Travel Diary, Day Four (and Three): There’s no place like home

No post yesterday … too long a day!

Started with lunch at Misty’s … yes, we are eating our way through Nebraska.  Met up with my friend Mary for lunch and she gamely tagged along with me and one 8YO to Morrill Hall, which houses fossils from various sites across Nebraska, including Archie, a mammoth who is as much a part of the University of Nebraska landscape as Herbie Husker (Archie needs to work on his sideline antics, however).  We then trekked via car through and around the campus, which is so very different from when we went to school:  a lot more university housing, new class room buildings (but Oldfather, Bessey, Andrews, and Burnett still look like they did 20 years ago – and I’m sure they still smell like mothballs), lots of parking garages (nice change from the lot on north 14th that was colloquially known as “Rape Lot”, whether from actual crimes committed or just collegiate urban legend, who knows).  We then ventured to East Campus, where I never set foot when I was a student – East Campus being home to Ag, Dental, and Law (what those things have in common I have no idea).  But East Campus also houses The Dairy – part of the Ag stuff; yes, the University makes ice cream and cheeses and of course, it was awesome.  (I said I was eating my way through Nebraska … I see a lot of burpees in my future.)

Saturday night was dinner at Sonja’s – with slip and slide for the kids and just chatting with us three old college friends.  The topics have changed – from boys and classes to our kids and jobs – but in spite of having not seen each other for many years, it’s like we didn’t miss a beat. We’ve already picked out a weekend to try to get together next summer – never easy with kids, jobs, and other life stuff but we’re gonna try.  Facebook is grand, but it doesn’t replace seeing old friends.

Today was the trek from Lincoln to Omaha.  First stop:  movie theater to see the Minions, which was very cute but has the very annoying side effect of making my child speak Minion for the rest of the day (every word sounds like a 2YO trying to say “banana”.  “Did you wash your hair yet, Katie?”  “Boonahnah!”).  Lunch at the 11Worth Cafe with LOTS of family who was nice enough to take time out of their Sunday to meet up with us over ginormous plates of eggs, sausage & biscuits with gravy, and lots of other yummy food (had never been there before … gonna be a regular stop when we come through Omaha again.  The waitress called everyone “honey”, which is ALWAYS a sign of gastro greatness.  I’ll definitely be back, assuming I can bank enough burpees ahead of time.)

And then guess what?  We met up with Skip!  He took advantage of his weekend to fly into Omaha then drive to Des Moines to catch up with one of his friends at the Republican candidate gathering thing in Ames (he arrived too late to see Trump self-implode, apparently).  So we were able to spend some time with him before he headed to the airport for what’s looking to be a very, very late night for him.

Tomorrow it’s Zoo time – Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo is often rated the #1 zoo in the country if not the world, although I saw recently where it had slipped a bit.  It’ll be like I’m in third grade all over again – I think it was mandatory that every kid go there at least once a year on a field trip, and our family always bought the “membership” to gain us basically unlimited access to the zoo all summer.  I remember trekking coolers with lunch to the zoo and buying popcorn to feed the frenzied carp off of the bridge over the lagoon.  No coolers for us tomorrow .. but I did save money for popcorn.