Launching from Omaha

Here I sit, 30,000 feet above the earth on my return flight from Omaha to Seattle.

My mind is particularly thoughtful having just listened to episode 65 of the podcast Twenty Thousand Hertz. The episode looked at, or rather listened to, the tracks recorded onto the golden records for Voyagers 1 and 2.

(Side Note: I highly, highly recommend subscribing to this podcast if you love listening to music, birdsong, and anything else sound-related. Their tagline is: “The stories behind the world’s most recognizable and interesting sounds.” So good.)

You may recall these space probes were launched in the late 70s by NASA to be used for space exploration to the outer planets of our solar system. The scientists who designed and built those probes believed this to be an opportunity to also create a message for potential “neighbors” beyond our solar system, so they created a 90-minute record filled with sounds and music from our planet as a way of introducing ourselves around the universe.

Sentimental Parallels

Call me sentimental, but I can’t help making parallels between the missions of Voyagers 1 and 2 and the graduation I’ve just celebrated with my 18-year-old twin nieces. Here they are, standing on the threshold of childhood and adulthood. They’re chomping at the bit to launch out into that wide world which beckons, as it did (and does) with all of us to some degree. To the world, these young women represent the life, the memories, the lessons taught them by their parents, extended family, teachers, and young friends. Off they go, out into the universe, to meet new friends and write their own histories.

Connecting Universes

Happily, my explorations of the world did not stop at 18. I bet yours didn’t either. In fact, I know many of you are widely traveled and broad-minded.

In my own small way, I continue to explore the world and make new discoveries. This past weekend, not only did I witness the launch of my nieces into the wider world, I got to boldly go where I had never gone before–Omaha, Nebraska!

Somehow I feel as if that landed like a dud. 

OMAHA…NEBRASKA????

Where The Beeper People are still trying to sell
“Beepers That Work”????

Yes–THAT Omaha, Nebraska. It is quite possibly the least alien place in the universe.

And that’s okay. Not everybody has to be exotic. There is a time and place for everything under the sun and Omaha is important for what it is: a slower pace, cheaper housing, easy to navigate kind of place.

Food and Railroads

It occurred to me on the flight down that I not only had never been to Omaha but I knew nothing about it. I had no idea who had settled there or what the history was. So, Hubby and I decided to take a walking tour of the historic Old Town Market, where Omaha got its start as a settlement.

I should point out the fact that the Omaha people–people native to the area–had settled there hundreds, perhaps thousands of years before. The history this tour covered dates back to around the Civil War in the United States when settlers bought the land from the Omaha people.

According to our guide from Nebraska Tour Company, Omaha was formed as the crossroads to everywhere else. Whether you’re talking about farmers or “jobbers” or railroaders and the people who serve those industries, Omaha was and sort of still is, a place in between the goods and the people who buy them, especially when it comes to food.

The Old Market is what is left of old town Omaha. Thanks to some long-sighted people, places like the one seen below weren’t torn down during the “parking structures are king” era in the 1970s.

Those same long-sighted people made room for artists and musicians to take up residence in the old buildings downtown. This kept the buildings alive while bringing in some much-needed culture to the city. As a result, you can go through an art gallery into an enclosed garden to discover this:

Film Art in Omaha

Of course, art takes lots of different forms and in 2017, an old 1925 theater was rescued and renovated by the nonprofit Film Streams to be one of their two main locations where they work to “enhance the cultural environment” of Omaha and the surrounding areas “through the presentation and discussion of film as an art form.”

Hubby and I saw an independent film in that renovated, simply gorgeous Film Streams Dundee Theater. Just look at those beautiful blue velvet chairs behind us!

As for Fashion….

Fashion in Omaha is tough. Not because Omaha can’t be fashionable, but because the weather changes so fast. One minute the wind blows in arctic temperatures, the next it’s pouring rain, and the next it’s hot and sticky.

I thought I had planned well for this trip by taking layers, but I missed the mark on just how many layers I needed. According to my weather app, it was supposed to be warm and muggy. So, I packed cropped pants and lighter-weight tops to be layered with a light jacket, if needed. But it turned out to be cold and rainy! I needed longer pants and heavier tops. As a result, I pretty much wore the same thing everyday, i.e., my floral WAYF baseball jacket seen below.

For the graduation party, I wore the cropped pants and short-sleeve sweater I had planned. As soon as we got back to the hotel, though, I changed into long jeans. (Sorry for the poor photo below. It’s the only one I have of any outfits I wore that weekend.)

Cute Hubby brought his long jeans and t-shirts, along with a fleece jacket and a rain jacket. Like me, he wore the fleece jacket all weekend.

Last Thoughts on Omaha

From everything I can tell, Omaha is a great place to live for people looking for a very specific lifestyle. Given its history with the beef industry and processed foods, it isn’t an easy place for vegetarians/vegans like my husband and me. However, the popularity of the only vegan restaurant, Modern Love, gives me hope for more choices next time.

But will I visit again? Perhaps when my nieces graduate from college or when/if they get married there. Other than that, I feel like I did all I needed to do on this crossroads to everywhere else. Omaha seems to be to the Midwest what Cape Canaveral is to NASA–a good place from which to launch out into the rest of the world.

Outfit Details

My striped sweater and plaid cropped pants are thrift finds from ThredUP. The floral jacket is an oldie by WAYF. I bought it several years ago at Nordstrom in Seattle. The vegan crossbody bag is from local Seattle handbag designer, John Met Betty, available on Etsy here. And my rose gold metallic oxford sneaker shoes are by Cole Haan.

Hubby wore his blue ALL LOVE t-shirt and a fleece jacket. He bought the t-shirt several years ago at a grocery store(!) just before Seattle’s PRIDE celebrations. (Similar sentiment tee here.) The fleece jacket is super old from Lands End.

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