Omaha Homaha: March 30th - April 29th, 2024
We woke up at Ben's mom's. She had made us a welcome home basket complete with Nebraska themed t-shirts which meant we had something clean to wear! Which was great as our travel clothes reeked. We enjoyed delicious waffles for breakfast with Greg and Sue and then borrowed their car to head to my parents'. My dad was home with the littles and between hugs and conversation and entertaining children we managed to do a load of laundry, add our luggage to the our hoard in the basement and locate some respectable looking clothes for Easter the next day.
On Sunday we made it to Easter service with Ben's mom and Greg and Jacob. We were offered coffee at the entrance, and my raised Catholic self was very confused and said "no, thank you" and thinking 'that's allowed!?!'. We probably could have used the coffee as we were still fighting jet lag. After the service, the family converged at Greg and Sue's and we got to see most of Ben's family. That evening, my mom hosted dinner which we were late for, but we were pretty full from Greg's cooking. So we ate a little and enjoyed some board games with my family. It was lovely and chaotic and I am happy we timed our flights to come home over Easter.
Monday morning Ben's mom dropped us of at his dad's where we would stay for the rest of the time in Omaha. With the help of the borrowed truck, and family having jobs during the weekday we were able to run errands and excercise to keep with our training program. Liz, ever the hostess, ordered groceries for us and we enjoyed a lot of take-out dinners. We cooked maybe one meal the entire time we were in Omaha.
On Tuesday I went over to my sister's apartment to see if I could help with any wedding stuff. I helped Beth finish the table center pieces. I suspect she left a few for me to do with her so I could feel like I helped. It was nice to get some time with just Beth and Makayla before the wedding.
I didn't have to do much for this wedding. Katie had aqcuired dresses for both of us and one fit me surprisingly well! Which left her with the dress that didn't fit either of us well and she did some major sewing alterations to make it work. I couldn't find my heels in the hoard, but I did manage to find some flats that would work reasonably well. My hair and make up would be professionally done. I was both happy about this and kind of nervous about it and also kind of looking forward to seeing all of us Davis woman that fancy as that has never occurred and probably will never occur again. There were many jokes and slight miscommunications between the two sides of the family as Makayla was pulled between the two. One example to illustrate the differences between the families: Makayla grew up in a hair salon and understands things like hair care routines and skin care routines. I hadn't had a hair cut since my job interview 4 years ago and had some bad dead ends I wanted to clean up before the wedding, so Katie put my hair in a pony tail and helped her daughters chop off my hair below the hair tie and then Katie cleaned up the uneven and jagged chop.
After the center pieces I accompanied them to drop off a check at the wedding venue and it turned into an opportunity for the man to ask some questions of how the evening would progress. "Are you doing this? How about that? How do you want to exit and reenter?" He was really good at his job as Beth and Makayla mostly did not have strong opinions, but decisions needed to be made, or there were strong opinions but not everyone agreed. I was just along for the ride and grateful this man was so good at organizing other people's families.
The night before the wedding immediate family all went to the walkthrough, which we were strongly informed was NOT a rehearsal. Ben and I set up the selfie booth, Makayla's siblings set up the centerpieces and the main ceremony space and we hammered out a few more details with the venue people expertly handling the two mother in laws. After the rehearsal not rehearsal my family went to a new restaurant near our parents place and enjoyed a nice dinner of Asian Mexican fusion. I love the US!
The morning of the wedding Ben dropped me off very early at the venue and then hung out with my dad. The morning was just for us women to get hair and make up done. Katie left to pick up the little and Ben and dad also arrived about the same time. We got the littles into their dresses and did our best to entertain the youngest. Finally it was time to start the ceremony. Despite many a joke at Beth and Makayla's expense about how formal and fancy of a wedding they were putting on, it was a beautiful wedding and they found a perfect balance between simplicity and ceremony. The vows were sweet and the ceremony thoughtful. The turn around to food was quick and the food was good. Then the turn around to the music and dancing was also quick. It was a fun night filled with all of my family as most of my aunts and uncles were there along with a few of my cousins. We got to dance, we got to chat a little, and make plans to see more of each other later on. It was a great evening of celebrating the two of them. I drove my tipsy mother home and then Ben and I headed back to his dad's.
