Old Market Omaha

Many times when Jim and I travel, we have no idea what we will find. We pull into a campground, gather any brochures of the area that look interesting and I surf the net to see if anything else pops up. Sometimes I'll ask the campground managers if they have any recommendations for places to visit. Old Market was one such place. The Old Market is a major historic district in Downtown Omaha listed on the National Register of Historical Places Today, its warehouses and other buildings house shops, restaurants, bars, and art galleries. Wikipedia

After our several hour tour of Boys Town, we headed into downtown towards the Old Market. It is always a challenge to find outside public parking for our truck; we can not fit in underground parking with the size of our vehicle. Luckily we found a spot open right on the street in front of this antique store called "Second Chance".

I fell in love with numerous things right off the bat! The owner tried to convince me that I needed this 10 foot rooster......

Now, I admit, I DO have a strong attraction to roosters, and I told this to her, but I explained that I lived in a trailer and that we traveled all the time. She didn't bat an eye and said, "Well, then you need to buy a trailer to pull this rooster in!" Boy is SHE a sales person!

I loved these pigs.....you know.....when pigs fly

And then, we saw it.

There it was, it all its glory.

The beloved cow.

I can not tell you how long I have been looking for a cow statue.

Well, yes I can. It has to be at LEAST 8 years, maybe 9. Here's the story. When Jim's parents were going to move out of their house and into an assisted living apartment, they had a huge auction to get rid of their things. The auctioneer also brought some things to sell. Among the items was a metal cow that I fell in love with. At the time, the cost was about $35.  Jim felt it was too much money.

Why I ever listened to him I'll never know.

I could kick myself.

Because we have been searching for a small cow that I could put outside of our trailer. It can't be too heavy (due to weight issues with the trailer) or too light that it would blow over.

But now, here was the cow of my dreams. Right here in Omaha. Who knew?

At first I didn't see a price tag on it. I thought I'd offer $50, since the small pig's price was $29.99. Then the wind blew and the white tag fluttered.

$149.99!

What the!

Alas, I went home cowless. Of course I was ready to hand over my credit card for the cow, but a) by the look on Jim's face I knew it wasn't a good idea and b) I could just hear the bells and whistles going off saying that I was over my limit anyway so I resigned myself that I would have no cow.

We moved on, or should I say that Jim dragged me away from that store and we made our way down the block. We came to the intersection and saw the old buildings and cobblestone streets.

We walked down one block and these are the stores we came across. This first one is a fast food restaurant.

Next to Little King's was this cool record store. I just love the name! On top of the building is a lion's head. Click the photo to enlarge.

An awesome name for a Mexican restaurant! (That's Jim in the background scoping out the House of Lee.)

Jim wanted to eat at the House of Lee; I should have pouted some more since I didn't get my cow, but I was hungry too so I gave in and followed him through the door.

This was the kind of restaurant where you pile all the vegetables and meat that you want in a bowl, sprinkle a sauce over it, then hand it to the cook who will spread it over the grill and toss it around till its cooked.

This was my dish, with pork, chicken, shrimp, beef, and fake lobster, along with various vegetables. Yum!

Okay, I admit that Jim's pile looks smaller than mine, but that's because he didn't have many vegetables in there - mostly beef and noodles. So don't be quick to judge!

After our bellies were full, we walked down the street. This street musician was singing his heart out. He was pretty good.

We came across the beautiful flowers outside a florist shop. I softened the photo for a different effect.

How do you like the photo with a frame around it?

More flowers

We saw this odd sculpture in front of a restaurant.

We circled around and made our way back to our truck. Regretfully we had to leave because we had a couple more places to see. But this is definitely a place I would like to come back to. There are many galleries, shops and restaurants to visit. AND, I somehow missed this little gem. It's called the Old Market Passageway. Isn't it gorgeous?

photo courtesy of omahanightlife.com