Trip to Omaha

We took a quick road trip to Omaha, Nebraska to see LSU play in the College World Series. Even though I seemed to have jinxed the Tigers, who lost to UCLA in a 2-1 nail-biter, we still had a really nice trip.  We tried to get out of Champaign early (5:30 AM) so that Maggie would sleep a little in the car, but she was having none of it.

Maggie got her nails done in LSU colors for the game.

Omaha is a surprisingly nice town.  Yes, it's surrounded by several states worth of corn field in every direction, but the downtown area was really clean and had an "Old Market" section that is about 9 square city blocks of bars, restaurants, and tourist traps like this $25 carriage ride in the Cinderella carriage (we would have saved $5 on the regular carriage).

They also had a nice fountain with a bunch of geese and buffalo statues.  Here's Maggie taming the flock.

We also got word of a great steak house named Piccolo Pete's where I got this huge prime rib.

Gabby got the filet mignon.  We spent $100 on meat, but it was worth it.  If you ever go to Omaha - get a steak.

Here's a few more pictures of some of the statues in the downtown area.  Along with the geese and buffalo at the fountain, these statues actually formed a settler/western theme than ran along several city blocks and little parks.

They also had a really amazing, world class zoo.  In addition the standard zoo animals, they had orangutans and gorillas, and indoor rainforest, a geodesic dome housing a desert environment, an aquarium, a system of underground caves, and an indoor swamp.

Here we are waiting for the bus from our hotel to the game.

We also got a bubble gum/cherry snow cone at the stadium that Maggie really enjoyed.

Here's a video of Maggie learning bad habits at a Denny's in Davenport, Iowa.

We still have some more birthday pictures that we'll post soon.