I have this thing where I just gotta SEE THE WORLD, you know??
So, a few weeks ago, I messaged my sister, now-living-in-Omaha, all, “Hey, do you ever take visitors?” and, wouldn’t you know it, sometimes SHE DOES, and a plane ticket later and I was on my flight to Omaha.
Came, saw, conquered.
Favorite thing I saw tourist-wise was probably the zoo. I guess it’s ranked the best in the nation?
To set the stage: it was an ice-wind day, with frigid, harsh-blowing, clothing-tearing wind. Also, there was rain and freezing rain on top of the rain.
Prime zoo weather, is what I’m saying.
Lucky for us (and the animals!) there were indoor exhibits.
Were there ever indoor exhibits.
The first one we went into was a desert climate in a giant building, but, then, one could also go downstairs, where I guess the timezones via artificial lighting were reversed so the nocturnal animals were out and about…in the dark. Cue small child next to me, looking at this marsupial-ish hind-leg-jumping little rabbit/ kangaroo thing, “This isn’t our house, is it?”
No, it is not. It is a giant cave and there are thousands of bats everywhere.
So THEN you could also go MORE under the cave…into the bayou.
Cue nighttime sounds like crickets and a crackling campfire and there were boardwalks throughout a swampy swamp where alligators and beavers swam underneath (they must have been separated somehow??)
It was amazing but also super spooky and totally a throwback to the late 70’s classic “The Rescuers” which I still hold, has one of the worst Disney villains of all time.
Little kid, stomping around, “I’m not scared at all!”
Me, mentally: “Well, don’t look too close, because, once your eyes adjust you realize…these gators are huge. And also: everywhere.”
So, anyway, all-around good time.
It was also really cool to be able to see the community into which Christine has been placed. The diocese built a dorm for students from the surrounding 3 or 4 schools, and they live there, but with a shared chapel and library and living spaces, and it’s a really cool place of prayer and shared-life and all.
This reminded me of the words of Father Grayson, when we were in Rome. Father pointed out how God is always relentlessly and recklessly pursuing our hearts. I loved seeing how He is pursing her, through this program and these people and these prayers, in the cold, cold biting ring of Omaha.
<3
