Those Wild Animals, And Zoo Animals Too!

We went to the Omaha zoo last weekend for my company picnic.  I heard lots of great things about it.  So, I had high expectations.  

WTF were we thinking?  Seriously.  It was a Saturday, of all days to go.  And the very Saturday before most kids went back to school nonetheless.  At least it was a mild day in the upper 80s, I believe.  But still.  It's been a long time since I have been to a zoo.  I love animals.  More than most people, if I'm totally being honest.  No offense.  So I thought it would be great.  

I do have to admit that I have a hangup about most zoos.  Caging animals make me sad.  But then I think of the situation like the 3 legged big cat, who would have died if the zoo hadn't taken her (and she has had at least 3 litters, so how awesome is that?).  So that makes me happy.  And I think, surely marine critters are "happy" because water is water and they are safe.  But I wonder, how bored are they really?  Swimming around in the same circle probably does get old.

The Omaha zoo has an aquarium, so I thought at least that would be neat to see, and I will not be sad to look at those animals.  Penguins are hysterical to watch.  I think you could have two of them in a box and they would entertain one another.  So I thought that would be fun.

Think again.

About 3pm, every person in that zoo under the age of 10 had a catastrophic melt down.  I'm not kidding.  And I was a witness To. It. All.  It was not a pretty sight.  We had 4pm tickets to see the 3D Imax film called Kenya.  It was OK.  I kept dosing off because I too *needed* a nap.

Anyway, we tried to hit the aquarium an hour before the movie, and that just wasn't going to happen.  Mid-afternoon is peak time for visitors to any attraction.  Note to self: remember that next time.  We walked into the building and peeked at the puffins.  We turned around and I swear every stroller sold in the US was in that lobby accompanied by every adult owner and kid in tow.  I suddenly felt claustrophobic in an uncontrollable sense.  I knew the aisles to maneuver through the exhibit would be narrow and dark at times because we had just visited the Desert dome.  I felt like salmon swimming upstream to spawn as I walked back OUT of the one-way-only crowd to get the heck out of there.  

Never again.

But we did have a GREAT time in Omaha.  Holy cow town, that city is FUN!  We stayed at the Hilton, which was the newest & biggest hotel, and it's in the downtown area.   There were SO MANY restaurants and shops within walking distance.  It was amazing!  We can't wait to go back.  But we'll skip the zoo, thank you very much.

Highlights of the weekend include seeing an aardvark dig a hole (highlight of the zoo experience by far, that hole was cool).  They leashed this guy like a dog!  They bring him or his buddy out on Wed. and Sat. afternoons, because "they like to dig".  That is pretty neat!

The dirt was flying out of that hole!

This Aardvark didn't want to leave his hole-digging adventure

 

Leashed for a walk, just like a dog

This guy was BIG

I didn't take a picture of the actual hole, but it was pretty large and he was starting to curve around in the hole so pulling him out, if the leash had been any longer would have been more difficult.  Can you imagine if he had gotten free?  He would have tunneled his way right out of there.


Did you know, and aardvark is not closely related to an anteater although they look alike?  They naturally live on different continents.  I learned that tidbit from the lady announcing what was happening.  So at least I learned something.

Spots on a giraffe are like finger prints... no two are alike.  I learned that, too.

See all those people?!?

Cool birds with a funny name, but sadly I don't remember it

This little guy looked pissed off

Cute little things, whatever they were

Snapping box turtles, I believe

LOVE this guy

Burrowing owl--he was actually trying to burrow under the shavings on the ground

hoot hoot

beep beep

Massive desert tortoise, he was massive

So most of our pics are from the Desert Dome, go figure.

And now for the BEST THING I EVER ATE in Omaha, we learned about this place on an episode of Shark Tank. eCreamery is the best ice cream, I think I've ever eaten in my life.  It was AMAZING.  Todd, who does not have an affection for sweets, got a dip and LOVED it too!  It will make non-sweets-loving people into ice cream fans, this stuff is THAT good.

I was giddy with anticipation as we found the store.

My cone: Cherry Cheesecake on the bottom; S'mores on the top.

So happy to finally have it!

Fun ice cream bars too!

I went in expecting to love the Sea Salt Caramel with Chocolate-Covered Pretzels flavor and I tried it.  But the pretzels were chewy and the texture left me scratching my head.  The sea salt caramel ice cream was good, but I didn't care for the pretzels.  

So I tried the Cherry Cheesecake and instantly loved it.  The cheesecake flavored ice cream was dreamy, and the tartness of the cherries positively made me happy in contrast to the sweet cream.  There was a bit too much graham cracker chunks for me, but I could easily pull them out.  

