Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: United States

  • Omaha – Roja Mexican Grill

    Today felt like a day for a visit to a Mexican restaurant…. The warm Omaha sun had gone into hiding and a cold wind had taken over, so I thought some Mexican heat would help.

    I wasn’t going for a lunch-time tequila, but this is quite a selection to say the least. I know nearly nothing about tequila, but there was a variety of different price points for the drinks, including a tequila at $35.

    Kinkaider is a local Nebraska brewery and the Devil’s Gap jalapeno ale sounded rather tempting. It met my expectations, it had a subtle flavour, but the heat of the jalapenos was notable as an aftertaste.

    I’ve never quite understood why it is beholden upon Mexican restaurants to always offer free chips and dips, but I’m certainly not going to complain about this tradition. There were so many chips that I never did get through them all and they seem to have been home-made, as did the sauce.

    This set-up with the pepper and salt reminds me of Grosvenor in Norwich…. The service in the restaurant was friendly, slightly slow to acknowledge me at the door but a staff member apologised and offered me a choice of seating. The staff member who served me was engaging, checked if I had visited before and had a personable and confident personality. The service was attentive throughout the meal and I was never left waiting for anything.

    And the food of chicken fajitas which was a bigger portion side that I had expected given all of the different elements that were served. The platter came over sizzling nicely, with the grilled chicken being tender and full of flavour. The onions, green and red peppers added some texture and flavour and the rice had green chillis in it to add some spice. The refried black beans were smooth and all of the other component parts of cheddar cheese, pico de gallo and sour cream were as expected. There was a generous amount of guacamole, always a delight as I do like avocados.

    There were though only three tortillas which seemed a little low given the volume of other ingredients, but they were soft homemade flour tortillas and were some of the best that I’ve had. Everything was well presented and the various ingredients went together well.

    The only slightly strange element about the service is that the server asked if I wanted a dessert whilst I was still mid-way through the main course. It seemed an odd time to ask, but I wasn’t rushed during the dine.

    All in all, I really liked this restaurant and I would go back more often if I actually lived in the area. Friendly staff, decent food and the prices were also reasonable given the quality and quantity of the food and drink. All rather lovely.

  • Omaha – Durham Museum (Pullman Lounge Car)

    Durham Museum has a few carriages as part of its collection and this is an original lounge car.

    There’s a bar area at one end of the carriage and seating along the sides.

    All rather comfortable, it’s from the golden age of railway travel.

    Copies of menus from the period, dating from 1950. There was an interesting policy that “to expedite and improve service to you please write on meal check each menu item desired, as waiters are not permitted to accept or serve orders given verbally”.

    The extra thick steak cost $5.25, which would have been a considerable sum at the time.

  • Omaha – Durham Museum

    The former entrance to Union Station in Omaha, once one of the largest railway stations in the country. Work started on this building, on the site of the previous station, in 1929 and it opened in January 1931.

    During its busiest period this railway station saw 10,000 passengers go through its doors every day, with 64 passenger trains. It remained in use until 1971 when Amtrak just couldn’t justify keeping it given the falling passenger numbers. The building was nearly demolished, but fortunately it was kept and turned into a museum.

    The interior of the main railway hall. There was much more to this museum than I had anticipated, which I’ll post about separately as the collections were quite extensive. The staff member at the ticket desk was helpful and welcoming, offering a really comprehensive introduction to the museum. There were a large number of school children as part of a science festival, although they were kept to certain parts of the building and didn’t get in the way of visitors.

    It’s a shame that this railway station still isn’t use, especially as the facilities in the replacement Amtrak building are much more limited, but at least it is still standing and can be accessed by the public.

  • Omaha – Cup Cake or No Cup Cake

    I’m not really sure why this sign amused me, I just liked the “cupcakes” or “no cupcakes” on it. I might go back just because of this   🙂

  • Omaha – 402 Hotel

    The accommodation for my first night in Omaha was the only accommodation that I hadn’t booked before this trip to the United States, so was my only late booking. As my train arrived at 11pm, I wanted something central and easy to walk to from the railway station and this seemed well priced given its central location.

    The free wine on arrival, a nice touch. And on that point, the staff member at reception was marvellous as he was friendly, conversational and helpful. The hotel doesn’t have the best of reviews, but my first impressions were very positive.

    Clean and well presented, the room was absolutely fine. Actually, there were some marks on the wall where a repair seemed  bit botched and there were some maintenance issues, but I didn’t consider them to really be an issue.

    The bathroom door in the room was made of a lump of moveable wood, which seemed a bit clunky and didn’t really quite fit the door frame. But I was on my own, so it didn’t much matter.

    The bathroom.

    Ooooh, I love hotel history. The hotel by this point was exceeding my expectations (not just because of the history card, although that helped).

    My night’s sleep was peaceful and uninterrupted, so the hotel was marching towards getting a near perfect review. Actually, I responded to the hotels.com review of my first impressions before going to sleep and the hotel responded thanking me within minutes, so this was all going marvellously.

