Tango!!!!

Fuzzy photo, taken while driving - but I like the message. I have been trying to find more of these billboards. I have seen many, but now that I want to take pictures, I can't find them.

Dreaming....

This sculpture is on the grounds of the Joslyn Castle that I posted about recently. I feel like she is not so much looking at something, but daydreaming about faraway things or places - or maybe that's just a reflection of how I've been feeling!

Spring thunderstorms!!!

The sky was beautiful the other day during the thunderstorm! I love it when you can clearly see the dark clouds rolling in. That was the case with this storm, but in this break in the clouds you could see the sunset that was happening on the other side of the storm clouds! It was impossible to capture exactly what I was seeing, but the dark storm clouds were very much in front of the pink shining clouds. Some people complained about the thunderstorm, but I LOVE spring storms, and I'm so glad there is no more snow!!

Model airplane?

One more shot from the Air and Space Museum. The "man" in the photo is obviously an model, and it makes this shot look like it must be of a model airplane also. However, the model aviator is about 6ft tall! (quite a bit taller than me!:-) ) The plane is a real one. There are a few displays like this in the museum, where they use models to try and show what it would have been like around a certain plane back when it was actually used.

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird...

This is another shot from the Strategic Air and Space Museum. The SR-71 Blackbird is one of my favorite planes. It was used as a reconnaissance aircraft and could survey 100,000 square miles of Earth per hour at an altitude of 80,000 ft. the SR-71 broke records in both speed and altitude. According to Wikipedia, this Mach 3 aircraft, "broke the world record for its class: an absolute speed record of 2,193.1669 mph (3,529.56 km/h), and a US "absolute altitude record" of 85,068.997 feet (25,929 m)." It was also reported as going from one US coast to the other in 68 minutes and 17 seconds, and from New York to London in 1 hour 54 minutes and 56.4 seconds. My dad told us a story at the museum about the crew of one of these planes requesting clearance for 40,000 ft from an aircraft control tower. The tower told the plane, that they were cleared, but it would take them a while to get up to that altitude. The crew replied that they actually wanted to DESCEND to 40,000 ft.

loom - 1 yr anniversary

Omaha may not be known as a "party-central" town, but we do have our great parties. There is quite a variety of culture among the young people in Omaha. This photo was taken at España restaurant at the 1 year anniversary of a fun monthly gathering known as loom. As one article put it, the intention of loom is as follows:

This is not just about dancing, music and drinks. Rather, we want to create a communal experience - people coming together, using music as a mode of fellowship and release. loom is a monthly world-beat dance event with the intention of social progress. With an environment and music incorporating Latin, African and American culture, this event is geared towards an eclectic crowd with all ethnicities, religious, cultural and social backgrounds. This is about creating a sanctuary of sacred dance energy, of peace, of unification of all peoples.

It's great to such a varied group of people get together to celebrate and have a good time, regardless of whatever differences might keep them in different social circles in their daily lives.

J. Doe

This is one of many J. Does in the Omaha area. In 2001, many of these sculptures appeared around town. All were in the same basic shape, but decorated by different artists. They were on display around the city for several months. Omaha has quite a large, varied arts/music scene for its size. Many of the J. Does were purchased by their sponsors and are still on display in different places, but the rest were auctioned off as a fund raiser, with a part of the proceeds going to the City of Omaha Public Arts Commission. If you would like to see more of these works of art, (not photographed by me), you can find a link here. There was a great variety of themes among the statues. Some of my favorites were the Immigrant, Produce-R-Doe, The Sky's the Limit, As Young as You Feel, and Heart and Soul. Here is one statue that has the J. Doe Statement displayed on the bottom.
It was a great project, that really showed off the artistic and creative talents we have here in Omaha. I read somewhere that a similar project will be displayed this year, so I will be keeping my camera ready to show them off.

How many planes fit in one building?

I went with my family this past weekend to the Strategic Air and Space Museum (more commonly called the Air Force museum around here). It is an amazing place. My dad knows everything about the planes, and is the best tour guide. He is also an amazing photographer and gave me plenty of great pointers. It's hard to choose just one photo, but I like this one, because it shows most of the planes in the room....at least, more than half. And, yes, these are all the real thing!

Images of Downtown!

I was having a little fun with mosaics and decided to share. It's 60 degrees today!! I'm off to enjoy the beginning of Spring!

More birds downtown....

This is the main part of the plaza downtown that is dedicated to the wildlife of Nebraska. Today was almost WARM!!! All of the snow is gone from in front of my house, and this week I will go take some photos of Omaha sans snow.

The real birds...

