In July I took a trip to Omaha to visit my friend Jesse and ride some roller coasters across the border in Iowa. I hadn't seen Jesse in a few years (thanks, pandemic) and I was also excited to check out Omaha since I've never been. So I booked a long weekend and caught a flight to Nebraska!
I got in on a Friday afternoon, and we took a little walk through Jesse's neighborhood (Hanscom Park), swinging by Gerald Ford's birthplace. We drove over to the Lewis and Clark visitor center along the river, and walked part way across the Bob Kerrey bridge, briefly stepping foot in Iowa. It was almost 100 degrees thanks to a heat wave, so our next move was obviously to get some ice cream. We went to the Blackstone neighborhood to hit up Coneflower Creamery, which was excellent and had really unique flavors. We crossed the street and grabbed a couple of beer tasters at Scriptown Brewing, and had some momo for a snack from the attached Kathmandu momo station. We did a little driving tour of Omaha Neighborhoods, and finished the night with dinner at Vis Major brewing.
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| Omaha is full of huge historic houses. |
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| My whole life I thought Ford's birthplace was in Michigan! |
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| The pedestrian bridge over the Missouri river. |
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| Lemon verbena, basil, and cinnamon cheesecake. |
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| Couple of little beer tasters! |
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| Yummy momo. |
The next morning we started at Archetype Coffee, then went to the Durham Museum. This museum is in the old Union Pacific train station, which is really impressive and has some great murals. The exhibits are also great, with a lot of information about the history of Omaha as well as the train station itself. Definitely a highlight of the city. We then walked around the Old Market District, a small historic district with old brick buildings, shops, and restaurants. It's a neat place to walk around, but temperatures were right around 100 degrees so we didn't linger outside too long. We drove to Jacobo's grocery to pick up some tamales and salsa, which we ate at Jesse's house while recovering from the heat. After relaxing for a while, we had dinner at Brother Sebastian's. It's a completely over-the-top steak restaurant themed like a monastery. There's even monk chanting music playing in the parking lot! It's a hoot, and the food was pretty good too.
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| Nitro cold brew with cream at Archetype coffee. |
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| The Durham Museum is inside the old train station. |
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| I wish US train stations still looked like this! |
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| A streetcar exhibit in the museum. |
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| Just hanging out in the dining car of an antique train. |
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| The Old Market District. |
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| Cool interior shopping/restaurant area in the Old Market. |
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| Tamales and salsas for lunch. |
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| Artie having some fun with a chew toy. |
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| The inside of Brother Sebastian's is heavily themed. |
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| Gotta have a steak in Omaha! |
Sunday morning we started at Bad Seed Coffee, a combination plant store and coffee shop. Omaha has a lot of neat little places like this, they're just not connected in walkable/bikeable neighborhoods. Next we drove around downtown Omaha for a bit, stopping at Spirit of Nebraska Wilderness park, and checked out the St. Cecilia cathedral with some yummy breakfast treats from Sweet Magnolias bake shop.
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| Bad Seed Coffee. |
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| Downtown Omaha. |
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| A goose fountain downtown. |
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| The cathedral is impressive. |
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| Delicious breakfast items. |
From there Jesse and I packed up and set off for phase two of my trip - coastering in Iowa! Our destination was Arnold's Park at Lake Okoboji, but we made a true road trip out of it and stopped at some offbeat tourist things along the way, including the Sioux City Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and the Sergeant Floyd River Museum. We even had some local candy, the King Bing! We arrived at Arnold's Park in the early evening and met up with my coaster friend Josh. Arnold's Park is a lovely historic park with an excellent wood coaster and a pleasant lake side location. We really enjoyed our visit. At dinner some older (drunk) ladies sent fireball shots to our table. Still got it, I guess? 😆
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| An animatronic at the interpretive center. |
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| An... umm... dinosaur bird (?) sculpture. |
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| President Truman on the river boat. |
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| Jesse with his best president Truman impression. |
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| Local candy! |
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| Jesse on the Wild Mouse. |
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| What a cute little park. |
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| The park and coaster are right alongside Lake Okoboji. |
The next morning we grabbed some donuts at Spudnutz before starting the 3.5 hour drive to the brand new Lost Island Theme Park near Waterloo, Iowa. We noticed a really high number of cyclists along one stretch of the route. Turns out it was RAGBRAI, the "Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa." Random event to wander across! We arrived at Lost Island late in the morning. The park had just opened a few months prior, and not all of the attractions were open yet. It was also very uncrowded, partially because it was a Monday but maybe also because they just haven't received the attendance they expected. The park itself is very nice. They spent a lot of money on theming, and it shows. The Volkanu dark ride is the star of the park. When the remaining rides open and some of the trees grow in, this park should settle into a nice groove and be a great attraction for families and coaster enthusiasts.
We left Lost Island in the late afternoon, heading toward our next destination in Des Moines. We stopped for dinner at Fong's Pizza.
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| Old school donuts at Spudnutz. |
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| We've arrived at Lost Island! |
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| Really cool theming throughout the different sections of the park. |
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| They did a great job - just need some of the shade trees to grow in. |
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| Overview from the ferris wheel. |
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| Unfortunately these two rides aren't open yet. |
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| The Volkanu dark ride is world class! |
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| Lots of really neat original characters. |
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| "Chinese-American pizza" for dinner at Fong's |
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| The drinks at Fong's are adorable. |
The next day was the last day of the trip. We got to Adventureland right before opening. It's a fairly large family amusement park. I've been to the park before, but they had opened several coasters since my last visit. Unfortunately the newest coaster was closed, but I did really enjoy Monster, their headlining coaster.
Jesse and I bid farewell to Josh and hit the road. On the way back to the Omaha airport, we made a brief stop at some roadside attractions, including the Danish Windmill in Elk Horn and the Little Mermaid statue in Kimballton. The area had a lot of Danish immigrant farmers, which explains these unique attractions. Our final stop was at Bayliss Park in downtown Council Bluffs.
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| Jesse being a volunteer photographer. |
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| Monster is an excellent ride. |
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| Adventureland has a wide variety of rides and coasters. |
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| Ice cream and coasters! |
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| Going down! |
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| The windmill and gift shop. |
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| Little mermaid statue. |
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| An Audobon rock, for some reason. |
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| A big fountain in Council Bluffs. |
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| Downtown Council Bluffs. |
After a delayed flight I finally made it back to Atlanta around midnight. Would definitely go back to Omaha - and will need to make a trip back to Iowa too for the rest of the rides at Lost Island once they open, and a new for 2023 Adventureland coaster.
