away!
Another reason that I'm excited to get home is because we pick up our new pup Harry tonight! Truth be told we are both nervous about adopting a third dog but could not be more excited and we will make it work.
And yes - we are back to our original name and have settled on Harry. Tell me he does not look like a Harrry! Isn't he adorable?!
Next up I've got fly over to Wenatchee tomorrow for a meeting then we are home for a weekend followed by a weekend driving trip to Utah with all three dogs! That should be interesting!
Have a great week!
Jim
Just landed - Seattle!
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Good job! I almost felt like I was there. Harry? okay we will get used to it. Yes he is cute and very white!
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