Each year we take a trip to Kearney, Nebraska, to view the cranes that stop in the sandhills around March as they make their way to Canada. In March of 1999 we made our fourth trip and we took along our nieces, Sarah and Jessica.
Country Inns and Suites
For our first three visits we started our adventure at 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning and drove to Kearney in order to be in the area at 5:00 or 6:00 a.m., but in '99 we were pleased to discover that they built a brand new Country Inn and Suites in Kearney, so we stayed there. The girls loved the pool area and the fireplace in the lobby.
We have even more pictures of the Country Inn and Suites.
Country Kitchen
Even though there is a lovely Continental Plus breakfast at the Country Inn and Suites, it is our tradition to visit the Country Kitchen restaurant for their buffet breakfast. It's located across the parking lot from the Country Inn and Suites.
Morris Press Cookbooks
Another tradition is our visit to the Morris Press publishing company. Churches, families, schools and other organizations design cookbooks as fundraisers. The front entry to the building opens into a room that is lined with "overrun" cookbooks that you can purchase for $2 to $5. Many of them are categorized by state, so it's fun to look for cookbooks from places we or our friends and relatives have lived. They also have a category for ethnic and international cookbooks.
We asked Sarah and Jessie to pick out a cookbook for each of their mothers and also for Grandma who collects cookbooks. To personalize the gift and commemorate the trip, they wrote a note about the trip in each cookbook and dated it. I think it'll make a nice keepsake.
Cabela's
Cabela's is a sporting goods store known not only for its huge inventory of clothing and outdoor recreation equipment, but also for its aquariums and wildlife displays (taxidermy). It's a perfect place to take interesting pictures!
Grandpa's Steakhouse
We were out wandering around, looking for a place to have dinner, when we came upon Grandpa's Steakhouse. The salad bar was great, the food was good, and brave Jessie even tried the escargot! She can now say with conviction that she does not care for snails.
The Cranes!
This was the reason we made the trip! Here we find the exhilaration of getting up at 4:30 a.m, the misery of standing in the cold, waiting for nature to wake up, and ultimately the thrill of watching and hearing lines and lines of cranes taking flight from the river to feast in nearby corn fields. There was an unforgetable beauty in seeing these 3-foot birds, who mate for life, cluster in their family groups of three (mom, dad and the baby).
Of course we have more pictures and directions to get to our favorite observation site!
Harold Warp's Pioneer Village
This place is stuffed to the rafters with all sorts of Americana. You can see classic cars, historical buildings, fashion through the years and much more!
And yes, we do have more pictures of the Pioneer Village.
Located in Minden, Nebraska, the Pioneer Village is a great place for the kids to exlore. There are hands-on exhibits and a number of out buildings. The girls loved having their pictures taken in the old schoolhouse, the church, and the pony express relay station. They were both in fourth grade at the time and said that this fit in perfectly with what they were studying in school.
We picked up a Pioneer Village brochure from the lobby of the Country Inn. The night before visiting, we asked the girls to read the brochure and circle the top ten areas of the Pioneer Village and star the top five. We promised that we would allow enough time to do their top five and then would tackle the rest of the choices as time and interest allowed. That process served to create enthusiasm for the next day's activities and generate discussion which helped them to agree on what they wanted to do.
The Incredible Bulk
On our way home we always stop at the Conestoga Mall in Grand Island, Nebraska. It's a bit of a trip off the highway, but it's a treat to stop at The Incredible Bulk, which is a candy store. We are, after all, the Uncle and the Tante, so it's our job to spoil kids whenever we can, and candy seems to do the trick. Besides, it also has the largest collection of sugar free candies in Nebraska, so it's a treat for us, too! We also brought along a picnic basket. It made a great place for storage for snacks. We did try to take along a few healthful items like beef jerky and crackers. The lid of the picnic basket made a great place for them to look at magazines together and sign the cookbooks they picked out at Morris Press.
Heading Home
These are girls after my own heart! This, too, is my favorite way to travel! Next time we could even take along pillows. We'll get this right yet! Practice makes perfect.
