How We Learned Today: Day 6 - Omaha, Nebraska to Chicago

Miles driven: about 531

We arrived at the KOA campground too late to take advantage of any of the amenities or activities, but we were so glad to find it so easily and were even more excited to see green grass and trees around. The girls were thrilled that there were outlets on each side of our campsite where they could charge their DS's. We had called ahead so we knew where to go to pick up our after-hours instructions, but we were surprised when we drove around the corner and saw another car and tent in the campsite next to ours. At every campground so far, we had been told to just pick whatever site we wanted when we got there because there wouldn't be anyone else around, so this was new for us. I was a little worried about being too loud since I knew the girls were still so wound up and woud have some energy to burn off, and it was almost 10pm already. I was so relieved when the 2 guys in the other campground came over to greet us. They were so friendly and the kids loved talking to them and they found the girls quite interesting.

I set up the campfire and the tent while the girls just talked and talked and talked. It turns out that the guys were from Kansas City, which was about 3 hours away, and they had driven up to camp for the night and were planning to go to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha tomorrow. Oddly enough, we had been talking about going to that same zoo the next day. The zoo's website said they were the best one in the country, and if anyone could appreciate a good zoo, it was us. The more we looked at the zoo online earlier in the day the more we wanted to go, so when we heard them talk about how much they liked the zoo and how they had been to it several times, we figured it must be worth it. The girls were so excited that they would get to continue hanging out with their new friends, Adam and Clyde, at the zoo the next day.

We had a dinner of smore's along with some dried fruit and peanuts our new friends shared with us, and then they led the girls on a good old-fashioned snipe hunt in the surrounding trees. It was a little difficult with my cynical bunch, but it was fun. After a little while, even though the girls weren't acting tired, I knew they needed to get some sleep if we were going to go to the zoo the next day. I wish I would have taken that advice myself, but I was wide awake and stayed up until nearly 2am.

And then the rain. No one warned me about the Nebraska weather. Apparently it can change on a moment's notice and this morning it was drizzling. So, I jumped out of the tent in a panic at 6:45am to put the rain fly on the tent. Wide awake now, I decided to go ahead and get going for the day.

(In the quiet of the morning, I got to see the birds eat their breakfast and caught this cute little bunny hopping around)

The girls didn't get up until almost 9, so at least they got some sleep. We had an easy breakfast of oatmeal, along with some delicious bacon that the guys shared with us, and I packed as quickly as I could because the girls wanted to go the zoo with Adam & Clyde. I wondered if they were more excited to hang out with them than they were to go to the zoo itself. I snapped this photo just before we headed out of camp.

We accidentally got lost on the way to the zoo and it took us a while to figure out where we were. We decided since we were lost anyway, we might as well see if there were any little free libraries around and there was. It turns out that we were in South Central Omaha, which made Jessey and I chuckle a bit, especially since it was obviously a very wealthy and high class neighborhood.

When we finally got to the zoo, it was even more amazing than I expected. They have this huge desert bio dome and an enormous rainforest exhibit that each had dozens of animals that I had never even heard of. They had an underground nocturnal animal exhibit, an amazing gorilla house, an aviary, a butterfly house, an aquarium, and so much more! Honestly, there is absolutely no way that I can write enough words to explain how amazing this zoo was, and I certainly took way too many pictures to post here (I put a few of them at the bottom of this post). But if any of you ever make it out near Nebraska, make sure you visit this zoo! If you want to see more about this place, you can check out their website. http://www.omahazoo.com/

The first thing we did at the zoo was go into the bio dome. My rationale was that I thought we should go in there while the weather was still cool and get it out of the way so we would still have time to cool off afterwards. I was so wrong. I won't drive you all crazy like I did with Jessey saying how amazing it all was over and over again, but we could have spent all day in that one place alone. Actually, one of the coolest things about the whole zoo was their lack of separation between the animals and the visitors. There were hardly any ropes on the exhibits, the fences were so low we could have walked over them, and one little bird was actually on the floor right in front of us, protected only by a ring of small rocks no higher than my shoe. The bats downstairs flew right up to you and landed on the net that lined their enclosure. You could reach out and touch them. And for the bigger animals, they actually had huge enclosures with an indoor walkway in the middle so the people stay cool and comfortable while being separated from the lions snd gorillas by only the thickness of the glass window. It was so funny to see the monkeys 'playing' with the humans through the glass window, or to see a gorilla notice you as you stand by the glass and look you right in the eye.

Since we had arrived at the zoo so much later than we expected, we assumed we wouldn't see Adam and Clyde again. The zoo was so big and it just didn't seem likely. So, I was just amazed when we were leaving the bio-dome exhibit and the girls shouted that they saw them outside. We all had lunch together in the cafe and then they walked with us through the rainforest exhibit before they had to head home. The girls were very sad to say goodbye to them and begged me more than a few times to alter our road trip route so we could see them again. I told them, who knows, our paths may cross again some day.

After they left, we cooled off with an ice cream cone (that jungle exhibit was so hot and humid!) and looked around as much of the zoo as we could, staying much later than we expected. By the time we left the gift shop it was 5:30 and we had a longer drive ahead of us than I thought. It was going to be a very very late night getting into Chicago.

The Omaha Zoo is only a few minutes from the Iowa border, and we managed to make it all the way to Des Moines before dark (half way across). Iowa was actually really pretty with lush green grass everywhere, the western part anyway. :) Besides driving all the way across Iowa, we also had to drive all the way across Illinois. It was going to be a long night.

Zoo pictures

They had examples of desert sands from around the world

Blue-bellied Roller from Africa

Cape Thick-Knees from Africa (this bird was about 1.5 feet away from us on the ground with only those rocks around it)

Rock Hyrax (strange looking creatures)

We could have literally tripped or fallen into many of the exhibits - so cool!

Rattlesnakes

Throwback to my earlier post about the world's biggest and smalles amphibians. Not quite as big as the Chinese, but close.

Bats up close (I probably blinded the poor guys)

One of C favorites, a crocodile

Brand new baby pygmy hippo with its mom

More bats in the jungle exhibit

A moray eel for Dad from the girls

Giraffe in the distance (notice the fence in front is only about 3 feet high). We wondered what stopped them from walking out and wandering around the zoo.