Olemaha

Bailey and I have always said that if the Rebels ever made it to Omaha, we would pack up and go. As they made it to regionals, and then to super-regionals, we anxiously tried not to get our hopes up and make too many "plans." Before they left on their honeymoon, Bedford and Katie said they'd be going with us if we went. We picked them up from the airport on Friday night about 10, went home to get a quick night's rest, and then left the next morning around 6:30 for the 10+ hour drive.

The drive over wasn't too terrible. We made it to Omaha late that afternoon. We checked into our hotel, which was about 2 miles from the stadium, unloaded some things and then headed to Walmart to pick up some food and things to get us through the week. We picked up some pizzas on our way back to the hotel and then called it a night.

We got up early Sunday morning to attempt to get tickets (very unsure of what was going to happen). We ended up buying a couple books of general admission tickets from a local grocery store. Then we headed back to the stadium to get in line for the lottery where we bought tickets for the first Ole Miss game.

We did a lot of walking and wandering around downtown Omaha that day. We walked back to our hotel to rest a little and then caught the shuttle back to the stadium. 

All th Hunt kids cheering on the Rebels.

We lost the first game so we did not play on Monday. We went to that afternoon's game to watch Texas and UC Irvine play. After the game, we ran back to the hotel for a few before going back downtown for dinner at Roja for some yummy Mexican.

The Rebels played again on Tuesday. We took our time getting ready and then spent most of our day around downtown before going to the game.

On Wednesday we took a break from baseball and headed to the zoo. The zoo and Rosenblatt, the old stadium, used to share a parking lot. We ran over and took a few pics of what was left of Rosenblatt before going in to the zoo.

Omaha's zoo is incredible! (Coming from someone who regularly visits the fantastic Memphis zoo). They are currently ranked the #1 zoo in some poll (not sure which one). They have a handful of things under construction but have some really unique exhibits. The gorilla house/area is one of those. They probably have 10-15 gorillas. And the one above was quite the entertainer. 

Their aquarium was pretty great (doesn't take much to beat Memphis' "aquarium"). We tried waiting around to see the shark feeding but never saw it. 

Some of the other exhibits included this dome thing, a swamp/creatures of the night, a rainforest, and several others I'm sure I'm forgetting.

We were exhausted after barely making it through most of the zoo (I think we missed a couple things). 

Thursday was a must win for the Rebels and they pulled it off!

We finished packing up Friday morning and checked out of the hotel. We went and ate lunch and then headed over to the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian bridge which crosses the Missouri River from Omaha, NE to Council Bluffs, IA.

Then it was back to the stadium to see the Rebels play again. 

Unfortunately we only saw an inning or two before the weather took over and they eventually postponed the game until the next day. It was pretty cool watching the storm come in. After they called the game, we waited until the weather cleared a little before running to our car and hitting the road to come home. We had an unbelievable week in Omaha and look forward to going back in the future!