Making Memories: Part II

  

Omaha has been the destination this month for the NCAA Men's College World Series. And while we've watched some of the baseball series on ESPN, we definitely avoided those dates when planning our trip to Omaha with Kinley and Brooke. 

Our third day took us first to the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge.  

Affectionately known as "Bob," this 3,000-foot-long, S-curved cable-stayed bridge spans the Missouri River, connecting Omaha, Nebraska, to Council Bluffs, Iowa. 

 

It's not like the girls needed to check off a trip to Iowa. 

 

After all, their other grandparents lived there until recently. 

But Grandpa Randy loves rivers. 

Often, he's driving as we cross bridges, so this gave him ample time to gawk without danger of bodily harm to him or any passengers.

Our next destination was visible from the bridge. 

 

It was just a short walk down the riverfront.

The Luminarium was new to Randy and me, too. It had been added to the Omaha landscape since our last visit. It's an 82,000-square-foot interactive science museum. Opened in 2023, it features more than 125 hands-on exhibits designed to explore the intersections of science, art, and human perception.

 

We all loved it. It ranked right up there with the zoo's aquarium among our top spots in Omaha.  

It's hands-on, like this station where Brooke made waves.

 There were the typical activities you'd expect at a science museum ...

 Chain reaction ...

... Gravity ...

 

... And the value - or not - of teamwork.

 But it also makes you think about things like the economy in the U.S. ... 

... Growing your money ...

 ... Building a thriving society ...

... and even thinking about how individuals react differently.

 

Kinley contemplated a name change ... and why. (Brooke did it, too, but then it wouldn't come up on the screen.)

 

Kinley and I tried to match our faces to create a whole new face.

 

My favorite was a station on water drop photography. 

 

 Brooke liked making the robots dance.

 

Grandpa liked finding living things when he examined soil. (Imagine that ...)

 

And Kinley liked a You Wear It Well exhibit, where she got to “try on” outfits by projecting different clothing styles onto her body. It was a reminder that our clothing is one way we message who we are in the world. 

 

We made bubbles and watched them dance with a little air movement ... but not too much!
 

We sat across the room from one another and were able to hear what the other person was saying. 
 

The "whisper chairs" (or whispering dishes) demonstrate the physics of sound waves by letting you have a perfectly clear conversation with someone located far across the room. When you whisper into the dish, it focuses and directs your voice across the room in a concentrated beam, allowing a person sitting inside the receiving dish to hear you clearly despite the distance. It was mind boggling!

 

 

 

All of us would highly recommend this stop if you're in Omaha.  

 

 

What's a trip to the "big city" if you don't do a little shopping ... especially if you're with a teen and pre-teen? We spent part of the afternoon at Westroads Mall. (There is no photographic evidence, but there are shopping receipts to prove our presence.)

We left the next morning to take the girls home, so that we could turn around and go back to Kearney, Nebraska, for a church conference. And it was worth every mile to spend a few days with the girls.