Monday morning we left Chicago. Our first stop was the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site in Iowa. In September 2021 we visited Iowa for the first time. Nadia never wanted to return to the state because first of all that is where I broke my ankle and secondly because when we went on that hike there were a LOT of mosquitoes. Thankfully, no one was injured or bit by a mosquito when we visited Herbert Hoover's birthplace. The kids each earned a Junior Ranger badge. We typically don't eat lunch when we are on vacation, but I had packed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at Wendy's home for the three of us who eat them prior to leaving that morning. However, because we were planning on having what for us would be a late dinner, I decided we'd stop at Culver's for a treat in between our stop in Iowa and Omaha. We had never been to a Culver's before and wanted to try their cheese curds and frozen custard. We did enjoy the treat, but I was in a bit of sticker shock over how much it costs to stop and get ice cream for five people although it was less than 1/2 of what it would cost if we got ice cream in San Francisco. We didn't leave Chicago as promptly as I had hoped, and our first stop for gas took a bit longer than expected. Altogether we were a little over an hour behind schedule by the time we arrived at the zoo in Omaha. It's a large zoo. The primate building was closed due to repairs on the roof, but we really enjoyed the first building that we visited. The first animal we saw was a bat eared fox. I discovered that beavers are a lot bigger than I had imagined them to be. The zoo is technically open until 6pm, but it turns out that some parts close at 5pm, and since we didn't know that we didn't plan accordingly. We weren't able to see everything due to the fact that we were there from 4:15-6:00, but we still had a good visit. Originally, I had planned for us to walk across a pedestrian bridge in Omaha, but that had been scratched from the plans somewhere along the way. We had dinner at Applebee's and spent the night at a hotel in Lincoln, Nebraska. Paul and Oliver spent an hour swimming in the indoor pool. I usually have trouble sleeping in other beds due to my back, but I was spoiled in Chicago because Drayton let Paul and I sleep in his bed which has a memory foam mattress. The mattress at the hotel in Lincoln was particularly awful for my back.
Tuesday morning we got up early because we thought we were going to explore the Homestead National Park in Beatrice, Nebraska when it first opened. Unfortunately, when we arrived we were informed that local law enforcement had put them under lockdown. We explored the outside area a little bit and then waited in our van for a little while in the hopes that the lockdown would be lifted in the very near future. At one point we decided to abandon our hope of entering the building and started our drive to Topeka. The park ranger called us a little before 10am to inform us the lockdown had been lifted, but we were already en route to Kansas. She felt badly that we had come all the way from Pennsylvania and weren't able to enter the buildings, so she said she'd mail us our junior ranger booklets, badges, and such. We have been collecting magnets for our refrigerator and wanted to have at least one per state. We didn't buy one at the Omaha Zoo because we planned to get it at the National Park instead so we won't have a magnet for our refrigerator from Nebraska, but we will have a photo from the state to use for our large map that is on the wall of our family room. I looked online this morning, and it turned out the "tip" that law enforcement had been given was bogus. Our one other unpleasant experience in Nebraska happened at the gas station in Beatrice. We discovered that they charged an extra 60 cents per gallon if you pay with a credit card. I've had to pay a little more a few other times (ex. on Long Island) but never anywhere near 60 cents per gallon!!! I wish we had been able to wait until we were in Kansas to get gas. We don't carry around enough cash to use cash to pay for our gas.
Because we arrived in Topeka earlier than planned, we added in a visit to the Topeka Zoo. Because we have an AZA membership, we get in 50% off at most zoos and get in free at some zoos. The Omaha Zoo only gave us 50% off on three members of our family. They allow two adults and 6 kids to get in for 50% off, but they define kids as ages 12 and under. So, we had to pay full price for Nadia and Ian, which I wasn't expecting. The Topeka Zoo is much smaller than the one in Omaha, and they allowed all five of us to enter completely free with our membership. Although it took only an hour to walk through that whole zoo, it was still much bigger than the zoo in Delaware where we are members. We also visited the Brown v. Board of Education National Park in Topeka that is housed in what used to be the Monroe School before the schools were desegregated. The kids each earned a Junior Ranger badge - Nadia's second on the trip and the boys' third.
We were in three states yesterday because we ended our day in Kansas City, Missouri. We spent about two hours at Science City located in Union Station, had dinner at IHOP, and spent the night at a Holiday Inn which had much better mattress than where we stayed the previous night. Unfortunately, the indoor pool was closed. Our meal at Applebee's cost what we are accustomed to spending for a sit-down meal, but that was NOT the case at IHOP. I had extra IHOP gift cards because we planned to eat at one in California in September. I'll have to get more for that stay, and I think IHOP will be removed from the list of places where we eat dinner because it was just way too expensive. We're willing to pay a little more at Olive Garden but not for pancakes and eggs. To put it in perspective, our bill last night for the five of us was similar to what we paid for seven people to eat at Texas Roadhouse last month. It seems steaks should cost more than pancakes and eggs not the other way around!
The weather for the first six days of our trip has been excellent. We haven't seen a drop of rain, and the temperatures have been lovely. We were wearing shorts yesterday and were a bit chilly when we were walking around Homestead, but we were very comfortable the rest of the day as the temperatures got into the high 70's. Looking at the forecast, it seems that probably the only time we might encounter rain will be the last two days of our trip when we're in Indianapolis and Columbus. Our neighbor is supposed to be picking Milo up from the kennel today. I miss Milo and have been praying for him every day. We won't be leaving Missouri until Friday morning. As of yesterday, the kids have now spent time in 44 states (plus DC). Thankfully, COVID hasn't had any impact on this trip (no mask or vaccine requirements) aside from the fact that Drayton couldn't take us to his office at Google because our kids didn't have the COVID vaccine. Ironically, Google just dropped that requirement yesterday. If we were in Chicago this week, we could have had a free meal and played games at Google (pool, ping pong, air hockey, foosball, etc.).
No one had to get up early this morning because our hotel is less than 10 minutes away from the Kansas City Zoo where we are starting our day at 9:30. We're also planning to visit the Federal Reserve's Money Museum and the National WW1 Museum and Memorial which are also located in Kansas City. We aren't visiting any forts or battlefields on this trip. The WW1 Museum is our only military history stop in our itinerary. It's been normal for us for several years to visit National Park sites and science museums on our vacations, but we only started including more zoos and aquariums last year when Nadia told us that she wants to major in zoology.
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