We arrived safely to our loft apartment in downtown Omaha at 10am on Monday. Grand total travel time was 14 1/2 hours which included the 7-miles-from-home potty stop, the Oklahoma City gas stop and the first Starbucks sign we saw in Kansas stop. When we finally parked we were awed by a couple of things... how close we were to the convention center, the fact that a 2 minute walk found us at a Red Mango frozen yogurt shop, and how amazing my little www.HomeAway.com find was!
I am not sure I will ever stay in a hotel on purpose ever again. Last August I used the HomeAway website to book a little cottage for a Mommy Getaway with two old friends. It was awesome to have a whole little cabin with kitchen for the same price as a local hotel with no character. Family-sized travel finds us either dragging the RV around or paying for two hotel rooms which puts a strain on the vacation budget. When we decided to attend the Teach Them Diligently conference, I checked hotels, even those with suites, and couldn't find any that would allow for more than 7 people. Our loft is totally amazing, 2200sqft with a bigger kitchen than my house, a huge balcony, wide open spaces for kids to wiggle. Yay!
The kids broke in the loft by running laps through the apartment, going up the stairs, coming down the stairs, jumping from the stairs. They had a little bit of energy following our travel, the fact that Mom and Dad wanted to nap found no sympathy with them. So, we all got our shoes back on and went to Red Mango because, well, I wanted some. :)
I had read on-line that at the bottom of the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Footbridge spanning between Nebraska and Iowa was a splash pad. The very existence of this supposed splash pad was the sole reason I packed all of our swimsuits for this trip. Following the yogurt outing, we got in our swimwear and headed over to run around in spraying water and walk between two states. However, the splash pad was not working which resulted in sad children. We made a quick walk to the top of the bridge, everyone thought it was pretty cool that the bridge wiggled a little with each step, and then we piled into the car to go have dinner at Cheeseburger in Paradise.
Elliott put the kids to bed while I ran to the grocery store in the middle of a thunderstorm. I don't think I have ever been more stressed out in a grocery store in my life. I missed the selection and pricing of my local H.E.B. more than I knew was possible. Finally back to the loft, we quickly put away the cold stuff and I climbed into bed after a solid 30 hours of being awake. I didn't hear a thing or wake up once until Tuesday morning, it was a delightful night's sleep.
More later...
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