American Midwest Ballet 2018

So many date nights! This was a special request by me because I love to go to the ballet or any dance performance. This particular performance was held in the art museum auditorium, but I'm hoping to see a performance at the Orpheum soon.

Perfect non-photobomb behind us!

UNO Concert Series- October 2018

The University of Nebraska's School of Music has an International Concert Series. As part of that series, they brought Mark Bernat, an amazing double bassist, to perform on campus. Kevin and I went to a delicious ramen dinner at Jinya Ramen Bar, the concert, and then dessert at Freezing Thai Rolled Ice Cream. Perfect date night!

Mark Bernat and his double bass

Old Skool Ramen was so good: chicken broth: fish oil, pork chashu, egg, bamboo shoots, green onion, thin noodles.

Pork chashu happiness

Ramen!

Green tea ice cream = "The Green Monster"

Omaha, Nebraska 2018

We closed on our house in Long Island on a Thursday. On Saturday, Kevin and I flew to Omaha to shop for a house while Grandma watched the kids. Houses are selling quickly in Omaha, and by the time our plane touched down 3 hours late on Saturday, 3 of the 11 houses we were interested in looking at had sold. Nonetheless, by the end of Saturday, we were reasonably sure about which house we wanted, and we put in an offer on Sunday morning. Our offer was accepted and our inspection was on Tuesday, and then all our contract paperwork was finalized on Friday before we returned to the East Coast. We're closing on August 2. We'll be living in the Bent Creek neighborhood of the Millard area of Omaha!

In between all the house viewing, negotiating, inspecting, paperwork, and setting up other details of our move, we went site-seeing in Omaha.

Driving through the Downtown

Sunday we checked out the Old Market area, which has an Old West vibe. We had a really nice celebratory lunch at La Buvette. We were staying at an Air BnB in the neighborhood we were buying in, Millard, so we also went to Omaha Tap House in Millard in the evening.

Old Market

Old Market

Old Market outside La Buvette

 

La Buvette

La Buvette

Monday we visited the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) to see the campus and fill out some paperwork. In the evening we went to two local breweries, Infusion Brewery and the Liquid Sunshine Taproom (which is attached to the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema- I want to go back for a movie!).

UNO

 

UNO's Weber Fine Arts Building

Leaving the Fine Arts Building

Infusion Brewery

Infusion Brewery

After the Liquid Sunshine Taproom because when you go to too many breweries...

Tuesday, we went to the Jocelyn Art Museum. I was excited to see they have a whole floor of activities and classes for kids. After that, we went to the Lewis and Clark Landing to check out the Missouri River and the labor monument. We also walked over the Bob Bridge. Then we took a nice long walk around the Heartland of America Park. I got a lot of walking in!

 

Jocelyn Art Museum

 

Jocelyn Art Museum

 

Jocelyn Art Museum

Lewis and Clark Landing and labor monument

Walking over the Bob Bridge

Iowa-Nebraska line on the bridge

Heartland of America Park

Wednesday, we took a day trip to Lincoln. We had lunch, walked around, visited the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, and went to the art museum at UNL. Unbelievably, there were two photo exhibits about Cuba. One exhibit was "Pictures from the Revolution" by Roberto Salas, black-and-white pictures from Castro's coup in the 1950s. The other one, which I liked better, was "Havana" by Michael Eastman, and it had huge photographs of the exteriors and interiors of once luxurious homes in Havana, that had degenerated post-communist revolution. They were both beautiful and extremely sad.

Downtown Lincoln


The University of Nebraska at Lincoln (UNL)


UNL Stadium

UNL Sheldon Museum of Art

Eastman exhibit


Eastman exhibit

Upon our return to Omaha that night, we had sushi at the Blue Sushi Sake Grill, and oh man, sushi is going to be a little tough here. I'm going to figure it out though. After dinner, we took a walk around Zorinsky Lake in Millard.

Kevin in front of Zorinsky Lake


Blowing on a "Salsify" which looks like a giant dandelion.

Kevin will be working on the Omaha campus, but twice a year his program hosts a 10-day residency at the Lied Lodge in Nebraska City. So Thursday we went to the residency to meet faculty and students from the program. Everyone was awesome and the location is beautiful.

The Lied Lodge in Nebraska City, Nebraska

Three students doing a reading.

In the afternoon we returned to Omaha, did some more moving errands, and visited the Benson neighborhood in North Omaha for ice cream.

