Omaha, Nebraska- Mother's Day

I just received some beautiful hydrangeas from a friend of mine here in St.Louis, so pardon me if I show them off. I will also say that they are a tribute to all the wonderful women in our readership who celebrated Mother's Day on Sunday. We honored the day by touring Omaha. The city does have many interesting places to visit, however, we only had Sunday to see a few of them. John and I do think that someday we will have to come back to complete our tour of  this city, which is the largest municipality in Nebraska. The state can claim one president as its own, and that is the 38th President Gerald Ford. He was born in Omaha in 1913 and stayed here only for the first 16 days of his life. His grandparents home, where he lived, is not around anymore. But on the site is a scale model replica of the original house. The Betty Ford Rose Garden also marks the home site. All of the gardens on the grounds, in addition to some stately Grecian columns,  were designed to suggest two residences of President Ford- that of his birth home as well as that of the White House.

From there we drove to the riverfront of the city. The skyline and riverfront of Omaha has certainly been revitalized since the last time we spent any appreciable time in the city. In 2008 the Bob Kerry Pedestrian bridge was built over the Missouri River. The 3,000 foot bridge connects Omaha and Council Bluffs, Iowa.

 The lights on the bridge were paid for by Gallup, which has its corporate headquarters and university on the river adjacent to Miller's Landing in the Port of Omaha. Also adjacent to the riverfront is the corporate headquarters of Con Agra Foods. We spent the rest of our afternoon walking around a park built by that company,  called Heartland of America. A mama goose reminded us what the day was all about (Mother's Day) as she sat faithfully on her nest near a lake in that park. Despite many people passing close to her on the lakeside trail she remained unruffled and sat very sedately on her eggs.