Oh Omaha Nebraska - Yes, it's a Route 6 City

Oh Omaha, I love you.  Let me count the ways;

1. The Bob Kerrey Bridge – a wonderful stroll over the Missouri River.  Many are coming these days to get a bird’s eye view of the flooding, but others just want to take a walk in beautiful surroundings.  Even on a grey day.  I shot this video to take you along…..

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Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE

Museum Cafe From Upper Level
Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE

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Helpful Doug Davis, Visitor's Service
Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE

Home-Made Soup and Hand Sliced Chips
Joslyn Art Museum Cafe
Omaha, NE

 2.   Joslyn Art Museum – built in 1931 out of richly-veined Georgian-Pink unpolished stone, this was Sarah’s Joslyn’s tribute to her wealthy, philanthropic husband, George, after his death. She wanted to give back to the city that gave them so much and it has a bit of everything within very accessible galleries.  I love the way the museum is laid out; beginning with art from the Middle Ages then taking you easily through the centuries.  All the greats are represented; among them Degas, Monet, Remington, Russell,  and Ansal Adams.  Divided into two buildings linked by a sun-streamed glass walkway, the more contemporary wing holds “Well Traveled and Rarely Seen” treasures spanning from antiquity to just off the easel. My favorites Miro, Klee, LeWitt, Nevelson, and Pollack are hung in soaring galleries, along with one of the most intricate and largest Chihuly installations I’ve ever seen.  Here’s some wise advice (given to me by Doug Davis, Visitor and Protection Services staff member who shared his time and lots of information with me – thanks, Doug!): Have lunch in The Museum Café, which is staffed with graduates of Omaha’s Metro Community College Institute for Culinary Arts. The food is terrific.  Even the potato chips are hand-sliced and amazing.  Sip on home-made soup and enjoy lighter-than-air chips while sighing in appreciation at the sky-scraper-tall Chihuly glass sculpture.  For me, at least, this was ultimate bliss.

Old Union Station - Now Smithsonian Affiliate Durham Museum
Omaha, NE

Durham Museum
Omaha, NE

Recreation of Warren's Grandfathers Grocery Store
Durham Museum, Omaha, NE

Walk Through Several Train Cars
Durham Museum, Omaha, NE

Soda Fountain, Union Station
Now the Durham Museum
Omaha, NE

Interior of Union Pacific Passenger Train
Durham Museum, Omaha, NE

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3. Durham Museum was recently chosen as the first Midwestern affiliate of the Smithsonian, and it’s easy to see why.  Set within the old Union Station (completed in Jan. 1931 it saw busy train travelers until 1971) and after a complete $25,000,000 renovation that began in 1995 (thanks to generous benefactor, Charles Durham), the museum is overwhelming in scope.  Upstairs, the busy train station lobby (with 60 ft. ceiling, original Art Deco design, original fixtures, mosaics and Soda Fountain) still wows new visitors and generates heartening nostalgia trips for those who traveled the rails as youngsters, or just came to the station to eat at the iconic Hayden House Restaurant there.  One of those young men was Warren Buffet and he still sits himself down at the Soda Fountain every so often.  I just couldn’t believe how many building and rooms and train cars I could tour under one roof, but the whole first floor is an incredible collection of Omaha’s history.  Warren’s Grandpa, Ernest Buffet, had a grocery store in town, and you can walk right into its re-creation here.  There’s whole Indian village, a farmhouse with rocking chairs on the front porch for sittin’, a Mormon wagon, a model of the 1898 Trans-Mississippi International Exposition that elevated Omaha from Cow Town to World-Class Destination, and an old Union Pacific passenger train with five cars you can walk through.  It would take hours to see everything, but one thing you can’t miss is an ice-cream soda at the Soda Fountain upstairs. 

Desert Scene
Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo
Omaha, NE

World's Largest Geodesic Dome
World's Largest Enclosed Desert
Omaha, NE Henry Doorly Zoo

4.     4. Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo; I have to admit, ever since I went on a photo safari in Africa, I haven't been a huge fan of animal-confining zoos.  And I grew up visiting, then taking my kids to my local Bronx Zoo – which in my estimation was one of the best of its kind.  But I have to say that I’m glad the weather held and I drove over to the Henry Doorly Zoo, because I was doorly impressed with the “World’s Largest Geodesic Dome” that contains the “World’s Largest Indoor Desert” and beneath it “The World’s Largest Indoor Swamp.”  Yes, the zoo has the skyride, a miniature steam train, a tram, lots of animals in lots of habitats.  OK, it’s a ZOO, for goodness sakes.  But the enclosed deserts, caves and swamps in the dome set this place apart from all others I’ve seen.  There are sand-dunes big enough for ATVing inside!  And lots of exotic birds (like the Kookabura), mini-deer, meercats, pumas, roadrunners, quails, teals, fox, rattlesnake.  Any animal that lives in the desert lives here. Staying on a concrete path, you can’t get lost, which is helpful because downstairs in the nocturnal “Kingdom of Night” exhibit, it gets pretty dark and then you descend to caves and swampland where you’re practically blind as a bat, but with lots of family; there are fruit bats in droves. It’s like being in a haunted house, but with great, big-eyed animals and swimming beavers instead of ghosts.  Some little kids were screaming to get out.  I thought it was the coolest thing.

Old Market District
Omaha, NE

Old Market District
Omaha, NE

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5. Old Market; This is Omaha’s answer to New York’s hip Meat Packing district.  In fact, it’s Omaha’s old Meat Packing district, with the grunge expunged and rustic charm intact.  The place is crawling with shoppers and eaters – lots of funky stores and fun restaurants.

Twisted Fork Restaurant
Omaha, NE

Southwestern Fried Chicken Salad
Twisted Fork, Omaha, NE

Pasta Dish at Nicola's
Omaha, NE

Nicola Nick, Owner, Nicola's
Omaha, NE

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6.  EAT: You probably can't go wrong with any of the dozens of eateries in Old Market. Locals, though, told me to try out Nicola’s on the corner of Jackson St. and 13^th, and now I'm a fan, too.  Nicola Nick has owned the small corner restaurant for 8 years – a far cry from her former career as graphic and web designer  (Or, as Nicola put it, “a computer dork.”), feeling she could do a better job than the Tapas place here already. “In the Midwest, ‘Small Plates’ is very confusing.”  My spaghetti/olives/sun-dried tomato dish was both simple and perfect, and chefs have a special way with meatballs. FTI - Nicola’s Tirami Su is worth breaking a diet for.  No wonder the place is packed.   On another night, I tried the very fun Twisted Fork on Howard St.  Crystal Chandeliers and Buttermilk Fried Chicken salad. Hoo Yeah!

Happy Hour at the Magnolia Hotel
Omaha, NE

Guest Room, Magnolia Hotel
Omaha, NE

Magnolia Hotel Lobby
Omaha, NE

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7.   STAY: Magnolia Hotel. This is indisputably the best hotel in town with amenities galore.  Free WiFi, complementary hot breakfast, free wine and beer happy hour 5:30-6:30 daily (this is extremely popular, as you can imagine; private label Magnolia wine is bottled in Napa Valley, CA), and milk and cookies before bedtime.  There’s also a hotel shuttle to take you anywhere in town.  Rooms aren’t big, but just perfectly cozy.  Luxury bedding, travertine bathroom and shower.  Staff is helpful and unpretentious.  In my eyes, Magnolia is a blooming hit.