So, here is the real thing. I was pretty far away. All the birds with their wings open were coming in for a landing. It was an amazing sight. I wish I could have captured that feeling on camera in a better way. This is the same lake that I posted about recently here. Part of the lake is now thawed, but I love it that the birds were walking around on the ice, almost as if they didn't realize that it's still winter, and they are not actually swimming!

More wildlife downtown??

Here is another sign of wildlife downtown!! This, along with the birds from the other day are part of a park outside that is dedicated to Nebraska Wildlife. I'll show more pictures of the park, and give more information when I have it.

The birds are back in town!!!

It seems like several of us have been feeling somewhat limited in subject matter lately. All we see around us is snow, snow, and more SNOW. While snow pictures are indeed often very beautiful, one begins to wonder what it ever felt like to hold a camera with fingers that are not shivering or frostbitten.
Well, I have good news for you (or maybe just for me) - Spring is right around the corner!!! As I was walking downtown on Sunday, camera in one freezing hand and a hot cup of coffee in the other, I walked over to the wall overlooking the lake that I have shown a couple of times. It took me a few seconds for the honking sound to register. I realized what I was hearing just as the lake came into view - it was the honking of GEESE!! The whole view of the lake was FULL of birds. They were walking around on the still-frozen area, and groups would suddenly take off, and fly around a bit in V-formation, then gracefully land together once again on the ice. It was beautiful, but my favorite part was that the birds (who are lucky enough to fly south for the whole winter) know when it's time to come back. So, I'm crossing my fingers that it means that Spring is almost here!
This great lamp post is part of a park downtown devoted to Nebraska wildlife. I'll show more pictures of the area in the next few days. I also took some pictures of the real birds, themselves, but distance kept me from getting a shot that would do justice to the view that I had - hence the lamp post stand-ins!!

A reflection of the past......

So, I'm excited that I got to be outside for a bit taking pictures on Sunday without freezing. I was walking by the Union Pacific building (I posted about UP here), and snapped this picture. The fun part is that the building in the reflection is the old UP headquarters building. The real buildings aren't quite so different in height as they appear here, but it definitely gives one a sense of the history of the company.

***UPDATE**

Ok, I did a little more research and I'm really sad!!! The area surrounding the building is blocked off (you'd think I would have figured it out), but I just read that it is scheduled for demolition this spring! I know that it is part of what is making Omaha a much more attractive and modern city, but it's a little sad. Part of what I love about the downtown area is the feeling of history. Here is a an article that gives more info on the development in Omaha for those who are interested.

Got Wax Paper????

So, I mentioned yesterday that Wax paper was a necessary item for any trip to the park downtown. Well, ta daaa!!! Here is the reason! These big slides are a blast for children of ALL ages, but they are much MORE fun when you sit on wax paper. With no friction thanks to the wax paper, we used to go down so fast that we would fly off the end - and I mean really fly....several feet....and try to not land on our rear ends. The whole pit at the bottom is sand, so it's not as hard as cement. However, I guess too many people got hurt, so they built the extensions at the bottom, which totally took half the fun away. (My generation survived the falls just fine, but you know how things change.)

Still snow - but this time in downtown!!

We are still buried in snow here, and it is verrrrry cold. Yesterday's photo was from Thursday's blizzard - Omaha had about 12 inches of snow, almost 60mph winds, and it was the first time since 1998 that a blizzard warning was issued in Omaha. Pretty amazing storm. The roads are still not the greatest, and I don't want you all to think that my balcony is the best place to take pictures in Omaha, so I will give you this picture today, that I took last week in the park in downtown. You can see a few of the downtown buildings, one of which houses the Omaha World Herald, our largest newspaper. It's hard to tell, but the lower part in the middle of the park is a lake. You can see a little island in the middle. It's frozen now, (I haven't tried skating on it yet this year, but I did as a child), but in the summer there are lots of ducks. When I was younger, we always had to make sure we had two things when we went to the park: bread for the ducks and waxed paper. Sounds weird? Tomorrow I'll show you what the waxed paper is all about.
**This picture was taken after last week's snowstorm. I can imagine what it looks like now after this past Thursday's blizzard. Click on the link for more details of the blizzard.

Snowed in.....

So, there were a few moments yesterday when I was amazed by the snow, and when I thought that it was pretty. I did NOT, however, feel that way as I tried to back out of my apartment garage and quickly got stuck in the snow in the middle of the parking lot. It took me 45 minutes to fight my way back into the garage. I trudged my way through the snow back to the house, and called work to let them know that I would be in as soon as someone plowed my parking lot.
This picture was taken at about 10:30am yesterday. The darkness can tell you a little about how bad the blizzard was. And there was no fog - all of that is blowing snow!
When I am able to drive around freely again, I promise more pictures of Omaha that do not include snow!