As always, I’ve been putting off writing about our recent vacation which was at the end of June so hopefully I don’t forget any good details!
Wednesday night (6/25) we dropped the rats off at a friends’ house as they agreed to watch them while we were gone.
Thursday (6/26) morning we left the house around 8 am, stopping at McDonald’s to grab breakfast to go and the gas station to fill up. We then drove many hours through Illinois and Iowa, stopping in Des Moines for lunch at a local BBQ joint called Woody’s Smoke Shack. The food was good, but the portion sizes were a bit small for the price.
At some point during the drive, either before or after lunch (I cannot recall which), the rain was pouring so hard we had to pull over onto the highway’s shoulder. Many people were doing the same except for a few idiots who were still driving dangerously fast with little to no visibility. We ended up getting back on the highway just long enough to make it to the next exit as we were afraid one of those idiots was going to hit us. Luckily we only had to wait out the heavy downpour at a nearby gas station for a half hour or so.
We arrived at our hotel in Council Bluffs, Iowa (just across the Missouri river from Omaha) around 4ish and checked in, then drove around Omaha a bit to get our bearings, and then had dinner at Sizzler because I have this thing about eating there whenever we’re on vacation since they no longer exist in our neck of the woods. Now I know why – they suck! That will be the last time I spend $30 on shit food. Our hotel shared a parking lot with a casino, so after dinner we tried checking that out but I was turned away due to my backpack. Like what could I stow in there, a slot machine???
The next day (Friday, 6/27) it was pouring rain so after breakfast we sat around the hotel room flipping channels, bored out of our minds. The plan was to visit the Henry Doorly Zoo and I was getting really aggravated that the weather was interfering. Finally fed up, we headed out into the city to find some rain ponchos because I wasn’t about to let a little rain ruin my vacation. After securing our ponchos, we headed to the zoo but decided to grab lunch beforehand since it was almost noon by this point. We ended up accidentally turning into an air force base in search of a place to make a u-turn, so that was interesting. We had lunch at a nearby Chik-fil-A that was overflowing with soldiers from the aforementioned air base.
With our bellies full, we arrived at the zoo just before 1 pm and were shocked to see how full the parking lot was considering it had just stopped raining shortly before we got there. I guess nobody cared about the rain? In any case, it was weird to arrive there mid afternoon since we’re always the early birds who end up leaving before noon. We got into the zoo for half price thanks to our Cosley Zoo reciprocal agreement which was nice since a single admission is normally $15.
The zoo is big and has a ton of great exhibits! The first one we came across was their butterfly house. The butterflies were just average, but the exhibit also had the cutest little black and blue hummingbird of which I was able to snag a few photos even though my lens was all fogged up due to the temperature change. We almost skipped their Garden of the Senses which would have been a shame since they have loose parrots in there (clipped wings, I’m sure, but no cages). The zoo also has free-roaming turkeys and prairie dogs on their grounds which I thought was pretty unique. One of their exhibits that stood out, which we checked out near the end of our visit, is what they call the Lied Jungle – think Tropic World Asia if you’ve been to the Brookfield Zoo, but better. There are free-flying bats in the building that will fly into your head if you’re not careful. It was really cool! I also enjoyed the lemurs exhibit, although I wish you could have gotten closer to the ring-tailed ones and not just the red-ruffed variety.
After spending a record three a half hours at the zoo, we were hungry, so we hit a taco place that was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives years ago. It was a disappointment and I expressed my disdain in a Yelp review.
Once we arrived back at the hotel to eat our disappointing tacos (which we had taken to go), we were bored so we decided to check out the casino again, this time sans backpack. Joe played video poker for a bit (I didn’t play because I cannot stand to lose money) and we left when he was up $10. Woot!
Saturday morning (6/28) we headed to Omaha’s Lauritzen Gardens. We paid $20 total (because they don’t do reciprocal agreements) which included an extra $3 per person for the lamest tram tour I’ve ever been on. The driver wasn’t even narrating; it was a pre-recorded tour. I really thought it would be more interesting but I don’t think it was worth $6 just to avoid having to walk out the the farthest point of the garden since you have to walk back. Unfortunately the entire place is designed where there’s only one way in and out of each section (see map). Even if you stayed on the tram for the full “loop” you’d just have to walk all the way out there and back again. Theoretically you can get off at a few of the scheduled stops and hop on a different tram at a later point, but that’s only if it isn’t full which all of them were. So other than the small amount of history provided by the recording, it’s useless.
There weren’t even that many flowers to enjoy and overall I think it was overpriced for what they had to offer. Sure, the model railroad garden was pretty neat, but I still wouldn’t necessarily recommend the place. Maybe once the ginormous greenhouse they’re currently building is complete it might be worth a repeat visit.
Across the parking lot from the gardens is Kenefick Park which features two of the original trains from the Union Pacific line. That was pretty cool to see and you wouldn’t need to pay admission to do so either.
We stopped at a burger joint, also featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, that was ok. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great either. The burgers lacked flavor, but I did enjoy all the cheese that came with mine! I guess the morale of this story is that Triple D is full of shit more often than not. ;)
Before leaving the area we went down by Omaha’s riverfront to check out the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge and Heart of America Park. They were very brief visits since by then the sky was turning dark and it was getting ready to rain once more.
After lunch we drove the two hours back to Des Moines to check into our next hotel. We debated what to do about dinner because it was, again, pouring rain (sensing a theme here?) and we were feeling too lazy to drive the twenty minutes to the Asia fusion pizza place that had come highly recommended by Yelp and a friend who visits the area frequently. Once the rain let up we ended up walking across the street to Culvers instead.
Sunday (6/29) we visited Blank Park Zoo which we got into for free thanks to our reciprocal agreement. Woot! They have a very cool outdoor red panda exhibit that provides awesome shooting angles from every side so I was stoked to get some great photos of one of my favorite animals. Unfortunately the pandas were inside that day. Bummer! But I’ve since learned they cannot tolerate temperatures over 77 degrees so I’m guessing that’s why they were inside. In any case, despite some negative reviews online, I found the zoo to be pretty damn nice considering how small it is. It has lions, a snow leopard, seals, penguins, parrots, monkeys, frogs, giraffes, etc.
I even got to snag a photo of a cute chipmunk since the only place I ever see them at are zoos.
We enjoyed a leisurely hour and a half stroll through the zoo before heading home. And just in the nick of time too, because once again it began to rain. Ugh! So much rain during this trip!
We ended up stopping at a McDonalds off the highway to grab lunch to go on our drive home. You know how that goes – once you’re ready to get home you just don’t care. We arrived back home around 4 pm or so and had a mountain of laundry to do, plus pick up the pets from our friends’ house. It was a busy day and we didn’t get to bed until late.
Overall, it was a decent trip. Not quite what I was expecting, but the side benefit to all that rain was that it wasn’t blazing hot out which made walking around the zoos more tolerable. I had estimated we’d spend about $800 on this trip and we came in just under that total so it wasn’t too bad, although that still seems like a lot for a three day vacation, but whatever. We never ended up using the ponchos so I’m hoping the local Walmart will take them back. Otherwise I’ll just keep them in Joe’s car for the next time rain decides to try and spoil our fun!
Photo Sets @ Flickr
» Henry Doorly Zoo
» Lauritzen Gardens
» Blank Park Zoo