Pictures of Life in the Land of Oz: October 2016

End of Omaha and on the Road Again

We finished our Saturday night in Omaha by going to the Bob Kerry Pedestrian Bridge, which crosses the Missouri River and connects Nebraska and Iowa.

Standing in two states at once!

Then we went to the Heartland of America Park and while we enjoyed watching the fountains, Shad and I were a little disappointed that they never turned the colored lights on.

This is what we wanted to see! (Picture borrowed from Google)

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And we were there past dark and still the lights never came on.

Hotels make for really fun sleepovers. Didja know?

We love staying at Super 8 because of the breakfast waffles!

I tried so hard to get in contact with Sister Atkins while we were in Omaha, but with no success. Finally we threw in a last effort and went to the singles ward we thought she was assigned to. Hooray, we found her! Love this girl and all her English/Aussie goodness, except that it means she'll be so far away when she's done with her mission. We had such a good talk during the Sunday School lesson. Yep, we were those people.

It was fun to see different terrain when we drove through Iowa. At one point, there was a sign for Hawkeye Point, which is the highest natural point in Iowa at 1,700 feet. I laughed!

A taste of the Land of 10,000 Lakes! Southern Minnesota left a bit to be desired in that area, as well as Scandinavian culture, so I'll have to sample Minnesota again someday. But it was still exciting to finally see this land that I have longed for nearly 20 years!

But they had loads of trees for us to enjoy!

Lauritzen Gardens

After our morning at Joslyn Art Museum and lunch, Shad stayed behind at the hotel to work on the rule book for Make a Killing while Thora and Samson napped. I took Tommy, Katie and Dancy to the botanic gardens.

Posing in the Victorian Garden. That's Dancy's new look. Garden mums for fall.

See, there it is again! The kids like my new "Strike a pose!" command for pictures.

Katie wanted to take a picture to sketch this later.

Lovely all orange tree!

Flowers by the stream. Tommy's choice for sketching.

Dragonfly!

Pond ripples.

Fountain by the bird-watching garden.

The model railroad "garden!"

Waterfall and miniature house.

In the Rose Garden.

Corn maze in the Children's Garden.

It's so tall!

That look again!

Sunpu Castle Gate and Mt. Fuji replica

This Japanese style is different, but it still made me miss Chinese parks.

Climbing the hill.

At the top.

I'm telling you, I saw this Dancy look all day!

Bananas growing in a greenhouse room!

This flower looks like an exotic bird to me.

Once upon a time in China, I was invited to go to my city's annual Chrysanthemum Festival, something for which they are famous. But my head teacher said no because it was on a Sunday. Thanks for making that choice for me... Anyway, I finally got to see a sample of a chrysanthemum display in the indoor Japanese garden.

Koi pond! No one pulled a Michael Scott on me.

Bonsai trees!

Omaha is sister cities with Shizuoka, Japan. They trade gifts a lot, so that explained the heavy Japanese influence throughout the gardens. Omaha also has sister cities in Germany, Lithuania, Ireland, Mexico and China. We barely missed the time of day when Lithuanian wood carvers were carving in the gardens, on display with translators present for spectators to ask questions. Katie asked me if Norton has any sister cities. No, dear, Norton is too insignificant for that.