Cross Country – Tacoma to Naples (12)

To Salt Lake City, UT, to Denver, CO, area to Omaha, NE

From Jackson it was a fairly long day’s drive to Salt Lake City (“SLC”), where we were staying at Tom’s home, Steve’s very long time friend’s home along with another of their friends, Jerry. And, although the drive was long, it was a scenic drive with fall colors bursting forth.

Sharing the Salt Lake City experience is a bit more challenging as I was told “what happens in Salt Lake City stays in Salt Lake City.” Somehow, listening to three “mature” men discuss their times together didn’t seem to offer much challenge in not sharing their ramblings. However, as the evenings progressed and with them forgetting that I was even there, there was plenty that is probably best not shared! Listening to them, I have to admit it was easy to forget that these were accomplished men (Jerry is a landscape architect and Tom is a geothermal engineer). Steve and Tom grew up next door to each other at the early age of one year old. Jerry did not come into the picture until junior high school. With that many years together, there was lots of reminiscing.

Tom lives on a hill above Salt Lake City, so, each evening we enjoyed the shimmering lights of the city. With a good roadway system, it was an easy drive to Salt Lake City proper, where we enjoyed several meals at popular local restaurants, to include the Porcupine Pub & Grille, the Red Iguana and The Park Cafe. And, although we associate Salt Lake City with the Mormon Church (Latter-Day Saints), only about half of the population of SLC now are Mormons. The city is surrounded by mountains and well known for their nearby ski areas, the best being Park City, Alta, Snowbird, Deer Valley and Brighton.

And, I couldn’t leave the Salt Lake City area without sharing a picture of the three amigos:

From Salt Lake City it was on to the Denver, Colorado, suburb of Castle Rock to spend a few days with friends, Marty and Darlene who we have known for 40+ years and had not seen for 20+ years. Between having relatives who lived in Denver and having owned a condo at Copper Mountain, we were very familiar with the area and therefore focused on spending our time with Marty and Darlene rather than any sightseeing. They did introduce us to a wonderful restaurant called YaYas Euro Bistro in Greenwood Village. They also organized a dinner with other friends with whom Steve had been in the insurance industry whom we also had not seen in many, many years. We were truly sorry to leave as we enjoyed out time with them so much!

From the Denver area it was on to Kearney, Nebraska, just to spend the night. After all the mountain driving, we enjoyed the flatness of the Nebraska terrain and the generous speed limits. Kearney did offer a good local restaurant called the Alley Rose located in Kearney’s “quaint downtown.”

I have to share a picture of the cups offered by the hotel in Kearney:

And, on to Omaha, Nebraska, where we lived for four years a long time ago. . .1979-1983. The city has essentially doubled in size since we lived here as the population is now close to a 1,000,000 people. Although Omaha is the largest city in Nebraska, Lincoln is the capital city. Omaha is located on the Missouri River close to the Iowa border. It was a stop on the Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail and it known for its pioneer history and museums (we used to attend the “Bagels and Bach” events at the Joslyn Art Museum). Nearby the Offutt Air Force Base houses the Strategic Air Command Headquarters & Command Center.

To provide a bit of personal history, Omaha is where Steve managed his first insurance agency for Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company, and, so, we had tremendous exposure to the city and its people. We were among the youngest people to live in our neighborhood (yes, we drove by our house, which still looks quite good!), and, we immensely enjoyed our time here. . .it helped that there were always parties! Omaha is known for its steakhouses, and, we did have dinner at Mahogany, a very good steak house, with the second agent Steve hired in Omaha and his wife. Steve and he stayed in touch over all these years. He became extremely successful, and, it was a joy to spend the evening with him and his wife, getting all the details of their lives filled in! As an aside, Mahogany was located in what was cornfields when we lived here!

We are staying downtown at the Magnolia Hotel. The boutique hotel was originally the Aquila Court Building, built in 1923. It was designed to mimic a palace in Florence, Italy, and was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. It is well located to the Old Market area of Omaha where many restaurants and shops can be found, and, where we are eating dinner this evening. Although the Old Market area existed when we lived here, it has been much developed since then along with lots of changes in the downtown area.

To end our stay in Omaha, we had dinner at M’s Pub in the Old Market area, just a half mile from our hotel. We could not have had a better ending to our Omaha stay.