Nebraska Summer

We've been busy in Nebraska this summer with Blake, Barbie, and our nephews. One of the first things we did was visit the Omaha Zoo. This zoo is the best one I have ever been too. Seriously. It's really cool how most of the animal enclosures are constructed to feel more open and like a natural environment. 

The giraffe area was recently renovated

The giraffes are my absolute favorite

The elephant exhibit is new to the Omaha Zoo this year

Eli found an elephant statue to ride

Cael had to try the elephant out too

The new Alaskan Adventure splash park, which is now Cael's new favorite part of the zoo

We were able to see a polar bear feeding. Oddly, it was being fed celery despite it's normal diet of seals...a seal meal is probably too gory for children's eyes. 

The brown bear was able to catch its food from a tall perch 

The tiger was roaming about hungrily. A renovation of the big cats exhibit area is next, so it will be cool to see how their space improves in the next few years. 

Of course we've had to introduce our active nephews to another sport (the best one I think) and bring them climbing. Lincoln's only climbing gym is on the University of Nebraska Lincoln (UNL) campus. With it being on a college campus, getting permission to climb had all the commonly found red tape of academia. Finding free parking on campus is also impossible. Frankly, all the hoops we had to jump through were annoying. But, thankfully the route setting is quality and we've returned several times and enjoyed ourselves. We were surprised and excited to see how well Eli and Cael did with climbing. They were much improved from when we climbed with them at our wedding celebration nearly three years ago. We're excited to return to the climbing gym with them a couple more times this month. 

Two brothers climbing side by side

Three of us climbing together

Brandon giving some bouldering tips

They're still at it! 

The boys were given skateboards for Christmas, so Brandon brought his along to do some practice with them. Lincoln also has an indoor skateboard park/school, so the boys were able to get an introductory lesson one Saturday morning. Since then they've done some more practice around the neighborhood, and we've been watching cool, professional skateboard videos on youtube. 

Learning to push off and get on the skateboard

All of the open skate/skate school participants

Skateboard practice

Mastering some skillz

Though not technically skateboarding, this is a fun way to ride too

Brandon balancing on the rail

Looking cool while practicing flip tricks

The boys have also taken some golf lessons this month. We've spent some time practicing in the backyard with wiffle golf balls, and we've been at the driving range using real golf balls. Brandon, Blake, and the boys even tried out a 3-par junior golf course. 

Driving range practice

And, finally, baseball, baseball, baseball... eating, sleeping, and breathing baseball. We've been to practices and multiple games to see the boys play. And, when we're not at a practice or game, there's usually a baseball game on TV. Although, the Royals haven't been winning since Brandon and I have arrived in Lincoln, so we may be bad luck and at risk of being kicked out of the house. Truly though it's been fun to see Eli and Cael learn the sport and play baseball. 

Cael at bat with Blake doing coach pitch

Eli up to bat

Eli pitching an inning

Batting practice

Pitching practice

Blue Blood Brewing Company

Blue Blood Brewing Company opened just over a month ago after re-locating to a newly built space in Lincoln. That new space is directly on top of the old Robber's Cave. Robber's Cave has a long history in Lincoln, Nebraska, hosting Native Americans, settlers, an old brewery, barrels of aging beer, and possibly Jesse James. People have visited legally and illegally carving their mark into the walls of the cave. Blue Blood was started by three police officers, and thus it seems fitting that such a brewery would buy and build over Robber's Cave with its history of brewing and stories of illegal activities. 

Blue Blood Brewing Company with a secret cave hidden beneath

Blue Blood gives tours of their new facility as well as the cave. On Friday night, Blake, Barbie, Brandon's dad, Brandon, and I were able to do the tour. The tour of the facilities was pretty bare bones. Unfortunately, the normal tour guide was unable to make it, and someone less schooled in the art of brewing was filling in. He was friendly though and did a lot of fact checking with Brandon after discovering his knowledge of brewing. Most people on the tour were just there for the view of the cave anyway. 

