Scott had a job in Nebraska City (in nearby Peru, Nebraska, actually). I had never been to Omaha and thought we could tag along and make a weekend out of it.
A family workcation for once!
The route took us through Le Mars, Iowa. I insisted we stop for ice cream at the Ice Cream Capitol.
They're famous for Blue Bunny ice cream. I could've passed, but we had to recreate this photo.
They had renovated since we last were here, so it wasn't quite the same.
I was a little disappointed to see they had changed the interior.
Having read the whole Lewis and Clark journals, I wanted to stop at every historical site; starting with the the memorial for Sergeant Floyd in Souix City. Floyd was surprisingly the only member of the expedition that died.
I guess that gets you a mini-Washington Monument.
Tiny Peru, Nebraska (where my shoot was) had no hotel in town, so we booked the Lied Lodge at Arbor Day Farm in Nebraska City for a couple of nights.
Scott always books our accommodations, it's always a treat when we show up because I never know where we are going to be.
Theo living his best life.
Swimming in the hotel pool then back for screens.
We went grocery shopping for lunch and breakfast food for the kids and I. For lunch the kids and I had sandwiches.
Apparently they had bought hot honey ham. Whoops.
Across the street was Wildwood Park which had a disc golf course. You could check out frisbees from the hotel but we brought our own.
We found a unique geocache along the way.
Look at that form!
It was hot and humid today. Theo needed to cool off after disc golfing.
We took a break in our hotel room to cool off and had plans to go on a tour at the Wildwood House. Theo wasn't having it. When Scott returned from work, Meadow and I went on a walk to see their gardens.
We hung out for a while in the gazebo enjoying the view. Wish I could have gone on a house tour.
Then relaxed in the seating area at Lied Lodge.
Theo was worn out by the ladies. He was fast asleep.
For some reason we decided to go to one of the last Valentino's buffets. This Nebraska chain was once known for their buffet, but most are just delivery joints these days.
If there is a buffet, we will be there.
It was worth checking out for sure.
On the edge of town there's a Lewis and Clark Museum. It had closed already for the day but had some exhibits outdoors to explore. I hadn't realized their boat was this big. They only used this boat for the first portion of the expedition and later moved to pirogues or canoes.
A traditional earth lodge.
This was a gorgeous spot at sunset.
Next we hiked to the Missouri River Overlook.
I can't believe they paddled and sailed up a river with this current in that huge boat.
Back at the lodge, the kids and I played games in the lobby.
I was busy getting the photoshoot from Peru State back to my client.
Loved this place, would stay here again.
They also had hiking trails that we didn't get to.
Did I mention their amazing olympic sized pool? Theo and I got a swim in early before having to check out.
So you're probably wondering why the Arbor Day Farm is in Nebraska. Newspaper publisher and politician, Julius Sterling Morton, came up with Arbor Day. He was a huge advocate for tree lined towns and cities. His wife and him created a tree lined Shangri-la on his Nebraska prairie estate. He proposed that a day be set aside to plant trees in towns and cities across the country. On the first Arbor Day in 1872 they planted 1,000,000 trees throughout the United States.
As a part of our hotel stay we also got free admission to Tree Adventure.
This place was really cool. The kids would have loved it when they were little, but they still had lots of fun as big kids.
It's a huge outdoor tree-themed playground.
The water feature had been busy with kids all morning. Finally it was free and they ran over to play. They loved a similar feature at Presido Park in San Francisco.
The highlight of the park is the tree houses. Each are connected by bridges.
Theo was terrified on one of the higher bridges. I was proving to him that you don't have to worry about falling.
Fun for the big kids too.
As it was lunch time, most people had left. The kids beelined to the water feature again while they had it to themselves.
We settled on Tacos El Pueblito for a late lunch.
This was so good. A grandma was the one doing all the cooking.
Abuela sure could cook.
Next we went over to the Arbor Lodge mansion. Who knew there was this much to do in Nebraska City?
It sounds like it's quite a popular destination in these parts.
Morton founded the local paper and built a simple cabin for his family.
Then they just kept expanding the house to where it is now. The original cabin is still in the center of the house.
He'd eventually become the US Agriculture Secrectary, but he was most famous for founding Arbor Day.
Also fun fact, the son was Joy Morton, the man who started the Morton Salt Company.
Their other son, who died young, founded Argo Cornstarch. Quite the family.
I was showing Theo that this is what our bathroom would have looked like when our house was built.
There was just room after room in this house.
His wife, Caroline, was well known for her crazy quilts. They were so cool. She was also quite the painter.
Naughty, Theo.
J. Sterling wanted to prove that pine trees could grow in Nebraska. He was right about that.
Did you know that if settlers had never come to North America, pines would likely have spread all the way to the Dakotas? But probably not down to Nebraska.
We could've stayed all day, but we had a date with Omaha. Queue my favorite Saddle Creek Records classics.
