by Joe (dad)
We arrived in Omaha, Nebraska just in time to get the trailer setup and get to the airport to pick Lori up as she returned to us from Pennsylvania - yay! Mariana had only been asking for 2 days when we were going to pick mom up again. We had a great family work out at the gym on Offutt AFB which has to be the largest indoor gym in the Air Force....it's built inside an old bomber hangar and boasts 3 indoor tennis courts, 2 full-size basketball courts, a volleyball court, an indoor pool and an indoor soccer arena...not to mention locker rooms and weight rooms...it was a work out just to walk from one end to the other. We had a spirited family basketball game with Lori, Joseph, Morgan and Carlos against me, William and Michael...Mariana had a short rim next to our court and got to practice her skills independently...or just goof around on the bleachers! We don't usually keep score, but in my score-book EVERYONE has improved their skills significantly since we've been traveling!!
We made a driving tour around Omaha and visited St. Cecilia Cathedral and Creighton University, but the main stop we made was the Omaha Zoo...a terrific refuge for tons of animals. Consensus was the aquarium was best...mostly because it was air conditioned and we had a pretty humid day for our visit. I really like the Kingdom of the Night for the nocturnal animals and William finally got to see some beavers in action since beavers operate at night. We saw the 7 beavers swimming around and chewing logs...and they loved their trainer who came to feed them sweet potatoes and corn!
Offutt AFB was also a special stop for us as we remembered our friend and my roommate from my lieutenant days, Mark Stratton. Mark was a navigator and was stationed at Offutt for many years. After Mark was killed in Afghanistan, the base renamed one of their streets after Mark and we remembered fun stories of Mark as we visited his street!
We arrived in Omaha, Nebraska just in time to get the trailer setup and get to the airport to pick Lori up as she returned to us from Pennsylvania - yay! Mariana had only been asking for 2 days when we were going to pick mom up again. We had a great family work out at the gym on Offutt AFB which has to be the largest indoor gym in the Air Force....it's built inside an old bomber hangar and boasts 3 indoor tennis courts, 2 full-size basketball courts, a volleyball court, an indoor pool and an indoor soccer arena...not to mention locker rooms and weight rooms...it was a work out just to walk from one end to the other. We had a spirited family basketball game with Lori, Joseph, Morgan and Carlos against me, William and Michael...Mariana had a short rim next to our court and got to practice her skills independently...or just goof around on the bleachers! We don't usually keep score, but in my score-book EVERYONE has improved their skills significantly since we've been traveling!!
We made a driving tour around Omaha and visited St. Cecilia Cathedral and Creighton University, but the main stop we made was the Omaha Zoo...a terrific refuge for tons of animals. Consensus was the aquarium was best...mostly because it was air conditioned and we had a pretty humid day for our visit. I really like the Kingdom of the Night for the nocturnal animals and William finally got to see some beavers in action since beavers operate at night. We saw the 7 beavers swimming around and chewing logs...and they loved their trainer who came to feed them sweet potatoes and corn!
Offutt AFB was also a special stop for us as we remembered our friend and my roommate from my lieutenant days, Mark Stratton. Mark was a navigator and was stationed at Offutt for many years. After Mark was killed in Afghanistan, the base renamed one of their streets after Mark and we remembered fun stories of Mark as we visited his street!