O! What a City!

Dad mentioned a couple months ago he’d like to visit Don & Leanne some weekend. Not long after that, Monte’s counterpart and new friend Dan Lubben invited us to visit him in Omaha some weekend in September.

That’s how it all started. We decided to make one trip of it. We could all go to Bellevue; the folks could hang out with Don & Leanne, while Monte & I could hang out with Dan.

Dan is the technical writer at NECO in Omaha, a sister company to MFS, the company where Monte is the technical writer. (Both companies are owned by Global Industries.) Monte has collaborated with Dan on different aspects of creating the technical manuals for MFS and NECO. So Dan arranged for Monte to come to NECO for further software demonstrations and a tour of the plant.

Thursday night, Mom, Monte and I packed up the car and headed to Bellevue. Dad decided he unfortunately needed to stay home because his cat, Big Tom, was too ill to be left alone.

Don & Leanne had set up a new bed in Beth’s old room for Mom to sleep in. Monte and I slept on the floor in the basement, which wasn’t that bad, since we’d brought along a sleeping bag and thick comforter which provided pretty good padding. We were just grateful we didn’t have to pay for a motel! (We sure get a lot of cheap vacations out of the pretense of visiting family.)

Friday Monte went to NECO, while Mom and I hung out at Leanne’s. I worked on my website while Mom rearranged the items on the coffee table. Leanne took the afternoon off work, and that evening she and I got in a little bit of sis time watching “27 Dresses.”

Saturday Monte and I met with Dan and his friend Wes, and spent a cheery day in Omaha.

First we went to the farmer’s market in Old Market, where we bought some homemade blue cheese french bread. Yum!

The carriage ride looked fun, but beyond our budget for the day.

We ate at Stokes Grill & Bar for lunch, and since it was such a nice day, we ate out on the patio.

Monte,Wes, and I chatted for quite a while after our meal, not realizing Dan was waiting for us outside instead of being in the men’s room as we thought.

Monte and Dan at Old Market.

We stopped into a sheepskin/leather store. I liked several items, but not the prices.

Who says Nebraskans don’t have a sense of fashion?

By 2:00, the farmer’s market was closed, so we decided our next stop would be the Joslyn Art Musem, which has really pretty exterior walls.

Monte’s favorite part of the museum is the indoor fountain.

Who’s that reading the museum brochure?

Publius Aelius Hadrianus overlooks his empire.

Monte distresses one of the Burghers of Calais.

After the Joslyn, we stopped at the free music festival by the river behind the Quest center. We found a table about a city block away from the stage, and were enjoying the pre-recorded music playing on the gigantic speakers when the announcer blasted on, making more than a few people jump in startlement at the sudden increase in volume. The first band was announced; a group of 13 to 16 year olds, who sounded really good–when I plugged my ears. Without my ears plugged the decibel level was literally causing ear pain. They really needed to turn down the speakers. The people closer to the stage were surely deaf–or soon would be.

So, being the old fogeys that we are, we decided our hearing was more important than the cultural experience, so we went back to the Old Market.

Thankfully this guy didn’t have any speakers, because frankly, he shouldn’t quit his day job.

I was thirsty, so we found an ice cream shop, and all four of us ordered phosphates.

After walking around a bit more, it was time for dinner, so we headed to Bellevue and ate at Stella’s Hamburgers. I ordered a BLT, which would have tasted excellent if they had simply toasted the bread instead of frying it in oil. I should’ve ordered the mushroom burger. The fries were good, though, and less greasy than the toast.

After dinner, we went to Twincreek Cinema, but all the movies had already started. We didn’t see any movies that really appealed to us anyway, so we stopped at Leanne’s to pick up a selection of DVDs Monte had brought. We watched “My Dog Skip” at Dan’s apartment.

We had a great time hanging out with Dan and Wes.

Sunday we spent some time with Don & Leanne before driving home.