    Then, breakfast. This was bloody dreadful. Firstly, the breakfast room is not well designed, since the two people in it filled the entire space. A breakfast room really needs seats and not having them is an omission. The selection of food was also way below where it should be, it was muffins, and er, muffins. The drinks were limited to coffee and water, no juices were available and that was what I would have ideally liked.

    Now, there was one more item available, which was the “hot breakfast”. I’m not that fussed about having a hot breakfast, I spend too much time in hotels on mainland Europe binge eating their cold meats, cold cheeses and bread selection, but if a hotel advertises a hot breakfast then it really should have it.

    Technically, the hotel did offer a hot breakfast. If a customer went to reception and handed over a breakfast token then they got a breakfast roll. I had rather hoped that this might be, well, hot, but it wasn’t. Some vague instruction on how to cook it would have been useful, but not really essential as there were some heating instructions.

    Given that the breakfast room, where there was a microwave, was full, I took my hot breakfast (still cold) back to my room. I then discovered that the microwave in the room didn’t work and since my breakfast roll is part frozen the only resolution would have been to traipse back down to the full breakfast room and try and cook the bloody thing. I didn’t bother, it went in the bin, which is an appalling waste of food I wasn’t overly pleased with.

    So, the hotel breakfast was no drink and two muffins. They’d have probably been better off ditching the breakfast, since I’d have paid the same for the room anyway. But, my breakfast saga aside, this was a hotel which is clearly improving and the friendliness of the staff (particularly the one in the evening at check-in) was way above average.

    Looking at some other reviews on TripAdvisor, I couldn’t disagree with the below (although they’d run out of beer with me and only had wine, although that was fine with me):

    “The welcome process was to include beer and wine, and all that was on offer was Bud Light. No thanks. I walked right by the breakfast, which was beyond dismal. Otherwise, the bed was reasonably comfortable.”

    Some people mentioned the breakfast was good (although many didn’t) so I do wonder whether something has changed in what is being provided. For the money, I thought that the entire stay represented perfectly decent value and their ranking as nearly the worst hotel in the city on TripAdvisor seems a little unfair.

  • Omaha – Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge (and welcome to Iowa)

    This pedestrian bridge is 3,000 feet long and was formally opened on 28 September 2008, with work taking just under two years to complete.

    The official name of the bridge is the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge, but to its friends the bridge is just called Bob.

    And my first step into Iowa.

    And the one the other side of the bridge….

    View from the bridge.

    The city tourist authorities have given the bridge its own Twitter account, BobTBridge, and it’s now one of the best rated locations in the city on TripAdvisor. And where there’s a TripAdvisor page there are always reviews to amuse me….

    As some background, I used this bridge as I needed to cross to Council Bluffs where my hotel is, and it’s the only pedestrian bridge there is in the vicinity to get there. So this review:

    “It’s neat but it never gets used. A whole lot of nothing on both sides of the river. It’s a good drive by bridge.”

    This is a reminder that some people actually walk and can’t use the nearby road bridge…. And it connects the largest city in the state of Nebraska with a large urban area the other side of the river, which is an interesting “whole lot of nothing”.

    And the:

    “Dumb idea. It’s a bridge. OK it twists a little bit, is limited to pedestrian traffic, and looks very pretty at night. However, I personally consider it to have been a waste of donated money and tax dollars. It was a dumb idea when it was built and remains so.”

    It’s the “limited to pedestrian traffic” which is the reason that the bridge seems so hugely popular on TripAdvisor at least.

    Anyway, I like the bridge, there were some families taking photos of how they had one foot in each state, it’s a useful bridge for getting across the river and it looks well made and has brought some life to the area in which it is located.

  • Omaha – Tap House

    I’ve been surprised just how many craft beer bars and breweries there are in the Omaha area, but this burger restaurant was particularly well reviewed, so I decided to start here.

    It was an evidently popular restaurant for lunch as the tables were all full, but there was space at the bar. Unusually for a restaurant like this the staff didn’t seat customers, but there was a clear sign for diners that they needed to seat themselves so I didn’t stand there looking confused. After I sat down at the bar, the service was exceptional, engaging, conversational and welcoming.

    The beer list, with a delightful selection of dark beers.

    I went for the peanut butter porter, which is from Kinkaider Brewery, a local Nebraska brewery. It had a rich, creamy and smooth taste, a deep peanut butter flavour and soft after notes. Marvellous.

    This photo doesn’t quite do justice to the portion size. The drink is pint size and each of the onion rings (and there were eight) was the size of the glass. The onion rings were free of charge as I received a free starter for signing up to the restaurant’s mailing list, they were full slices of onion which were then battered. They had a decent crispy exterior and weren’t too greasy, although it was a much larger portion than I had anticipated.

    The fries were Cajun spiced, firm on the exterior and fluffy on the interior, with the spice adding some extra flavour. They were quite moreish, although after I had ploughed through the onion rings I was struggling to eat much more of anything.