The other flavor I decided on without even trying was S'mores.  That day happened to be National S'mores Day, so it was like an omen.  When I ordered that flavor, the guy behind the counter said that was the staff favorite flavor.  It is marshmallow flavored ice cream with graham crackers and chocolate chunks.  The graham crackers were even dispersed throughout and very "mixed in" so I actually liked that part.  The chocolate chunks were nice because they weren't too big and did melt in my mouth when I was eating it, in contrast to the cold cream.  VERY, VERY good stuff.  This is what Todd got a scoop of too, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

So if you ever find yourself in Omaha, you gotta try the place.  You will be happy you did.

I'll blog later about our dinner and shopping the next day.  Just wait and see what we bought.

Awwww, The Dog Days Of Summer

Howdy!  How's it going?  How ya doin'?  Anybody out there?

I think everyone is too busy to blog.  It seems like even regular bloggers out there have turned it down a few notches.  The flame has fizzled.  But I still think about you... 

So, the pups are 9 months old now.  Can you believe that?  I can.  Every time I look at their size, I am amazed.  They look like 1 year olds to me, who happen to act like 6 month olds....  They are really testing us these days.  But good thing they are cute, because even after all the I-Can't-Hear-You, and rebel rousing they do, we still love 'em.  

Here are some pics from when we visited a really great friend who loves dogs.  Loves 'em so much, he adopted Yoda and opened his pool to any fur-bodies who wanted to jump in.  We went over to his house about a month ago...

Joey got in.  Jessie looked on... from afar.

Keystone was tuckered out after his swim.

Jessie looking innocent

Joey looking all field stock.

Keystone LOVED the pool!

Yoda is not a swimmer, but she is a lover.

More posts to come soon from more recent events.

Oh yea, and Tullybird is coming to visit us in just a few weeks!!!!  I'm so excited.
 

Savory & Sweet

I wonder what the deal is with the "chicken & waffles" craze of late?

I've had the real deal twice in my life. The first time was in Vega$, June 2011 at B.B. King's Blues Club for breakfast before flying home. The last time was at M&M's Fish & Chicken Shack in Sparks and their waffles were great! I believe there was a cornmeal taste to them. Loved it, even if I had to pick the chicken wings apart. There's nothing like being one with your food. I thoroughly enjoyed both times, actually. 

B.B. King's chicken and waffles, great for the morning after you partake liberally

Todd got a bag of Lay's Chicken & Waffles flavored potato chips. OMG, they are so addictive! Generally speaking, I prefer sweet to savory, so chips are usually not my downfall, but daaaang these are goooood. It's such a strange combination that I keep wanting to eat them to make sure my mouth isn't lying to my brain. The maple flavor is subtle but distinctively there. I told him not to buy another bag, because I can't resist them.

And by the way, he bought the cheesy garlic bread flavored chips to, and my thoughts on those are:  Meh.  They are OK. Totally resistible. The person who suggested the Chicken & Waffles flavor got totally ripped off in that contest. But I understand if you don't agree.  If you don't like maple, you would probably hate them.

Next up, thanks to social media, I heavily anticipated Popeye's special promotion of their Chicken Waffle Tenders. Thank you, Popeye's. Thank you for dreaming up such a creative approach to chicken tenders.

I remember the first time I "experienced" creative chicken tenders. It had to be almost 20 years ago when Todd and I loved visiting Chicago on at least an annual basis to eat and shop. We went to Planet Hollywood and had their Captain Crunch chicken fingers. They were divine. I've had them again since then, and the magic is gone, now replaced with low-quality mass-produced sub-par frozen-fried chicken strips. I guess they got so popular that they decided to cut costs and go with a cheap version. I will prefer to keep my memories of the first time we had them.

Anyway, back to Popeye's. We went on a little adventure today to find them because Todd knew how much I wanted to try them, and after all, they are only here for a limited time.

The crust is light, crunchy, crispy, slightly sweet and tasty. We waited two minutes, happily, for fresh waffle tenders to be up in the window. I did not care for the maple dipping sauce at all. It was thick and chemically smelling with a sweet taste of nothingness so I skipped the sauce. Our tenders were accompanied by steaming hot mashed potatoes with Cajun gravy. I do not want to know what's in that gravy. It's SO ugly with unidentifiable components. But that's OK because I wanted to eat it and taste it, not look at it.

Popeye's Chick Waffle Tenders, MMMmmmmm!

It was worth driving an hour for lunch to try these. I don't think I will do it again, but now that I've had them, my curiosity is satisfied. And so is my tummy.