Shiny brewing equipment

Bottling area and fermenters

Our tour group crammed between the fermenters 

Barrels for aging

After the brew facility tour, we headed down a staircase to the cave. Several cement walls had been built around the cave entrance to help form a foundation for the brewery. Eventually, the brewery will store barrels full of aging beer in this area. No beer is allowed in the caves, because the liquor license doesn't extend that deep into the ground yet. That may change as early as next week and allow the brewery to host beer dinners in Robber's Cave. 

Sign leading up to the brewery entrance

Entrance to Robber's Cave

We continued through the entrance and into the first room of the cave. The tear drop ceiling of the cave indicated that it had been hollowed out by flooding years and years ago. 

The first room of the cave with the tear drop ceiling

The rest of the rooms of the cave were man-made; the pick axe marks were still visible on the ceiling. It was especially interesting to see the drawings, names, and initials present on every soft, sandy wall. Amusingly, the oldest known marking says "Drunken Miller 1888". Sadly, we weren't allowed to leave our own mark among all the others. A few people on our tour admitted to trespassing and putting their mark on the cave years ago. 
  

The caves were very well lit for the tour unlike the tea lights and flashlights that trespassers used

Listening to the history/myths of the cave

Air hole to the cave

So many inscriptions

We visited at least three large rooms of the cave, and there's still more to be explored. The brewery is hoping to continue to excavate, and perhaps they will find Jesse James' treasure of lore. They have already found a federally protected bat species and had to build a special enclosed area in the cave for them. Who knows what will be next? 

There are many more passages like this to explore

Of course, we had to sample the beer after the tour, and we decided to have dinner there as well. Brandon and I especially enjoyed their Imperial Stout and their Irish Red. Brandon ordered some delicious ahi tuna tacos and I had some equally delicious falafal naan sliders. The food was quite exceptional, and everyone was pleased with their orders. The cave, brews, food, and conversation made for a fun adult night out. 

Part of the bar area overlooks the brewing facility below

Enjoying a flight of Blue Blood brews

Ahi tuna tacos with citrus mint cabbage slaw and wasabi-avocado aioli 

An Unexpected Visit to Rochester

About a week ago I got a call that my dad was in the hospital in Rochester, MN. Luckily it wasn't anything life threatening. We knew that he was in very good hands there at the Mayo hospital. But given the flexibility of our schedules, Katie and I determined it'd be nice if we went out to be close by to help when possible and just be around to keep him company. I won't go into the personal details of what was going on with my dad, but it was nice to have some time to hangout with him when he was feeling better. And we were also able to use this opportunity to spend some time with Katie's sister and explore the city of Rochester. 

Because the trip out there was a bit last minute, I initially left Katie behind in Grand Rapids so that she could wrap up some of the things we had left to do in the area. The main thing was that we had been staying in Carolyn's house, but she was going to have an actual fully-paying renter starting mid-June. So we needed to move our stuff down to be stored in the basement. Katie had also been wrestling with a cough/cold of some sort, so this gave her time to recover a bit more.

Since we didn't know if I'd be back to Michigan with the car we did our best to pack it up with the bigger essentials for spending the next month in Nebraska with my brother and his family. The essentials in this case being golf clubs, skateboard, climbing gear, and the usual assortment of summer clothing. I left in the early evening on Sunday and drove the 8 hours to Rochester arriving in the middle of the night.

Having Carolyn to stay with in Rochester was invaluable. It not only provided me with a free easy place to stay near my dad's hospital, but it gave her and I a chance to spend some time together again. This was something I had been hoping for for several months. I had been missing her quite a bit since her move out to Rochester. Katie and I had gotten very used to her being nearby and a regular part of our climbing group and lives in general. I also just don't like change. For all intents and purposes she is now my little sister, and the protective (and somewhat selfish) side of me has had a hard time adapting to the changes happening in her life and hence our lives too. I had been wishing we could go back in time and make spending time with her in Grand Rapids or doing some traveling with her more of a priority in our early sabbatical plans. I knew early on that there would be something about how we structured our year that I'd come to regret because of missing an opportunity due to changing circumstances. So being able to spend the week with her made it feel like there was at least a very positive aspect to this last minute trip.

