I am back!

So the trip was awesome. I really like Omaha and I had a great time visiting Kris and his wife Amy. Thanks again guys.

Day1
As I pulled in from Council Bluffs, I noticed Omaha looks like what I imagine the 80's to look like, which may explain the abundance of 80s radio stations. It's older buildings and industry all the way in. Kris's neighborhood and a few of the others we saw had a modern feel to them though.

We hung out at his place for a bit, then went to Lo Sole Mio, an amazing italian restaurant with all homemade pastas. I can't even begin to describe how wonderful the food was. The salad was also incredible. Who would expect such flavor in Nebraska?

Went to the Barley Street Tavern, listened to live music, and had some drinks. I had a great local beer and some scotch. Kris and Amy's friend Juan was the doorman for the evening, and Jessica the bartender was nice. After that, we went to a college bar called Beer and Loathing in Dundee..it wasn't as cool as Barley's, but our drinks were free..we think..since the bartender just walked away and didn't come back. The college area looks amazing though. The Dundee area reminds me of Grand Ave in Saint Paul with really cool houses and shops.

Day 2

After a day of relaxing and playing Xbox (what's a vacation without Xbox?), Kris, Amy and I went to eat on the opposite side of Omaha. Kona grill was the name of the place and it was awesome. They have really good sushi and a killer drink menu. My bloody mary must have been at least ten inches tall. Beside us, there was a woman that had some volume issues with talking to people at her own table, but her shrieking laugh couldn't take away from the experience. That whole area is impressive. We then drove across Omaha again and hit a bar called Ozone, to listen to a local (POPULAR) cover band do about 4 hours of music. I consumed about 8 glasses of scotch and by the end of the night, I was singing along with everyone else. Amy's friend Nicole joined us after a bit and Juan came out too. It was a fun night.

Day 3
The weather was nice. 38 and partly sunny first day, 49 and sunny the 2nd day, and about 37 on the third.

On the way back, I stopped and saw my grandpa in hospice. He looked totally different from a few weeks ago when I last saw him. It was good to see him though.



Here are some little side points:

On the way down, I saw a van with "Iowa Blind School" on the side. Iowa will give anyone a license, wont they? I was jokingly imagining a blind driver getting pulled over by the police and when he is asked for his license, he holds up any card he can grab from his wallet and asks, "Is this it? How about this one?"

The radio stations were cool, but I heard Cities 97's Brian Oake on a radio station in Ames. He's satelliting in his shift. Good music though.

Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder, and Sarah McLachlan were the soundtrack of the trip. They were on pretty much every radio station I turned to. Weird. For some other odd reason, radio stations in IA played the hell out of Motley Crue's "Kickstart My Heart". I must have heard that song 10 times going down and back.

Little known fact, Omaha is taken from the native american word meaning "land of
one skyscraper"

Pics in the next post! I forgot a real camera and was stuck using the Blackberry camera, so forgive me.