50 States: Nebraska

When I tell people I've been to all 50 states, they ask me which one was my favorite. That's a tough question because so many states are wonderful for various reasons. But when they ask which state was my least favorite, that's a much shorter list.

In looking over the last ten states or so to visit, Iowa and Nebraska were right next to each other making them perfect for a twofer. Iowa, as I'll probably get to much later, had hidden charms and was very delightful. Nebraska, much less so.

The hardest part of visiting Nebraska was finding anything to do there. The ground rules of the challenge was that we had to stay at least one night and eat one meal. For the hotel, we stayed at the gorgeous Magnolia Hotel Omaha which was hosting several very fancy weddings that Saturday night. From our hotel window, we could see the Woodmen of the World building as seen in About Schmidt. And down the street the Orpheum theater was advertising the upcoming visit of the Capitol Steps.

  

For dinner, since we were in Nebraska, I wanted a big giant steak. For that we went to 801 Chophouse which has a giant golden bull in the middle of the dining room.  They also have Maytag bleu cheese potatoes which are delicious.

 
From Omaha we drove through Lincoln which is both the state capitol and the home of the University of Nebraska. The stadium is just huge.



It was also a clear perfect blue fall day and the absurdly tall and slightly phallic capital building just shown in the sunlight. Even the oddly disturbing farmer on the top of it just glistened.

  

Finally on our way out of Lincoln we stopped on a whim at the Sunken Gardens which was resplendent in fall colors even if all the flowers were gone for the year.

 

I hope I haven't insulted any proud Nebraskans. I'm sure the state is a great place to live, I just didn't find much reason to visit there. But you can find more photos here.