Road Trip Rule #24: Stay with Family

Nebraska is definitely top on my list of best things we did on this road trip. Hilarious niece uttering lines like "Nice shoes" and "The temple is a house of God, a place of love and beauty" (that temple line was unaided I might add) along with chillaxin' and good times with grown ups. All while meeting the newest nephew. And don't forget a smorgasbord of good food. Thumbs up Nebraska.

The only downside is that I am looking at my pictures and they heavily feature aforementioned cute niece and nephew. So, choices for public blog posting are limited.

I can show you these gems however:

Doesn't my husband look like he has been up to some mischief? I love that grin! I am going to kiss him right now. For clarification purposes, I did not kiss the screen but walked across the room and kissed him in person. Much less creepy. Much less.

This is us at the top of the Nebraska State Capitol which can be found in Lincoln. A highly recommended State Capitol, mind you. Interesting fact - Nebraska is the only state in the union with a unicameral legislature. Yup. That's the kind of stuff I remember.

This is the state capitol on the left and the view from the top on the right. The building was beautiful. I love the art deco exterior and the murals inside really wowed me. I may be lynched for saying so, but the murals in the Utah state capitol are not my favourite. I really liked the Nebraska ones though. They displayed a variety of themes and ideas and were done by a variety of artists - maybe that's what I liked? The jury's out on that one I guess

Next we bring you the six block park/statue installation in Omaha. You start with a wagon train and then follow the buffalo they've disturbed as they run down a street - and in the case of the fellow in the left, they run through a building. Those buffalo then disturb a flock of geese who take off from the middle of a water feature and fly into a bank. Excellent public art.

Last, but not least, the wall outside of Dixie Quicks in Omaha, another triple D restaurant. Once again, delish. I don't know what kind of message they are trying to send with their public art though. Was I brainwashed to go there? Did they brainwash me in the restaurant? Am I brainwashed if I don't go back? Are they selling a brainwash service? It's all very confusing. Also, a little concerning. Not so concerning that I wouldn't go back - in a heartbeat! It was great and we had some great service. They also have "The Gayzette" available in their bathroom for your reading pleasure - an entirely new bathroom experience for me. Also, the walls in the bathroom are chalkboard. And people have written ALL over them. Who does this? Am I the only one whose sole objective in a public restroom is to get in and out ASAP while touching as few communal items as humanly possible? I guess not.

Road Trip Rule #23: Don't leave folks hanging.

Alright folks. I should be doing something much more productive. Like finding something to wear for a wedding this weekend, or continuing on the Massive Project we have underway around here, or figuring out how to pay for the ridiculously expensive textbooks I need for the coming semester. I'd rather do this though; play a little catch up on the good old blog-a-roo. There's a gaping hole in the road trip story and some of you have alluded to this. I do apologise, and will try to not let it happen again. Though how I can follow through on such a promise is beyond me. See, the problem was two fold - we got to Nebraska and had such a good time relaxing that there was a decreased desire to blog (yup, my personal laziness strikes again) then once I had gotten behind the task of catching up was overwhelming. Fear not though, I am pretty sure the upcoming weeks will provide plenty of fodder for blog magic. And there's plenty still from the road trip to illuminate this corner of cyberspace. I know y'all are excited.

So, onward!

First, some Nauvoo highlights. I love the Lucy Mack Smith house. I've always been impressed by her - sometimes I wonder what that would have be like to have your fourteen year old announce he had seen a vision. It also had really nice flowers outside and I'm sort of a sucker for such things.

I have also just noticed that the front of the house was not symmetrical. This would have driven me crazy. I'm a big lover of symmetry.

The inside of the house was so compact. The stairs were practically a vertical slope. I really liked a pair of lace gloves they had on display so I took a picture then decided that they were freakishly small so I liked them even better. Lucy only lived in the house for a very short time and then moved in with the rest of her family as I recall.

We did see other places in Nauvoo including the Brigham Young home, John Taylor home, and the Post Office. It was interesting to see pictures of Nauvoo at the time and realise that there were so many more buildings than there are now. The way it is now you could be forgiven for thinking there were only a handful of people in a little village by the Mississippi. Not so my friends, not so. This was quite the bustling little town apparently. Big enough to justify this temple at least!

I've actually visited the temple before so we did not spend a lot of time there. I wanted to visit as many of the homes and buildings that are around the town as possible. Then of course someone mentioned the pageant and I had to go to that. I've never been to any of the LDS pageants so it was high time.

Singing, dancing and story telling. Also a random Scottish family who wore kilts/tartan throughout and spoke in passable accents (I can pronounce such a thing being as I am Scottish and all and despite losing my own accent. Yes, I recognise the hypocrisy). Enjoyable.

No one took holding their seats as seriously as we did as you can see from the picture, we are the only ones physically holding our seats. This may actually have more to do with the fact that other people had brought printed name tags, tape, twine and blankets to reserve there seats. Serious business this. Still, our early seat holding allowed for plenty of interaction with the and the opportunity to snack on delicious, freshly purchased fudge. Can't argue with that.

Oh! One more Nauvoo thing. I took this picture with one of you in mind. Can you see what it is? Anyone? Anyone?

Yup. A Hair wreath. Full on made of hair. All for you Ms. Hansen. All for you.

Road Trip Rule #22: See some public art

Thumbs up Denver, well done on your public art. There are statues and sculptures and installations all over downtown. Highly enjoyable. Future posts will also feature some very fine public art seen by the crew in NE. Denver also has pianos. Yup. Wildly painted pianos in a pedestrian area known as 16th st mall. Just sitting around waiting for your playing pleasure. The 16th street mall also features a free bus that runs the mile of shops and eateries. Also a plus. On top of all this goodness there is also the fact that Denver is the type of place where people put spoilers on vans. Picture evidence of pianos and spoilers included.  Denver and I got along much better than Nashville and I. Some of you smart folks out there may have predicted this. Good job team. We are headed for the mountains!

Road Trip Rule #21: Eat More Food

So, I think it is becoming clear how much we love food. We are at another triple D location in Denver. Yum! Native American version of Chipotle. We're both eating shredded bison. It is ridiculous. Delish.

Road Trip Rule #20: Tour State Capitols

We had an unsuccessful bid to follow this rule in TN (thwarted by rude state employees and dehydration) a successful trip to the NE capitol in Lincoln with Sarah and crew (it's gorgeous folks) and another success story today in Denver. The Denver State Capitol is the only place in the world where you can see pink onyx (they exhausted the quarry and it isn't found anywhere else as far as we know) they also have civil war canon balls as decoration and you can rub them for luck. I rubbed a lot of them. Lots of luck headed our way (actually just after we left there we got a call that we may have sold the car - score!).
State capitols = good times.

Road Trip Rule #19: Look for Mountains

We just came over a hill and can now see the outline of the rockies in the distance. We are very excited. Husband may or may not have clapped his hands with glee.

Road Trip Rule #18: Sleep In

I am still in bed. For those who know me this is surely no surprise. Lala in bed at 9 in the morning? I think I will lay down and die from not surprise. It's a highly recommended road trip rule though. We are in Nebraska for the next couple of days. Today we are going to visit the state capitol, hopefully the experience is far better than the TN state capitol though the bar is not high... We are enjoying some relaxing time with family. This is the best thing we planned into our road trip! Well done road rip planing committee, well done.