Grant had expressed an interest in "going to the zoo", as kids do in his books and videos. There are no little local zoos, but the Henry Doorley Zoo in Omaha has a first rate reputation, so I checked it out. I was going to take him during the week, to avoid crowds, and right after school ended so it'd be cooler. While looking at the Zoo's website, I learned that they have a steam train that goes through the zoo. Well, if you know anything about Our Boy, you know how much he loves trains. Unfortunately, the trains only run on weekends during the off-season. So I delayed the trip 'til just after Memorial Day. Why so much planning just to go to the zoo, you ask? Omaha is three hours from here, and the zoo closes at 5pm each day (which I think is dumb). My plan: to leave here early-ish in the morning, go to the zoo, stay in a cheapie hotel overnight, go back to the zoo the next day (it's huge), then drive home that night. No rushing around, time to see everything at a child's pace; lovely. Here are LOTS of pics from the outing. (Due to several requests, there are a couple pics of me included...)

As it turned out, the train was as much a curse as a blessing... Once he learned of a train, Grant didn't want to do anything but ride it. I spaced a few rides through the day, but it was constantly on his mind. I wanted him (and me!) to see the animals!

As we were leaving the zoo, I thought of a "terrific" idea for dinner: Chuck E. Cheese's! This sounds odd, but Grant has never been to ChuckE's. The only one in the state is in Omaha. So, I thought I would give him an extra treat. Again, blessing/curse: if you ask him his favorite part of our Adventure, he would say "We went to Chuck E. Cheese's!!". Here he is, all a-bliss:

A note on the hotel. Grant was fascinated with the whole idea. We checked in before dinner, and brought in our bags. When we were leaving, he was concerned that someone would take his cars that were on the bed. I explained to him that we had paid money for this to be our little house for one night. "This is like our own little house? This is our sink? No one is going to come in. For today, this is our dresser? This is OUR house today!" He liked the concept.

Back to the Zoo: Day Two. Well, as idyllic and charming as day one was, that is how terrible was Day Two. It started okay, Grant woke on his own despite a late night, and we went down to a surprisingly nice continental breakfast. There were some reports if incoming severe storms on TV, but I was more focused on getting a hearty breakfast into the boy. After eating, he says "Let's go back up and take a little nap." Should have been a warning sign. But I thought he was just still enamored with the room, and moved blithely onward. (Although a nap sounded good, I was feeling a little grumpy and crampy.) Somewhere during the 15 minute drive from the hotel to the zoo, our sweet, pliant boy was replaced with a surly, whining, short-tempered little person I had never met. Uh. He just didn't want to see any animals, didn't want to walk or sit down, burst into actual tears when we missed the train (even when I told him we could take the next one), just had a very bad day. I was no help, and we fed off each other. There were nice times mixed in between the difficulties, and pics are below.

The Zoo has an IMAX theatre, so I took Grant to his first movie in a theatre. He was amazed and thrilled for about four minutes, then he fell asleep. It had been a long two days. You can see the glaze in his eyes, even through the 3D glasses!

After an exceedingly long day, my mouth was watering for what I had been told is "the best Mexican food in Omaha". It's been SO long since I've had good ethnic food of any type. But I took a look at Grant, and knew that even if we went, it would not be the relaxing, peaceful dinner I had been anticipating. So we headed for home.

All went unremarkably until we reached our highway exit. Up until then, there had been smatterings of rain, and some wind. After we pulled through the first town, we were hit by an incredible storm. Not only could I not see the lines on the road, I couldn't see the road at all. The wind tried hard to push us off the road. The Civic was hydroplaning where there weren't visible puddles, and I could feel the water slapping the underside of the little car. I could see the weed growth on the side of the road, and used that to navigate as we inched along. I've driven in some really nasty conditions before, and this was right up there with the worst of them. Grant was completely quiet the entire time; I thought he had fallen asleep. As we began to pull through the worst of it, I noticed a vehicle parked on a side road, as if it were going to pull onto the road I was driving. Looked like someone setting a speed trap or something! Another mile or so along there was another sturdy vehicle stationed on a side road. I thought perhaps they were blocking roads that were impassable. Then a sherriff's truck, parked the same way. Odd. Only when we reached home did I learn that a tornado had touched down at a gas station that we drove by about 8 minutes earlier. The vehicles alongside the main road were tornado spotters.

It was really good to be home.