Monday, July 4, 2022- Omaha, Nebraska

     The temperature was expected to push close to 100 degrees today, so we wanted to get an early start. We wanted to go to the zoo in Omaha because we had read great things about it, but we knew we'd have the heat to negotiate today too. The zoo opened at 9:00, but we had about a two-hour drive from Des Moines so we left early. It was raining, sometimes very hard, and there was lightning all around us. One strike hit off to a field on our left as Julie was driving and we felt the rumble from it. That was our fireworks for this 4th of July. We entered Nebraska at about 9:30, or so, and that is the second new state for us on this trip. It is Scott's 44th. We weren't able to get into the zoo until almost 10:00, and by then the skies were clearing. We did get two reduced admissions because of reciprocity from our Buffalo Zoo membership.

     Officially, this zoo is known as Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium. Our first stop at the zoo was the enormous geodesic dome. It is an icon of the zoo because it is so large and can easily be seen from Interstate 80 and the area around the zoo. It houses two large exhibits. It is called the Desert Dome, and on its main floor it is home to birds, small mammals and reptiles that live in several of the world's desert regions. At first, Scott said it wasn't as impressive inside as it was outside, but as we continued to wind our way through the landscapes, we slowly realized that there was a lot to explore there. Underneath the Desert Dome is the area called Kingdoms of the Night. It claims to be the world's largest nocturnal exhibit, and there are many different animals on display here, including bats, alligators, and others. Like the floor above it, there are many nooks to explore as the path leads you past the animals. One part of the exhibit stood out to us as very odd. In the official description of the exhibit, the zoo describes it- "As guests venture through a wet cave, they will see stalagmites and stalactites dripping into a 'seemingly bottomless' pit. The pit is actually 16 feet deep and home to blind cave fish." It's not well labelled at that point, and we saw this circle of "glass" over the deep pit, and peered cautiously over its edge. Emma eventually tapped the surface with her shoe, expecting to be able to walk across the "glass" but she let out a little scream and jumped backwards as she made ripples in the water. It seemed like a very dangerous set up. She later said that she was tempted to just jump out onto the glass, but something made her try it with her shoe first. The rest of us kept telling her, "Yes, that's really water!" at various exhibits as the day's running joke. In truth, though, we were all fooled by it.

     After these two exhibits we continued on to the Scott Aquarium. As we approached it, Julie said, "Oh, there's a place to eat and also some food." It was about 11:00 and we figured that meant she wanted lunch, so we ate at the Sea Turtle Cafe. Even though we were outside we were not in the sun and there were misting machines going that were keeping the area relatively cool. We went into the aquarium after eating. Abby loved the fish, the penguins, and the jellyfish. There was a tunnel that had sharks, rays, turtles and other large species swimming by and over it. We all probably could have sat for hours watching things swim by. After the aquarium we went to the nearby butterfly exhibit, and once again, Abby was squealing with delight at the "Butterflies!" as the fluttered around her.

     We took a walk through the African Grasslands area, and Scott got to spend a few moments watching his favorites- the giraffes. We were headed towards the station to catch the train that circles around the zoo. We had bought round trip tickets for the train and another set for the tram as we entered the zoo this morning, so we had to ride them at some point. Before we got to the train, Abby had fallen asleep. We stopped for water, but we couldn't leave her in the heat. We didn't want to repeat our mistake that made Anna sick back when she was about this age and she fell asleep at Epcot. Emma discovered a big air conditioned seating area for the snack bar there. It was tucked back in so most people didn't seem to notice it. We waited in the air conditioning for Abby to wake up, and bought popcorn and french fries to eat while we waited. The tables were mostly empty, so we didn't feel bad about sitting there from about 12:50 to 2:30. We weren't happy when staff roped off half of the tables and made us move so that they could start the cleaning for the day, but there were still lots of open seats for us to wait in.

     Abby began to rouse herself around 2:30 and we went out to ride the train around the park. The train was cool looking, but the actual ride was not that impressive. We waited at the station on the train for a longer time than we actually were moving. There were very few animals that could be seen from the train, and for the second half of the ride, some teenaged boy was trying to learn the spiel that the conductor says, but kept mispronouncing things and making mistakes like calling the lions, "tigers." It was painful to listen to him. We circled the park on the train and then got on the tram, partly because we had already paid for tickets and partly because we still had to get to the other side of the park. (We had talked about riding the "Skyfari" chairlift over the park because it looked like it would have interesting views, but the heat advisory that was in effect had them close down that ride.) We found the tram ride much more enjoyable than the train. It went slower, made more stops, and had a more experienced guide. If anyone is reading this blog for tips, we'd recommend "yes" for the tram and "no" for the train.

     We made it to near the front of the park on the tram and decided it was time to go. It was pushing 4:00, we were all tired and the zoo was only open until 5:00 anyway. We knew it was going to be this way going in, but we do feel like the heat robbed us of a lot of opportunity to explore this impressive park. We compare this zoo favorably with other impressive zoos we've seen like Cleveland's and St. Louis's. We only got to scratch the surface of those two zoos as well. Of the three, we probably got to see the smallest percentage of exhibits and animals here in Omaha, though.

     Scott bought a pin for our collection before we left. Then we went to the hotel, which is just a stone's throw from the zoo's parking lot. We checked in and lugged our luggage up to our second floor room. (Does the Midwest have something against elevators?) This is the third hotel that we've stayed in in a row that has renovations going on, but the decorations that are in the lobby and in our room are brightly colored zoo animals. Our room has paintings of a rainbow zebra and a pink and blue hippo over the beds.

     Since it's the 4th of July, we weren't sure what would be open for dinner. Abby changed into a new red, white and blue dress, and we drove about 20 minutes to an Applebee's. When we returned to the room, Julie did a load of laundry. She and Emma had to work to collect up enough quarters to do it because the front desk didn't have any cash on hand, but it was hard to not do a load here because the laundry room is right next door to our room. For the third night in a row, though, we are hearing fireworks outside, but we can't really see anything from our room. When we originally booked this room for the 4th of July, we hoped there would be fireworks at the zoo, but that would probably scare the animals so they don't have anything official there. We're all too hot and tired to go anywhere else. We're settled down for the night here now (except for Scott's walk to the "Casey's" convenience store next door to get drinks and some more quarters).