Shane Life

This weekend, we headed up to Council Bluffs to visit Alli’s family. On Saturday, I spent the morning with Tyson and Ashley taking engagement pictures, which took us on a tour of Council Bluffs to places I hadn’t seen before, including the bridge pictured above, The Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge.

The bridge opened at the end of September and was built by Kansas City’s own HNTB for about $22 million. I was wondering what cities in their right mind would pay for such a bridge when my father-in-law informed me that the reason it was named for Bob Kerrey was because he had acquired about $18 million of that “wasteful pork barrel spending” from the government to help pay for it.

The bridge spans over 3,000 feet of the Missouri River and is an impressive structure that connects Omaha to Council Bluffs. The lights were donated by the Gallup organization, who have a training facility at the end of the Omaha side.

I’d love to see cool stuff like this start showing up in Kansas City. Omaha is a little ahead of the game when it comes to the development of their downtown and if Kansas City doesn’t get its act together soon, they’ll soon be sorely losing out when it comes to big events (case in point - the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials were in the Qwest Center in Omaha earlier this year).

If you’re ever in the area, you should check it out.

Over the weekend, Alli and I headed up to her folks’ place to take our future nieces to the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo. We’ve been before (obviously, Alli, having been from the area has been several times…this was my 3rd trip), but each time we go, they seemingly have some new attraction for zoo-goers to peep.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day on Saturday and plenty of folks took advantage of the great weather to visit the zoo. We even ran into our friends Mike and Danielle on their way out of the zoo, which was funny because I hadn’t seen them here in KC for a long time.

It’s no surprise to run into folks from Kansas City 3 hours North at the Zoo. Omaha’s zoo puts Kansas City’s poor excuse for a zoo to absolute shame. The zoo in Omaha is accessible, clean and all the animals look comfortable (mostly) whereas the KC Zoo is a blight as far as zoos go.

I think that the KC Zoo would be better suited to close up shop, ship all its animals 3 hours North and put all its money into a high-speed train that runs to the Omaha Zoo. Because as far as zoos go, Omaha’s is one of the best.

One of the coolest things that Omaha has is a newer attraction called the Kingdoms of the Night, which has a slew of nocturnal animals and one specific section called The Swamp, which feels - predictably - like a swamp. It is the world’s largest indoor swamp and inside, the zoo has constructed a wooden bridge that takes you through sunken rowboats and trees in low light while alligators and beavers and other nocturnal animals mill about as if they were in the bayou of Louisiana. Along the way, you’ll get a glimpse of the crown jewel of the Omaha Zoo - the very rare White Alligator, one of only 13 in the world.

This display is just one example of how much better the Omaha Zoo is compared to ours. And to be honest, with the way that Kansas City, Missouri is run, it’s no surprise.

So for those of you who have never been, I would highly recommend you take the 3-hour trip North to Omaha, if only for the day. It’s completely worth it.