Day Three-Omaha to Minneapolis

Hello from Minneapolis, Minnesota!

We started our day in a very rainy, stormy Omaha, Nebraska.  I have to say I've never really given much thought to what the city of Omaha might be like, but we were very impressed.  Not sure I even new anything about Omaha before now, except maybe they had insurance there.  We did see the world headquarters for Mutual of Omaha by the way.  The people were super nice, and the city was very pretty and clean.

As I mentioned in the last post it's been an year or two (or 20) since I've studied the Lewis and Clark Expedition.  Omaha is where the headquarters for the Lewis and Clark Trail is located.  So, we decided to stop there before heading out of town.

I've said this on road trips before, but the National Park Service is amazing.  They do an excellent job helping you get the information you need and teaching you about whatever landmark/park you are seeing.  This lady spent a good half hour with us explaining the Lewis and Clark journey, where all they went, how they navigated, that they created the first maps of all the areas they visited...etc.  Very, very good.  The centers are also very kid friendly.  Here Thomas is touching a Buffalo bladder....(note Grace gagging in the background)

After spending about 45 minutes there, we decided to head on to Des Moines, Iowa.  Iowa is very pretty.  Lots of rolling green farmland with big beautiful farms.  Of course, whenever we travel North to all these beautiful sunny places I feel the need to constantly remind myself that we are seeing June Iowa, not February Iowa!  Scott saw a sign for a Dutch windmill and museum and took a nail biting screeching exit off the highway to travel the 3 miles to see it...

The museum turned out to be a small gift shop full of Scandinavian gifts.  He was extremely disappointed, mainly because there were no danishes for him to eat.  Really.

Not long after we got back on the highway we began to see small signs for Freedom Rock.  I had seen this many times on the internet, but had no idea it was in Iowa, or that we were passing literally right by it.  This time it was me yelling for him to take the exit!  It was amazing.

I  believe artist Bubba Sorenson started in 2004 painting this rock on the side of the highway every Memorial Day, he was 19 years old.  The first time he had just seen the movie Saving Private Ryan and was inspired by the sacrifice of American soldiers in WWII.  It was such a hit, that community members encouraged him to repaint it every year for Memorial Day.  Now, counties all over Iowa are commissioning him to do Freedom Rocks in their counties as well.  This one he still does for free.  About 3 or 4 years ago while painting the rock one May a group of motorcycle riders came thru on a journey to sprinkle the ashes of two of their fellow Vietnam veterans at the Vietnam wall in D.C.  They saw that Sorenson was painting a huey helicopter for that years scene and asked if they could sprinkle a few of the ashes at the base of the rock.  Sorenson said, of course, but it was such a windy day he was afraid that the ashes would simply blow away.  He then asked them to place the ashes in the green paint.  Now, this helicopter is permanent and has the ashes of more than 30 Vietnam Veterans.  He works it into the mural each year as a permanent Thank You to those soldiers who returned home with no parades, no honors and no thank you's.  Yes, this daughter of a Vietnam Vet cried.  It was amazing and you can look up more of his past murals on the website www.thefreedomrock.com

Texan Chris Kyle was featured this year.

So, after that unexpected adventure, we had lots and lots of this....

Lots of highway and lots and lots of wind farms.

Des Moines, Iowa is another place that surprised me.  So, so pretty.

On the Des Moines River bridge downtown.

And you know, I always have to see the Capitol....

This one is gorgeous with it's gold leaf dome and a statue of Lewis & Clark out front!

On the way out of Des Moines you pass thru the prettiest little college town, Ames.  It is the home of Iowa State University.  My friend Danielle and her husband had lived there while he was in veterinary school and she told us where to eat while we were there.  Oh. My. Gosh.  Scott and the kids were in heaven!!  It's called Hickory Park and the menu is mostly BBQ, but they have all kinds of other things as well.  The food was excellent.  Here is Thomas with a ham steak as big as his head...

You have no idea how much this skinny teenage boy can eat.

The biggest hit was the dessert menu.  All ice cream...

The ENTIRE thing is a bajillion different ice cream sundaes, shakes, malts, parfaits.  It's unbelievable.  We decided that we should all order a different one, that way we could sample more!

Mandy had a banana hot fudge sundae & Grace had a Milky Way sundae-chocolate and vanilla ice cream with caramel and hot fudge!

Thomas had peanut butter cup-chocolate ice cream with peanut butter sauce and a reese's peanut butter cup!

I had the Black & White-chocolate with marshmallow and vanilla with hot fudge

 This is Scott's Mint Marvel-Chocolate ice cream with creme de menthe sauce and a chocolate chip cookie.  I didn't try this as it looked like green snot.  He said it was the best ice cream sundae he's ever had.  That's saying a lot....the man has eaten his fair share of ice cream.

Then, just in case the kids hadn't had enough sugar from the ice cream, they have a candy counter...

After we were so full we could hardly walk, we drove around and looked at the Iowa State campus.  It is one seriously beautiful campus and college town.  Scott tried very hard to get one of the kids to commit to at least applying to Iowa State just so he could come back and eat at Hickory Park again!

After Ames, there was nothing.  Just a lot of this....

We were in between two storm systems and while it never rained on us, you could see where it was.  Very cool.

Then we made it to Minnesota!!

 Evidently we followed the Prairie grass trail and didn't even know it!

On our way into the Minneapolis area we had to make a Walmart stop, Thomas forgot to pack sleep shorts.  And a run into the Dollar Tree for playing cards....they'd been asking for them for about 400 miles!?  It was at these stops that I realized just how my accent is gonna stick out here!

We are staying in Minneapolis for two nights.  We are at the Waterpark of America indoor waterpark hotel.  You should have heard the excitement when we pulled up and they noticed the watersides that  come out of the building!  We are also right next door to the Mall of America!  Tomorrow's plan is to be downstairs at the waterpark when it opens at 9:00 and stay till lunch, then shower and go to the mall, then come back and stay at the waterpark till it closes!!  We'll let you know how that goes...

Blessings from Minnesota....dontcha know!,
Leslie