Beth and Makayla had kindly timed their wedding to coincide with the total eclipse passing over North America. I had missed the last total eclipse as it was my first year teaching so I watched that one in a stadium of high schoolers with a view of the partial eclipse. I told myself no matter what I would witness the next one. So A few days after the wedding we flew to Austin which was going to be in the path of totality. Our friend Ben had come up to Omaha for the wedding and our freind Scott joined us in taking Ben home to Austin so we could bum on his couch and catch a ride to witness the eclipse. We got picked up by Miao at the tiny south terminal and commenced an afternoon of eating and drinking and eating some more. We got to meet some of Ben's friends in Austin and had some interesting bike conversations with a friend of Ben's who knows way more about bikes than I think I ever will.
On the day of the eclipse we headed to Old Settler's park. Ben and I ran some intervals on a steep hill while we waited for the celestial show to begin. We finished just as someone else in the park declared "It's starting!" We got out eclipse glasses, some drinks and commenced staring at the sky willing the skies to remain clear. Clouds were forming and most weather predictions showed we would miss it. The moon shaved off the edge of the sun and slowly blocked more and more of the light. We started checking for pinhole effects and oohed and ahhed and prayed the clouds would stay away. Just as totality hit, the clouds got thicker, but we ended up with a hole in the clouds to see the penumbra shining around the moon! The world got dark, the temperature dropped. We lucked out and got to experience totality! I am so happy so much in my life aligned so I could experience this.
The rest of the time in Austin was spent hanging with Ben, Miao, Scott and Ben's friend Jackson. Each night there was good food and good conversation. Ben and I were still trying to get our training goals so one day we went on a hike. Jackson started with us but then bowed out. Ben and I walked circles with needlessly heavy packs as the day got more and more humid. When we were done we messaged Jackson to come pick us up. He was with Ben and they were a little ways away so we waited in the shade of a tree. As we waited a hailstorm blew through the area. The tree made for good shelter, but we still got hit with a few of the grape sized hail. Ben and Jackson had stopped driving, hoping to not mess up Miao's nicer car in the hail storm. Eventually, they picked us up and we stopped for a pint on the way back in order to not catch up to the same storm system dropping hail near their place.
One of the days, while everyone else was working remote and Ben was babying an injured leg I went for a run in Ben's neighborhood. Since starting the training program I have mostly been running with Ben. On this, first run as an unaccompanied woman I get stopped by a man who in a very steretypically start up town way pitches me on an app. Me being very confused and realizing he thinks I live in this nice suburb inform him my phone is too dumb for new apps and I run away realizing that that was a dumb thing to say as it sounds like a lie...but it is true!
On another evening we got to enjoy an evening glazing some of Ben's pottery pieces he had fired earlier. He had a kiln set up in his garage and needed some pieces to fire. We also got to enjoy his large screen t.v. and watch the old dune and the new Dune movies. Old Dune was soooooo bad! But also new Dune I am happy I read the books once upon a time, as old Dune movie just accepted they would need a narrator to explain some stuff. New Dune just glossed over some bits.
When we returned to Omaha we thought we would have more time to sit and relax than we ended up having. Alas we have people we love and wanted to visit with. One day we took Ben's sister and family mini golfing. We had to split into two big groups. Ben and I were in the group moving a little bit quicker. Mostly managing to wrangle the kids and score decently on mini golf. We finished just in time for rain to pour out of the sky in sheets and then it started hailing. I saw Molly dashing with some kids in tow to the car. Some people dived into the front office and some dashed to the other cars. I followed one kid into what I hoped was grandma Maggie's car. We started counting kids and realized a few were missing along with Grandma Maggie. Me and a few of the kids went back out into the rain with an umbrella and went to the office and picked them up. I love midwest weather!