During the week Carolyn and I got out climbing a couple times. We had checked out one of the two climbing gyms in the area during our last visit, so it was nice to be able to check out the second place this go around. It's a newer gym called Roca. They've only been open for about 6 months. But despite their young age they had a lot of great walls and climbs to offer, and I think they'll just keep getting better as they figure out their routine. I worked my way up to be able to climb several 5.11's by the end of the week. Our second time out was especially nice since at that point Katie was able to join us. It almost felt like the good old days. 

Another highlight of the week with Carolyn was the night we tracked down some pretty tasty tacos. We found a place called Lucy's Taco. It was a food truck in an abandoned auto parts store parking lot. The parking lot also featured a bunch of slabs of granite which I assume would be used for counter tops. It was a popular spot. Most people would put in an order and then walk around the parking lot looking at the granite while they waited for their food to be made. I ordered one of every kind of taco. They weren't the most fantastic tacos I've ever had, but they were the nice and simple authentic style of taco that always hits the spot. 

Lucy's Taco on a very bright weekday evening

Six Lucy's Taco's tacos

Katie found a cheap flight through Southwest from Grand Rapids out to the Minneapolis Airport that timed out well with a couple possibilities of how the holiday weekend would go. If my dad got released before the weekend, we could potentially make our way down together to the Quad Cities per our original plan. If he got released later, she'd at least get in one night of hanging out with her sister and then we could caravan out to South Dakota before heading to Nebraska. The latter ended up being what happened.

Katie flew out Thursday morning and I drove up to Minneapolis to pick her up. Since we knew my dad wasn't going to be released that day we spent a couple extra hours up at Minneapolis exploring the Mall of America since I had never been. It was actually smaller than I thought it be, or at least less of a maze. I was imagining miles and miles of zig zagging hallways. But the circular layout made it easy to get around and cut corners if you knew where you were going.

Like I said before, we were able to get in some climbing all together that night, but then Carolyn was driving to Michigan to spend Memorial Day weekend in Grand Rapids. Katie joined me in the daily routine of swinging by and hanging out with my dad at the hospital. I showed off my knowledge of when/where there is free parking near the hospital. We would sneak in non-hospital food like soups and ice cream for my dad to eat. We'd watch tv or would just sit and chat for a while. By the end of the weekend my dad had even found a basketball hoop in one of the hospital courtyards that he'd sneak down to use as part of his rehab, so we joined him in shooting some hoops on the last night of his stay.

Dad's favorite way to rehab.
We jokingly told the nurses that once he could make 10 shots then we'd know he was healthy enough to be discharged.

Katie and I were able to get in one more afternoon of climbing during the weekend, and we pushed it hard. We climbed for almost 4 hours and both almost exclusively trying to tackle hard 5.10 and 5.11 routes. It was a great way to burn off steam from a stressful week of being mostly apart. I also got a chance to talk to one of the workers about the details of building a gym and learned that their start up cost was $1.5 million and would have been at least double that had they hired out someone else to build their walls. Looks like Katie and I won't be building our own climbing gym anytime soon.

My dad got released on Monday, so we hopped in our cars and made the fairly easy 4-ish hour drive to South Dakota. I drove my dad's fancy car while Katie followed behind in our car. We knew we were going to stay the night, so after a bit of rest we went out to get Mexican food for dinner and got some grocery shopping done. That night we again just hung out watching a movie and relaxing. Katie and I took off on Tuesday afternoon to head to Nebraska.

So that's the summary of my week in Rochester and our quick stop in South Dakota. It was really nice that there were a lot of positives and blessings in disguise mixed into what otherwise would been just a crappy week. I'm glad that I could be there for my dad. I'm really glad I got spend time with Carolyn and my dad. But I'm most especially glad that that week is behind us, my dad is doing better now, and that Katie and I are together in Nebraska onto the next adventure. 

Thanks to everyone who kept us all in your thoughts and prayers. It was very much appreciated!