Nebraska Vacation

Our vacations in Nebraska are always a lot of fun, interspersed with occasional days of boredom. I told my husband yesterday that I didn't think we had been doing enough, something I complain about every year. He proceeded to list the numerous things we've done, and almost convinced me that despite the fact that he isn't as adventurous as I'd like him to be when we're here (guilty son syndrome--can't hurt mother's feelings by venturing too far away for too long while here), that we've still had some great experiences. My brother-in-law, Wayne, is a hardcore fisherman and knows how to fry fish like no one I know. I didn't know that I even liked freshwater fish until I tasted his walleye and crappie..

My sister-in-law, Ann, is always fun to be around even though she's obviously a ham (LOL)
Paige and her cousin Sam are just one week apart. They only see each other once a year, but fall into their usual routine of arguing half of the time and loving each other the other half.

My sister and her family have moved back to Omaha, so we've gotten to spend time playing with little cousins reacquainting ourselves with the joys of children's books, water balloon fights, and babies..and yes, my eight-year-old niece is knitting. She has managed to hide her irritation when her aunt picks up her knitting "just to add a few rows."

Russ and I love good coffee, and our whole family is also pretty adventurous when it comes to food. So, wherever we travel, we always looks for coffee and unique food experiences. Our favorite coffee house in Lincoln is called Cultiva This year, we were happy to discover that they have expanded to the Haymarket District where they share a space with a wonderful bookstore, named Indigo Books.

We also enjoyed drinking numerous cups of coffee at my sister's. They like good coffee too, but we have to be careful not drink too much of her specialty.."candy coffee," our name for coffee with excessive amounts of cream and sugar. She, of course, is careful about the number of calories she puts in her own coffee. Russ has to use his faavorite "Batman" cup when we're there, which was my brother-in-law's cup from when he was a kid until Russ broke the original ten years ago messing around with it for my nephew. He was pretending to fall asleep with it in his hand, and then actually dropped it. We still remember my little nephew saying, "Why you do that, Uncle Russ?" Anyway, Russ found a replacement on Ebay and bought it, and I'm kind of surprised they still let him use it.


We eat a lot of Middle Eastern food at home, so when I saw that Ahmed's Restaurant in the Old Market in Omaha had good reviews, we checked it out after going to the Imax at the Henry Dorley Zoo.