This past weekend, I went to Omaha to visit Garrett. Garrett was on a mission to impress and persuade. I'll let you know how well/not so well he did at the end of the post.
Well, for starters, I was so glad to see Garrett! The longest we have spent apart was for training three summers ago. (Gross, how time flies) So in that respect, I am totally spoiled and don't do so well without him! My one friend says that she's ready for 'happy Anna' to come back. Well, she will completely come back when Garrett gets home at the end of October!
I arrived in Omaha Friday afternoon and was so happy to see Garrett that I didn't care that he had a cold (which he promptly gave to me). We had some Mexican food for lunch. It was good, although the rice really had no flavor. Then we went to the AF base and Garrett worked on some paperwork and such while I took a nap! Lame, I know, but he had to get the paperwork done sometime this weekend, so why not take a nap while I could?! We started the evening out at the Omaha Brewing Company. Now, for the life of me, I can't remember what kind of beer we had. I know one was a hefeweizen, but I can't remember the other. Oh well, they were tasty!
Our next stop was the Huber Haus in midtown Omaha or whatever they call it. Much to our delight, they were having OKTOBERFEST! I feel like the bulk of my posts between September and October have at least one reference per post about Oktoberfest. Hmm funny how that works. Anyway, we enjoyed our favorite German biers of Spaten and Ayinger in our new glassware that they were selling for uber cheap! I, of course, had to send my dad pictures to make him jealous! And jealous he was!
We walked around and checked things out and then listened to the band for awhile.We met a number of people there including a med student from I think it was Creighton, but I'm not sure and a Yankees fan that was in dental school. After we had a few biers, we decided to head out and try another place.
You cannot tell from this picture, but Garrett is posing in front of a very long line of port-a-potties. Gotta love port-a-potties. This is where our adventure went slightly awry. The bar we were looking for was nowhere to be found, so we ended up just calling it a night and since we didn't eat any dinner, decided to make a late night stop at IHOP of course.
On Saturday, we woke up not overly early, but early enough and made our way to the Zoo. This is the hold Home of the College World Series. There is newer stadium downtown, but the sign and some of the field was still right by the zoo. I can't imagine how much the traffic probably sucks when the zoo was open and the college world series was going on.
My camera does not take great pictures through glass, but I tried my best. I absolutely love the huge Siberian tiger that was enjoying some tasty breakfast here. I took more pictures, but I feel like this post is already on picture overload, so I'm keeping the quantities here low.
Garrett's younger brother was recently diagnosed with something called Alpha-gal. It is this wonderful new-ish allergy to RED MEAT. It is carried by ticks and it causes an allergic reaction some 6-8 hours after consuming red meat. He can have fish, poultry, and Old World Monkey. I have been wondering what old world monkey is since this happened. We stumbled across it in the zoo of course. So although he can no longer enjoy beef and pork but he can still have baboons and macaques. I had to take a picture of the old world monkey sign.
I love Madagascar the movie, and so I would love lemurs!! So freaking cute!!! Its King Julien!!
The train ride! It was a little disappointing since I was hoping to hear about the history of the zoo and other fun facts. I don't just want to know that we are passing the giraffes, but more. I do think that this zoo should consider working on that, but it was nice to get off our feet for a little while!
Next up was the desert dome. They have a desert habitat inside the dome. It was fun to check out the animals in here. I'm pretty sure found an animal that my brother-in-law has mounted on his wall from his African safari, so that was entertaining! Underneath the desert was Kingdoms of the Night. I was thinking it was going to be all creepy crawly bugs and snake and spiders, but it was so much more. There were snakes and a few spiders, but the setup was so neat. Each floor below had a theme. There was a floor with caves and there were bats on that floor along with little lakes that you would find in caves and also a really big salamander that grossed freaked me out! Big.Gross.Slimy.Thing. There was also a floor that was a swamp and this was my favorite floor and also the point that I found out that Garrett does not like alligators. In the same way that the bats and giant salamander gave me the heeby jeebies, Garrett felt the same way about the alligators! I love that we can still learn new things about each other after being together for four years.
I didn't know that I have a hummingbird! There were itty bitty little things! Still adorable!
The last area we went was the Aquarium. This is still relatively new and as such was the most crowded area in the entire zoo. There were many cool animals to see including penguins, sharks, and these giant Japanese spider crabs. (Check it out Japanese Spider Crabs) We had to take a picture in front of the aquarium that went all around us like a tube. It didn't turn out great, but it still looks pretty cool!
These were upside down jellyfish! Pretty cool little guys!
We had to stop at Bill Frogs for Amanda and have some pondscum. Not sure why its called pondscum as itdidn't look like anything I've ever seen in a pond....but it was tasty!
Saturday night we went out for steak. You can't go to Omaha and not enjoy a lovely steak. The place we went was called Piccolo's. The steak was fabulous, but the rest of the food was just okay. We were then so tired, that we called it a night and went back to base and passed out.
Sunday morning, I got to check out the base. They have huge buildings, evidently the biggest in the Department of Defense network. This building, for example, is the biggest gym. The track around the inside is 0.4 mile long and that's not even the whole building. Big big building.
It just keeps going!
I have not been a spouse for long nor the spouse of an active duty Airman, but I still quite enjoyed this sign!!!
We also had to check out the pedestrian bridge. Here is the state line between Nebraska and Iowa.
Then we checked out a nearby park and took some pictures!
I think Garrett did a nice job of convincing me that Omaha wouldn't be a terrible place to live for three years. However, there is one thing that will never, Never, NEVER happen. I shall never be a Cornhuskers fan nor will I even purchase Cornhusker gear. If we move there and end up going to a game, I will simply wear red, but not anything that says Cornhuskers. Just an FYI. Lol!
Anyway, off that soapbox, I think Omaha would potentially be a nice place to live. There are many fun things to do around the city and the area is peaceful.
In other news, Claire gets here this upcoming weekend and I could not be more excited to get to spend a whole month with her! I'm looking forward to fun blog posts about her visit! Amanda is coming in this weekend as well as Once Upon a Time starts back up Sunday night! It will be fun to actually watch it together in person rather than just talk on FB during the show!!!
Until Next Time!
Lots of Love!!
~A
PS-Magic is Coming!
