Homer's Travels: An Early New Years Outing

Thursday, January 01, 2009

An Early New Years Outing

Here in Omaha the old year went out with a bang. Quite different from the whimper that often accompanies the changing of the years. The Wife and I tend to stay home and lay low on New Years Eve. In 2008 we changed it up a tiny bit.

The celebration started around noon with a mantinee showing of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button".  This is an entertaining chick-flick.  It's a little too long at 2 hours 39 minutes but everything fit together well.  We both liked it but I wouldn't say we loved it.

We followed this movie with a trip to Omaha's old market.  We went down early to beat the evening rush.  We tried to get into Spaghetti Works but the wait was 45 minutes so we settle for the slightly less crowded Upstream with a smaller 30 minute wait.  The food was pretty good since neither of us had eaten very much that day (Popcorn and Dots).  By the time we left the restaurant, all the parking lots were full.  We'd planned it well.


We left the restaurant in time to see the 7:00 PM fireworks.  They were advertised as being over the Gene Leahy mall but they ended up being over the Heartland of America Park.  I'd set up my camera on my new tripod in the mall with all the other people.  People were milling around.  Kids were sliding on the frozen water despite the thin ice warnings.  I took some pictures of the lit up mall waiting for the start of the show.  It figured that the batteries decided then and there to die.  I hurriedly replaced the batteries requiring me to remove the camera from the tripod mount.  I also took of my gloves which resulted in numb fingers by the time I got the batteries changed.

The countdown started and, when the fireworks starting going off, they were behind us.  Thus started the stampede as people jockeyed for a better vantage point.  I managed to set up in the middle of the street and get some good pictures.  The display was choreographed to music ending with Niel Diamond's "Sweet Caroline".  It was a very short fireworks display but it was one of the more intense ones I've ever seen.  Going to see the fireworks may become our new New Year's tradition.  The early start of the fireworks made it perfect for us.  Pictures can be found here .


We ended up getting back home by 8:00 PM and watched the year end specials on the tube before kissing our happy new year's wishes at midnight and going to bed.  It was just the right amount of activity for us.

2 comments:

  1. Easy there, wild man... ;)

    Sounds like a good way to ring in the new year!

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  2. GH: Hey Hey! Not everyone can be super cool like you, mister! The fact we even left the house on New Years Eve is progress for us.

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