Benson


Ted & Wally's in Benson

In the evening, we had our first (and probably last) Runzas for dinner. Then we went to Turner Park for Jazz on the Green. The performance this week was a Cuban band, "Tiempo Libre." So yeah, I saw a Cuban art exhibit in Lincoln this week and saw live Cuban music in Omaha. Nebraska loves me.

At Jazz on the Green in Turner Park

Tiempo Libre onstage

Friday was our flight out, but it was later in the day, so we snuck in the Lauritzen Gardens - Omaha Botanical Center. It's so lovely and has a big train display year-round. I can't wait to take the kids.

Botanical Garden

Inside the Marjorie K. Daugherty Conservatory

Inside the Marjorie K. Daugherty Conservatory

The English Garden

Walking around

Huge tropical flowers

Prairie grass

Year-round train display (it's much bigger than this but you get the idea)

When the week was up, we flew back to Boston to get the kids at Grandma's. Really looking forward to returning to Omaha and our new home!

Boston 2017

Kevin goes to Boston once a year or more, usually for a sporting event, but I hadn't been since 2010 when I was pregnant with James. Before that, I used to go at least every other year.  I missed Boston but I was a little dubious about a trip in the winter.  But Grandma Kathy offered to babysit in Cape Cod so Boston in the winter it was.

We started with lunch in Cambridge on Tuesday afternoon. It was pretty chilly in the mid-20s. We went to the Crema cafe and got delicious sandwiches on pretzel bread, and warmed up with coffee and chai tea.  We started in Cambridge because there are two great bookstores in Cambridge: Raven books and Harvard Bookstore. It was heaven for bookworms and we bought 8 remaindered books altogether. We also cut through Harvard Yard.

 

Kevin at Raven Books

Harvard Yard- the first time I was here I was 16. Over 22 years ago!

Our hotel was in Copley Square, so we went back, checked in, changed and went to our free hotel happy hour. Then we walked over to the Boston Public Library and looked at the amazing John Singer Sargent murals. We walked down Newberry Street and the nearby streets looking at the stores and Christmas decorations.

Christmas tree selfie in Copley Square

Boston Public Library

John Singer Sargent murals

My favorite. The blue goddess is amazing looking.

Then we went to a lovely Mexican restaurant Lolita where we met Jaime for dinner and drinks. It's a really cute place and the drinks were especially good. Jaime and I have our own little long-distance book club of 2, so we talked about those books with Kevin and discussed some future reads. I'd never been to "Top of the Pru" in all my visits to Boston so even though Kevin was dubious, we got one drink there. Now I can say I did.

Jaime, me, and Kevin at Lolita Mexican restaurant

Oh yeah they gave us cotton candy after dinner!

Top of the Pru!

Making my (sort of Jewish) friend pose in front of a big Christmas ornament

Wednesday was much colder than Tuesday, with temperatures in the mid-teens. We hustled to a nearby breakfast diner, the famous Charlie’s Sandwich Shoppe. But it was too cold to keep walking so we took the T to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. It's a small beautiful museum that was the former home of art-collecter Isabella Stewart Gardner, and which is most known for the famous 1990 robbery of its paintings including paintings by Degas, Manet, Rembrandt and Vermeer.

Attempt to get pictures of famous people behind my selfie at Charlie's

 

In front of the house's Spanish-style courtyard

 

A part of the house with a painting of a Spanish Cafe and abbey replica

Kevin + Mosaic

 

Stolen painting fram

 

Jazz band in the beautiful courtyard

View from the top of the house

After warming up in the museum, we got brave about the cold again and walked along The Fens. We walked over to another- bookstore- the Trident Bookstore Cafe and looked through but it didn't have deals as good as Raven Books and the Harvard Bookstore. I was exhausted. We had a little nap back at the hotel, and then after a failed attempt at waiting outside a ramen shop, we ended up having delicious Cambodian food at Kim Pang.

The Fens- it is so cold and all the ground is ice ice ice.

We took the T to the Museum of Fine Arts. Our first stop was the Takashi Murakami exhibit. Then we made our way through other parts of the museum that interested us, but ooh boy was I tired by then. I kept looking at my Fitbit, and by the end of the day I was up to 20K steps.

Thankfully, our final activity for the trip involved sitting. We saw the Strauss Symphony of America at Boston Symphony Hall. The performance is inspired by Vienna's beloved New Year's Concert, conductor Michael Zehetner, soprano Jennifer Davison, tenor Matjaž Stopinšek, and dancers from Kiev-Aniko Ballet.

 

Me at the Murakami exhibit

Murakami exhibit

Regular exhibits at MFA

Strauss Symphony of America


Boston Symphony Hall selfie


Strauss Symphony of America

A successful no-kids trip to Boston!