A Weekend in Omaha: Part One

After picking up countless number of loads just 30 miles north of Omaha for years, we finally had the chance to visit and explore. One thing that frustrated me so much about trucking was being so close to a place and not being able to visit because you either are on such a tight schedule with a deadline for the load, or because you can't drive a truck into most downtown streets.

But thankfully we had a vehicle to use over a weekend that we had off anyways as we waited for our next load!!

This area is called The Old Market. We were blown away by how much character and charm this part of downtown has. The streets are old brick, and even in October which is when we visited, there were a lot of flowers planted and still blooming which made it feel full of life even thought it was a chilly dreary day.

I always thought Omaha wouldn't have much to offer, but I guess I was wrong because this part of downtown was our favorite downtown we've visited so far.

It's a perfect place to just take a stroll up and down the streets and sight see.

We ate breakfast at at a cute little place called Lisa's Radial Cafe. It was just a tiny hole in the wall with an old school diner feel to it. The food was very good and they served coffee while you had to wait, which is super nice since there's always a wait because it's so small and a lot of locals go there.

My favorite part at the Old Market is the passage way, which is like an enclosed alleyway between two buildings with tons of gorgeous plants. It felt like some place over in Europe perhaps, certainly not Omaha!

On the other side of the brick wall is a walkway with access to all the shops in there.

There were bookstores, boutiques, art galleries, restaurants, and more.

My favorite place was the artisan chocolate store. They had handcrafted and handpainted specialty truffles that were as beautiful as they are delicious!!

So I couldn't leave without a little box of these beauties!!

Believe it or not this is a dress made out of real chocolate!

There were some unique stores there as well, like this fine tobacco shop, which David enjoyed. He bought some wonderful smelling pipe tobacco.

This store was super cute with all things Christmas and lots of old fashioned candy.

If you know me at all then you know my deep appreciation and love for quality ice cream ;). I found this local ice cream shop called Ted and Wally's. They've been there since the 80's and make the real deal with real cream. They had so many unique flavors like golden beet white chocolate, which is what I got and it was amazing!

I was disappointed in the coffee scene, there didn't seem to be hardly any in this area of downtown. We did go to Scooters, and a local one named 13th Street Coffee and Tea, both lacked a nice atmosphere to me (that's how I judge coffee shops) but the coffee was good and we got in some journaling time which is one of our favorite things to do.

For dinner we ate at the Spaghetti Works. It was delicious and they served all you can eat pasta which is perfect for those hopeless pasta lovers like me, haha. The restaurant is in an old factory building so it has a vintage feel to it.

Overall we were so impressed with Omaha, and in some ways it actually was more enjoyable than Portland. It's smaller and more compact, easier to get around and feel like you've seen what should be seen there. It has the brick streets that to us so typifes an old industrial downtown, and seemed more personable in some arbitrary way to us. Perhaps its that we are both small town folk, but we seem to prefer a smaller, more laid back city scene, and to us Omaha Nebraska filled that niche wonderfully.