    The burger is the brown sugar option, which has home made brown sugar, cinnamon bacon, smoked cheddar and beer braised onions. The burger itself was perhaps just a little drowned out by the strength of the other ingredients, but it was tender, cooked well done (there wasn’t a choice on how it was cooked) and was moist. The bacon was excellent with a rich flavour, the beer braised onions were soft and succulent and everything was at the appropriate hot temperature.

    I only realised later that pickles, lettuce, tomato and raw onions could be added for free on request, and I would have certainly had some pickles as that would have added some texture to the burger which it probably needed. However, the tastes were pleasant and it was all well presented.

    The dining environment was vibrant, clean and comfortable and the server I had seemed to be one of the friendliest in the restaurant as the others didn’t seem to be engaging with customers quite as much. Overall, I very much liked the Tap House and if it wasn’t lunch-time I might have tried a few more of the beers. Very lovely.

  • Amtrak California Zephyr (Chicago to Omaha)

    The Amtrak California Zephyr rail service runs daily from Chicago in Illinois to Oakland in California, a journey which takes just under 52 hours. It’s also one of the most beautiful rail routes in the world, although I was only travelling the Chicago to Omaha section which isn’t the most spectacular in terms of the scenery.

    I’ve taken Amtrak services from Chicago Union station before and I like how they call them from the Great Hall, it’s all very organised. Everyone is then escorted to the train and then seated on the appropriate part of the train for their destination. This has the advantage that the train crew will wake passengers up if necessary as they know where they’re getting off.

    It’s not a great photo, but it shows the amount of room between each row of seats. Even if the passenger in front reclines, the seat is nowhere near the passenger behind, so it’s all spacious and comfortable. There’s also power and large tray tables for those who want them. The service wasn’t particularly busy on my journey so the crew member told everyone they could take up both seats if they wanted.

    The crew, like with the majority of Amtrak services I’ve taken in the past, were friendly, helpful and didn’t take life too seriously. The announcements had a touch of humour to them and everything seemed organised, well managed and safe.

    There is a full service dining car on board, which I’ve never got round to eating in, I always go to the cafe bar. That’s primarily because I like the chicken noodle soup and Pepsi, it’s not classy, but it meets my basic requirements. And it’s cheap.

    There’s an observation car on the train for those who want to watch the scenery go by. I didn’t spend much time in here on this journey, but I have done before. The main reason why I usually spend so much time staring at the scenery is that many Amtrak trains don’t have wi-fi. I was delighted though to discover that the California Zephyr now has wi-fi (or at least this particular train does), so I managed to get numerous things done, ideal given that the journey time was nearly nine hours.

    Photos of the scenery. The bottom one is the Mississippi River, the fourth longest river in the world.

    The train arrived in Omaha and this is now my first visit to Nebraska. The train journey cost around £40 in coach, although there are rooms available for those who want more luxury. The train also arrived into Omaha on time, despite being around 20 minutes behind schedule at one point.

    It’s quicker to fly I know, but Amtrak make play that’s not just about arriving at the destination, it’s also about the journey. And there’s something about trains which I just prefer to flying, especially given how comfortable they are.

  • Philadelphia – Philadelphia Museum of Art (Francis I by Joos van Cleve)

    It seems a strange quirk of history that this important painting of King Francis I of France by Joos van Cleve has ended up in Philadelphia, with the painting of his wife now in Austria. His wife is Eleanor of Austria and Queen of France, who was once nearly married to King Henry VIII, but the English King decided to marry her aunt instead, Catherine of Aragon.

    It’s not known exactly why this painting, and that of King Francis I’s wife, was undertaken, but it’s possible it was to mark the marriage, which was his second. The painting ended up in the private collection of John G Johnson, a local lawyer who later gave all of his artworks to the museum. I’d be intrigued to know where the painting was held between when it was created in 1532 or 1533 and when Johnson purchased it, but I have no idea how I’d find that out.

    Regardless of where it has been, I thought it was historically interesting, although the museum has a rather more crafted and elegant description of the painting:

    “Francis is strongly illuminated from the right so that his body casts a strong shadow behind him, securely locating his form in space. Similarly, his hands are modeled with exquisite attention to the way that light falls across them and to their location in front of Francis’s body. This heightened spatial illusionism is challenged by the ornate elements of the king’s richly decorated and bejeweled costume, which is painted almost like a flat enameled surface. Unlike Francis’s elaborate costume of state, Joos did not idealize his face and even emphasized its more homely aspects. Indeed, his large, coarse features and sly expression contrast with the formality of his dress and betray the man behind the head of state.”

  • Pittsburgh – External Power Points

    It could be said that I’m just easily pleased (and that wouldn’t be untrue), but I have never seen a public park have external power points for people to charge their phones and devices up. It seems a marvellous idea to me as although I wasn’t in need of charge, it could be useful and what better place than a well presented public park?