One evening, Liz had a fancy car delivered to the house while they were away at a wedding in South Carolina. Ben and I were left with the task of getting the fancy car from the road it was dropped off at, up the circle and into the garage. It was terrifying. It took us a long time and some reading of the manual to figure out how to insert the magic crystal into the dash to start the car. Then it seemed really sluggish...but Ben didn't exactly want to hit the gas on this astro turf martini for fear it would leap forward and become a pile of scrap metal against the neighbor's car or the back of the garage. So we inched the car forward while Ben's dad and uncle watched us on the security camera in the driveway and laughed at us from across the country.
With my nieces we went to the zoo with my dad and I got to show Ben some of the new exhibits at Omaha Henry Doorly zoo. He hadn't been there in forever! We checked out the new sea lion enclosure. The tree house area wasn't open for the season yet, which was a pity as that area is impressive. We also took my nieces to the new riverfrot parks downtown. We played on the spiderwebs, ziplines, rope swings, climbing walls. It was a blast. Omaha is such a good city!
I also joined Julia with her nephew for a mushroom hunt with Julia's cousin Kayla. We didn't find any mushrooms but it was a nice walk in the woods catching up with friends.
We did take a day trip to Blue Mounds state park. Our friend Ken drove Scott, Ben and I up to Minnesota to the closest rock climbs you can do from Omaha. We enjoyed getting on routes we had done when we first started climbing. We were still shocked by how smooth and slippery the rose quartzite is and how hard it is to climb. Scott had made some great gluten free snacks that he shared. We ended up running into Craig of the Crag also known as old man of the mounds and some other older climbers. I think that was the oldest climbing scene I have been in in a while and it was nice to witness. It was great climbing with Ken and Scott again!
We also climbed at Approach climbing gym a few times with Ken and Scott. One day we had to pause our climbing for yet another hail storm to roll through. While the tornado sirens blared we hid in the back room while the twenty something worker tried to have some semblance of authority. Another day we got to introduce climbing to Liam and his kid! Liam paced himself, the teenager...not so much. He threw himself at the wall again and again working through how to move his long limbs to get himself up the plastic holds.
We managed to carve out some time for dinner with freinds and family while we were there. It was lovely catching up with my cousin Samuel, my cousin Sean, Ben's brother and partner Sam and Joel, our freinds Julia and Liam, Ken and his son Cristopher. When not eating with others we dined with Ben's dad and Liz or my parents or Greg and Sue. Did I mention we only cooked dinner for ourselves once the entire time in Omaha. After traveling for so long and only getting to know people for such short conversations it was nice to talk with people we have known for so long.
In between all of this we were trying to keep to an excercise training regimen that Ben had put together for us so we would hopefully be prepared for climbing in the Alps this summer. The problem is, trying to get vert in Omaha is really difficult. It just isn't possible to find a hill that we can walk up at a steep angle for 20 minutes. So we had to get creative and make do with the small hills we could find. One day involved finding the steepest longest hill in Hummel park. We dropped a pile of Ben's dad's weights at the bottom. One of us filled a bag up with 40 pounds and walked up the hill. After 7 minutes we reached the top, dropped the weight and walked quickly back down the hill to reload the bag. Repeat 3 times to make a total of 20 minutes up hill! We then had to ferry the weights back to the start of the hill so the next person could go. Mostly though we wanted long hikes with a total of 2000 - 2500 feet of up hill elevation gain. We visited Fontenelle Forest and Hitchhock nature center for long hikes that involved a lot of loops on sections of the trails with steeper hills. It takes forever to get that elevation gain in Omaha!
We also went running with my cousin Sean a few times at Chalco hills. It is funny how as kids I was always red faced and huffing and puffing behind the cousins. And still as an adult Sean is loping along ahead as I struggle to keep up my end of the converstion on the uphill. Sean has grown though and subtly slowed down for me, thanks cousin!
Those long hikes and runs did give Ben and I an opportunity to discuss what we want life to look like after this trip. You always think that while traveling you will have plenty of time for these deep conversations, but we really haven't had that time. I guess this is why people like going on long hikes. It's how you carve out time to have conversations with yourself or with others.
With one more long packing session in my parent's basement, we were ready to head back across the Atlantic for the next part of our trip.
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