After our original hotel had some technical difficulties we made our way to the Old Market in Omaha.
Thankfully Capital One Travel helped me find a new hotel. Once in the area, we settled on a place nearby. And we got a $150 credit. Ka-ching!
This place ruled.
Oh my gosh they had Kitchen Littles!
This brought back so many memories.
It wouldn't be a Tuska vacation if we didn't get ice cream everyday.
Hello, Ted and Wally's. Home of the Ultra-Premium Ice Cream.
Cute space too.
Across the street was the Fairmont Antiques and Mercantile.
Which also houses Hollywood Candy. This neighborhood kind of rocks for a family trip.
We then made our way to the Gene Leahy Mall at the RiverFront to play on the playground.
We were hungry at this point and decided on the endless pasta at Spaghetti Works. We were wondering if it was once an Old Spaghetti Factory, but they just happen to have the same business model. I miss the Minneapolis location.
The Gene Leahy Mall was once all sunken like this, but they raised the area closer to the downtown core adding a waterfall cascade and integrating it into new the riverfront parks.
Thank goodness for the malfunction at Hilton.
This Courtyard by Marriott was much nicer.
For breakfast we went over to the Brunch Box near our hotel.
The kids meal comes with froyo. Mango for this mango loving boy.
This place was honestly kind of odd, but it would do.
There was another Lewis and Clark visitor center near the river in Omaha. Walking towards the building and seeing the size, I was excited for a big museum.
Welp, turns out it's actually the National Park Service Midwest Headquarters with a tiny portion dedicated to Lewis and Clark.
We got to watch a film at least.
Whoops. I guess we really should've made time for the museum back in Nebraska City.
Next to the vistor's center is the Bob Kerry pedestrian bridge that crosses over to Iowa.
We did exactly that and actually made it over to Council Bluffs for a hot second.
An adventure tower and treetop walk was being added on the Iowa side.
After walking to Iowa we went back to Nebraska and took the Lewis and Clark trail to another playground.
This whole area is a part of Omaha's the RiverFront, which stitches together blocks of parks to downtown.
This park just kept going on and on.
It's honestly one of the best parks in the Midwest.
Being in the hot sun all day we were ready for a cold drink.
But first we stopped for a pic.
We were just going to get drinks at Upstream Brewery and decided to get some apps too.
This would hold us over until dinner.
This was when we realized a weekend in Omaha might have been too much time.
A day would've probably been fine. But also we were being a bit cheap.
We tried to go see the Japanese gardens at Lauritzen Gardens when we realized it was a little more than we wanted to spend. Instead we checked out the Union Pacific Locomotives up the hill.
One of the OG Union Pacific Big Boys! Impressive.
We got more super premium ice cream at Coneflower Cremeary in the Blackstone District.
Ice cream weekend.
I kept annoying the wife and kids with my deep thoughts of the early 2000s indie rock scene in Omaha. I'm surprised I never came down here to witness the booming music scene IRL.
Scott and I did consider dropping the kids off at the hotel and going out for drinks at Conor Oberst's bar.
After ice cream, I convinced the family to walk over to the Josyln Castle.
Then we wasted more time at the RiverFront.
This was probably Theo's favorite part of Omaha. We were near our hotel so we let him get soaked.
What a goof.
For dinner we ended up back on the same block as breakfast. Akarui was much, much better.
Not a $5 bowl of ramen like we had in Japan, but it was still good.
IYKYK.
The night was still young so we walked over to the Heartland of America Park.
Just another part of the RiverFront.
First the kids wanted to try the giant slides.
We finally found a hammock that was available. Theo wouldn't let me share with him.
And then walked around the strange corporate lake.
I did love all the playgrounds and outdoor things to do here.
They also have an ice skate loop that you can roller skate or blade on in the summer.
On our last morning we attempted to get breakfast at the Saddle Creek Breakfast Club but there was an hour+ wait. We tried out a bagel place for our bagel loving guy instead.
This was the best meal of the weekend. Well, so far.
On our drive back to Minneapolis we stopped at one more Lewis and Clark activity. The Louis and Clark Interpretive Center in Sioux Falls, Iowa.
Before leaving Iowa we had to stop at the highest point. It's kind of hilarious because you basically just pull over into someones farm. Not even a big hill.
There were signs to all the highest points in the country.
Brooke loved it. I was ready to be home at this point.
I saw that there was an old bar turned Mexican and Honduran restaurant in tiny Heron Lake, Minnesota just northeast of Worthington. We had to stop. The restaurant was covered in murals depicting Mexican culture.
Theo ordered the shark in a bucket for his drink. Sadly they were out of sharks and he got a duck instead.
I got this crazy breakfast torta that could've fed the whole family. We'll have to stop by again to get some of the Honduran menu items. The Mexican half of the menu ruled.
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