Exploring the O

My husband flew into town to see me in Omaha on Thurs morning and today was our first full day together to go exploring! I don't think he expected to go for a long walk- but I strapped on my running shoes just in case. We walked all around the Old Market area, checked out some lofts on Jackson- in a building that was built in 1891, we went to a record store (Drastic Plastic), we had a slice of pizza at Zios, we had some coffee at Aroma, checked out some 2nd hand stores and some of the other cool stuff around.

Then we started walking up 10th st. I admit, I had looked at a map the night before and saw that the zoo, the botanical gardens and the baseball stadium (where they do the college world series) were all off of 10st. Just a couple of miles up. It was beautiful weather today (close to 75! Is this really Omaha?) and so we climbed up the stairs alongside the 10th st bridge (just down from Aroma) and then started going south down 10th street. We passed by the old Union Pacific Central Station- which is now the Durham Western Heritage Museum and Lucky's Lounge - which I hear is owned by Kevin Costner's ex-wife?


We kept walking and passed by a lot of old Victorian houses and some not so nice houses. I guess we ended up in a neighborhood a little more akin to our neck of the woods here in LA. There was a Family Dollar store, lots of churches and a lot of Hispanic speakers. Felt like home.

As we walked- I saw a sign for the Botanical gardens and tried to encourage my husband to go a little further- but he was starting to poop out, literally (2nd note to self about the espresso before walking!)- and also didn't have on the shoes I did. He was wearing Converse and starting to get a blister. So we walked down to 13th st and started walking back. 13th had less cool houses and was way more urban- but it was such a gorgeous day, none of that really mattered.

By the time we got back to the hotel, we decided to take a nap. According to my Nike+ we had actually gone 3.33 miles in the hour we were out!

Tomorrow 3/22/09, is when the Pasadena Marathon is happening. I had signed up to do the Half- Marathon there with Hirono before I knew about the Omaha trip. I decided if I couldn't be there- that I could still do it virtually from here
in Omaha. He doesn't know it yet- but I am going to try to recruit my husband to join me for the 13.1 miles tomorrow. I know it will probably take me 3-4 hrs and it would be so cool if he came with! Let's see what he says...