RIP Schoep

I follow Schoep and John on FaceBook.  I am so saddened to see that Schoep passed away yesterday.  I have actually bawled my head off for the past 15 minutes.  I've never met the beautiful pooch, so I don't know why it hit me so hard and so personally.  I think it brings back memories of Amber.  You see, Schoep has had physical struggles that he has overcome.  I was really cheering for him, because he's a survivor.  Anytime I see an aging dog do well, it warms my heart.  Schoep warmed my heart.

I so wanted Amber to survive her physical struggles.  But she didn't.  Now John feels the loss I've felt.  Too many times.  Loosing a furry family member is so hard.  It's because they love so intensely and unconditionally.  And I hope I was worthy.

Prost!

I traveled for work last week to attend training in Vienna, Austria.  It was an exhausting, very long trip filled with working during the day and part of some of the evenings.  I did get to do a few fun things.  Here's a recap of the non-work stuff.

We stayed up when we got there and visited the Schonbrunn Palace but everyone refers to it as a castle.  I would call it a museum before I would call it a castle.  It is one of the most popular attractions to go see, so I didn't want to miss it.  I had forgotten how much I dislike the Rococo period.  We took a self-guided tour, the kind where you hold up the recording to your ear after you punch in the number of the room you are looking at to hear a voice tell you about who's bedroom you're in.  

My observations:  you have to walk through many bedrooms to get to the dining room or even outside.  You walked from room to room, but there were no hallways.  How awkward would that be?  Don't mind me, brother, I'm just going outside...  Also, Maria Theresa had some ugly kids.  Lots of ugly kids.

We walked through the main part of the gardens and hiked up the hill to the Gloriette.  That was my favorite part (and it was free).  My recommendation to the common visitor, unless you are very cultural, live for visiting museums, and love the Rococo period, skip the tour and head for the gardens.  And wear walking shoes or don't bitch about your feet hurting.  It's your choice.

The view of the gardens from the back of the "Castle"

We could have walked through the tree covered trails.  Would be a great place to run.

Water fountain

Side view of the fountain

The view from the back of the fountain.

The city view from the Gloriette

There was a restaurant in the Gloriette. Glad we didn't eat there because I would never be able to choose.

The back of the "Castle"

Enough of the cultural stuff.

How often do you see a phone booth?

For dinner the first night, I had no idea what I was ordering.  Trying to find something to drink in a foreign country is not a challenge I enjoyed.  So I often settled for "still water" as opposed to sparkling "moving" water.  I know, how boring.  But YOU try to find something on a menu you can't understand.  Even the English menus left much to be desired.

I wanted something like a sprite and the waiter recommended Almdudler.  It tastes like gingerale and it was good.  The only ice I saw all week was when my coworkers ordered bottled tea.  There would be like 3 cubes in the glass, maybe.  These little glasses were common.  I consider them the size of an American juice glass.  This is how much water you get if you order tap water too (if your waiter/waitress understands what "tap" water means).  I don't know how they stay hydrated. Oh yea, they know how to decipher the beer/wine menus.

Almdudler was like gingerale

My coworkers dish--meat, sour kraut, bread.  Can't remember what they call this.

My other coworkers dish--salmon on pasta with leek sauce.  Wish I had gotten this!

Chicken smothered in a mushroom sauce--it was very good although greasy

My dessert--some kind of dumpling

Plum jelly was inside the dumplings covered with buttered bread crumbs--it was OK

Monday evening we had a group dinner planned.  I have to say this was my favorite part of the trip.  My Viennese coworkers were so entertaining and helpful with food and drink suggestions and I personally enjoyed their company.  We went to a "bier garten".  I learned their way of saying cheers is "Prost"!
 

My schnitzel, cold potato salad, and Murauer beer.  Loved it all!!!

My coworkers pork medallions look of Brazilian influence to me, yummy

My dessert:  hot plum liquor with cream.  AMAZING!

Various desserts.  The bottom one is broken up pancakes.

Ice cream with hot raspberry sauce is called "hot love" --snicker--

Tuesday we visited St. Stephen's Cathedral.  There was a service being held (on a Tuesday--I have no idea what service it was?).  I was surprised that we could still walk in and look around.  The building was beautiful.

What we saw when walking in and looking back

Very large organ

 

I didn't notice the clock until after dinner

We walked around to find a place to eat.  Saw this line up of horse drawn carriages outside the Cathedral.

Saw this beautiful display at a store that was closed.  So many shops close early.  The only shopping I could do was at the airport on my trip home.  So sad.

It was probably best they were closed, at least for my wallet's sake

We found a pizzeria.  Because who doesn't like Italian food?  I spotted the misters on the umbrellas and thought maybe it would literally be a cool place to eat.  Italian was one kind of food we could all agree upon.  We went to Ristorante Fratelli.

