We recently took an impromptu trip to Omaha, Nebraska. We had originally planned to go to Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Canada, but my health didn’t allow such a big trip.
Quick Stop in St. Joseph
We stopped in St. Joseph, Missouri for lunch and made a stop at Books Revisited. There was a good selection, with good prices for used books.
Next Stop: Ashland, Nebraska
Our next stop was the Wildlife Safari Park in Ashland, Nebraska. Benny and my mom went to the dog park in Ashland. Dogs are allowed in the drive-thru portion of the park, but I have a feeling Benny would bark quite a bit and lessen our enjoyment. There are elk, deer and bison on the driving portions of the park and wolves, bears, and other animals once you get out and walk around a bit. Wolves are one of my favorite animals, so I was excited to see them again (we went to the park years ago). The wolves have a large area and were along the back fence, sleeping the afternoon away when we arrived.
The safari park is a nice stop if you are in the area. When we went before, we stayed at the Eugene T. Mahoney State Park, which is nearby. The state park is a great place to stay, but books up very quickly, so plan your trips far in advance!
Omaha
We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites-Omaha West. You can read more about our stay in Benny’s blog post. My dad is a huge used book lover, so he hit up a bookstore on our first night in town.
In the morning we went to a local dog park and then went to the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium in Omaha. The zoo is widely considered to be one of the best zoos in the country. The zoo is quite large, at over 150 acres. My favorite part of the zoo is the Suzanne and Walter Scott Aquarium.
The zoo includes a huge domed enclosure, with a desert theme on the main level and Kingdoms of the Night exhibit on the lower level. Each level is 42,000 square feet and the lower level is the world’s largest nocturnal exhibit. The swamp part is both amazing and little spooky, in my opinion. If you don’t want to traverse the entire zoo, I would recommend just going to the aquarium and the dome.
Our next stop was lunch at Upstream Brewery Company. The food (I had the Mini Pretzels, UBC Mac & Cheese without ham, and Chiffon Chocolate Silk Pie) and beer (Uptoberfest, an Oktoberfest-style beer) were both very good.
After lunch my dad and I headed to Jackson Street booksellers. We initially heard about this used bookstore from another bookseller in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The bookstore contained a large selection of various kinds of books. I typically look at German, Russian, and British history and found several books to purchase.
Review
My dad had the most successful trip of our group, with trips to several used bookstores. Jackson Street Booksellers is the top used bookstore in Omaha. Dad also had luck with two stops at Books Revisited in St. Joseph, Missouri.
Mom and I both enjoyed the aquarium the most on our trip to the zoo. We also really enjoyed our meal at Upstream Brewing Company.
While I didn’t feel well enough to do everything I had hoped, I would say that this was a decent trip, but I’m not hoping to go back soon like I was after our trip to Des Moines a few months before. Head over to Benny’s blog post to read about dog-friendly adventures in and near Omaha.