O! It's Omaha!

Omaha, NE

Length of visit: Jan. 22, Friday - Jan. 24, Sunday

Hotel: Courtyard Marriott Omaha LaVista

Rate: $50/night thanks to name your own price on priceline.com

Transportation: By car

Purpose: Why not?

Bill and I decided to go for a quick road trip at the end of January to Omaha, NE. Both of us had driven through Omaha on various roadtrips but had never stopped to take a look around. In my research about Omaha I was surprised to learn that they have a very active restaurant community. A great place is you are a foodie! Omaha also has a very large zoo. Alas, it was too cold and rainy/snowy to go to the zoo that day but we will definitely be back.

Hotel

The Marriott we stayed in was only a year old and one of the nicest Marriott's we had been in. We've really lucked out using priceline.com's "Name Your Own Price" and usually get a room at Marriott's for $50 +/- depending on the location. The room was clean, modern and well appointed. The Marriott also offered free wifi which worked great for our purposes. While the pool area was a little small for such a large hotel, it was still a very nice heated pool and of course great hot tub! We did not use it but there was also a gym that had your typical machines.

Restaurants
We normally try to find small unique local establishments for breakfast but for our purposes for this trip, the quick and already known worked best. So Saturday morning we had some delicious bagel omelet sandwiches from Bruegger's and on Sunday before we headed out of town we stopped at my favorite, Perkins. (Which does counts as a "special restaurant" since we don't have any near us here in Elgin!)

For lunch on Saturday, we were curious if you could get well prepared, fresh sushi in the middle of America's heartland with no large bodies of water in sight! Well, the answer is yes! (Since finally giving sushi a try, Bill has become as obsessed as I about eating sushi often. It is always on the list of options when trying to decide what to have for dinner. And I couldn't be happier!) There are several sushi restaurants in Omaha, believe it or not! After reading reviews of the sushi restaurants that Omaha had to offer, we decided on Sushi Japan. Sushi Japan was an older restaurant located in an odd spot, hidden at the end of a small mini-mall. When I saw that the sushi chefs were Mexican and Italian, I wasn't quite sure what we were going to end up with but was nicely surprised! We ordered 4 or 5 maki rolls and they were all delicious and expertly prepared! I took so long to actually write this that I do not remember what we actually ordered but I do remember Bill and I looking at one another and saying "This is really good!" Our normal orders usually consist of spicy tuna, eel and cucumber, yellow tail and scallions and then something unique to the restaurants menu.

For dinner Saturday night, we, of course, had to find some great Mexican food! Again, there were quite a few Mexican restaurants to choose from but we settled on Rivera's Mexican Restaurant. Again the restaurant was located in a strip mall but was a little easier to locate. We figured we made a good choice when we saw that the parking lot was packed! The restaurant is basically one room with very bad lighting and a bar along the front. Seriously, I thought I was hanging out in someones basement at first. But don't judge a book by it's cover, some of the best restaurants are not the flashy ones! There was a wait for a table so we sat at the bar and each had a margarita. Bill had the Supreme Margarita and I the Red Fire. Both were good but nothing special. This made us a a little nervous as we've found that good margaritas = great food! But by the time our names were called, the place was even more packed and very loud with a lot of happy eaters so we kept our fingers crossed. We were seated at a small table for two right in the middle of the small restaurant, you definitely get to know your neighbors but not to the point were it is uncomfortable. We started with an order of Spicy Cheese Dip and Chips which were delicious, good start! For dinner Bill had the Enchiladas Ranchera's and I had the Carne Asada tacos. Both were very flavorful, generous portions with an authentic taste. I especially enjoyed the cilantro in my tacos. You can never have enough cilantro in my opinion! Service was fast and friendly and the $5 off coupon from their website was nice too!


Activities
We mainly spent most of our time in Omaha driving around and checking out the area. Like I said before, there are definitely a lot of restaurants and also tons of shopping! I think we drove by 3 malls in a 20 mile radius. My overall impression of Omaha was that is a nice city with lots to do, see and eat! Along with the zoo, there is also the campus of University of Nebraska - Omaha, several museums and art galleries, state parks and more. The area we focused on checking out was a spot in downtown Omaha called the Old Market Arts and Entertainment district. This area consisted of several city blocks of restaurants (yes, even more!), bars, shops and galleries on cobble stoned streets in preserved historic buildings. I was in love with several of the eclectic shops full of unique gifts and oddities.




After dragging Bill into more than he cared to visit, we decided it was time to stop in to a local watering hole and have a beer. We choose Billy Frogg's Grill and Bar because, frankly, it just looked cool! We weren't disappointed. The inside had everything from stained glass to old stoplights hanging from the walls. Very eclectic and just what you would expect from this neighborhood. We each enjoyed our beers after a long day and had very friendly service. We found while we were in Omaha that everywhere we went, everyone was super friendly!

So that was our Omaha trip. I won't bore you with the details of actually driving there. It was a seven hour drive through farm, farm, wind farm, farm, farm, wind farm, farm. That pretty much sums it up. Although it was long and boring, it was also quite easy. Overall, we were very happy with our trip and found it very worthwhile. We will definitely be making it again in the future to visit that awesome looking zoo! I would highly recommend visiting the Old Market section of downtown if you ever find yourself in Omaha.

Up next, a Valentine's Day visit to the Brookfield Zoo!

Happy Travels!
Joanna and Bill