My dish

I had fresh pasta ravioli's filled with meat.  I have no idea what kind of meat it was.  I think they spelled it "meet" on the menu and I wasn't about to ask our waiter what kind of meat it would be.  We saw "rocket" as an ingredient several times on the menu and asked him.  He probably muttered "stupid Americans" in Italian, for all I know.  Language was a barrier that night.  But pointing at the menu helped.  I had a lovely large bottle of still water.  I would have killed for a nice glass of red wine.  Ha.

The sauce was a cream mushroom sauce and it was divine.  Honestly, I like my pasta done just a little more than al dente, especially fresh pasta, and this was cooked perfectly al dente so I was hoping for less toothiness.  But the sauce made the ravioli so wonderful, I got over it quickly.  This was a great dish, but I was still hungry when I was done licking my plate as there were only 5 or 6 ravioli's.  Luckily we went for dessert.  

The tall display of cones was mesmerizing, and the case was filled with wondrous delights

Wednesday evening brought another group dinner.  We went to an amusement park called Prater.  Unfortunately we did not have time to walk around the amusement park.  I wanted to see the arcades and look at the pinball machines.  I hear there were a couple of arcades with machines there.  But we had a long business dinner, so it wasn't meant to be.  Fortunately we showed up 20 minutes early and got to see in person the tallest swing I've ever seen located very close to the restaurant at which we were dining.  Who isn't up for a little adventure? 

Looks sooooooooo tall!

 Fortunately we had time to take a ride.  I am so glad we had time to do this.

I was ready for a nice breeze

Going up!

I'm the one with legs straight out, I don't know why

I have a Volken death grip on the chains

This was the only view of the countryside I got besides the flight when we took off.  There were a lot of trees, but I didn't see the rolling countryside that I expected.  That is probably because I was pretty much stuck in the city, maybe.  Except for the attractions we visited, we really could have been in any large city in the USA.  Only we had better food in my opinion.  I love Austrian food!  I just need a local with me to help decide what to order.

Old fashioned carousel drawn by horses at Prater

We tried to go to Schweizerhaus but they were completely full, so we went to a restaurant next door that had the same kitchen, Luftburg.  If you look here my coworker ordered the pork/ham on the main page.  It looked amazing but he was on the opposite end of the table so I couldn't get a picture (I died a little inside at the realization of this fact).  But, he shared part of his pig with me!  I LOVED EVERY BITE.  The skin was crunchy and tasty.  It melted in my mouth like bacon fat should.  The meat was so tender and juicy, just like perfectly cooked ham should taste.  I ate it with shredded horseradish and German mustard.  They also serve it with cabbage (they called it coleslaw, but looked like dry cabbage to me, I didn't get any of it but wished I was sitting right next to the local who was willing to share).  

Awesome pork

Mascarpone lemon vodka ice cream with kiwi fruit.  BEST DESSERT EVER!

I drank a local beer called Raschhofer.  It reminded me of a pale ale, but I have no idea what it really was, or which kind of Raschhofer I had.  My coworker suggested a Budweiser.  I just couldn't do it.  I just couldn't.

Nice beer to sip on a patio while being eaten alive by mosquitoes

I have a few more pics, but I believe I have reached my attachment limit.  Or computer squirrels are swallowing my pics as I try to upload them.  I will include in a future post. 

Various thoughts on my trip:

Ever look at Yelp for a restaurant and all the reviews are in German?  Yea, real helpful.  At least the star rating is a universal symbol.  Not that I could actually find the restaurant anyway.

Sweating my balls off in the back of a taxi was something I endured commonly.  Why drivers don't consider the people in the back are SUFFERING HEAT STROKE, I will never understand.  But a little juice glass of water later, and all is well, no?

Fortunately, I had a window seat on the way back.  I was supposed to have one on the way there, but they reassigned my seat 3 times, and I had an aisle going over.  On the way home, we flew over different continents and I could actually see land.  Over Greenland, I saw snow!

I saw sunflower fields on the way to the Vienna airport.  They were so gorgeous.

Staples are brass colored there.  They would probably think our silver staples are weird.

Traveling in coach sucks.  There is no other way to put it.  It's brutal.  My whole schedule was messed up the entire week because I did not sleep the entire way there (or back), and then I forced myself to stay up so that I would acclimate once in Vienna (and at home once I got back).  

Girlfriends who want to travel Europe when you retire:  have fun.  It's not for me, and honestly I never thought it would be.  I'd rather tent camp without an airbed-on-stilts than fly over the big pond.  My back would feel the same.  My total travel time back on Friday from the time I left the hotel to the time I arrived home was 18 hours in duration, and I caught an earlier flight for my last leg home. 

Prost to being home!