nebraskan stuff

Today was a fun-filled day of Omaha exploration. I was lucky that PJ was able to take the day off and give me the grand tour of the city. And she politely answered all my 500 questions I had about living in Omaha.

We started first with breakfast at the most amazing diner ever - appearing to be circa 1985 and transplanted from a retirement community, complete with a 70 year old waitress, pink and blue (or was it sea green) decor and an indoor gazebo, at which we unfortunately were not seated. It was awesome. And so were my pancakes.

Next we headed to the Holy Family Shrine, about a 20 minute drive outside the city. A friend had told PJ about it, and it was really cool - the photo above shows it, and you can see that it was made with walls of glass and perched on top of a small hill that overlooked the surrounding fields and highway. We were chased out by (or rather, ran away from) two school buses of elementary school kids that arrived shortly after us, but we were able to get some time to appreciate the structure and take some good photos.

Next stop was Old Market in Omaha, which is a lovely area of town filled with shops and restaurants that was so cute and quiet, looking a lot like the meatpacking district in NYC. There we browsed some cute stores, conversed with a man who used the words "gee" and "golly", and spent a long time in a wonderful antique store that was filled with everything you could imagine (I know, it seems like I'm lucky enough to find at least one in every place I go). They even had genuine postcards and photos from ages ago. It was neat. Oh yes, and the weather was a beautiful 80 degrees today. Couldn't have been better.

Then we headed back to her place for some internet/tv time, had dinner and played Wii. I'm just not good at it. Bowling, I was ok, the other sports, not so much.

Another important part of the night - PJ introduced me to strawberry Oreos. They're like regular Oreos but with a strawberry filling that is more creamy than the regular white filling is. They were limited edition so she stocked up, and they were amazing.

An interesting little tidbit about the midwest I've learned - they have the option to buy gas made with corn. I've just found out about it, and it's made partly from corn so it's much cheaper than the other types of gas that the rest of us have (although regular gas here has been the cheapest I've seen anyway). Rumor has it that it's not the best for your car though. Despite being called "super".

So. That's my daily report from the middle of America. Good night and have a pleasant tomorrow!