On Safari to Outer Space

I had this weekend off, so I wanted to do something to make me feel like a normal person. Ryan and I decided to get out and explore some of the things that Nebraska has to offer. Our first stop was the Lee G. Simmons Conservation Park and Wildlife Safari just a little bit south of Omaha. It is mainly a driving tour with one area with a foot trail to see bears and wolves.

Ryan was driving so I was manning the camera!

First wildlife encounter were the Elk {trying to keep cool since it has been so stinkin' hot down here for weeks now}.

There were tons of them and we were surprised at how large their antlers were.

I would hang out in this little pond if I were an Elk at this park as well. It was near 100 degrees when we were here and it was before noon. On a side note, I hate the hot, humid, heat. I wish it would rain here and cool it off. {I'm keeping my fingers crossed, they are saying maybe by Tuesday we'll get some rain.}

Next up were the white tail deer. These guys are pretty tame if you ask me. Nothing like the deer who jump out in front of your car on my parents' road.

Theme of the day: hang out in the shade!

The vehicle in front of us got a super up-close view of the deer.

We then braved the heat {sort of} to go see the wolves. The bears were hiding somewhere out of view {likely in the shade trying to keep cool}.

There was an owl exhibit along the way. I loved it. I think owls look so cool.

I see you lookin' at me!

These owls are the Eastern Screech Owls.

We stopped by the bear exhibit, but like I said before, they were nowhere to be seen. So onto the wolves we went. Ryan was excited the see the wolves since I swear it is one of his favorite animals of all time.

Ryan's comment to me after seeing the wolves involved something about his dogs looking like wolves and being bigger than these guys :)

We saw several Sandhill Cranes....

...and Bison butts.

As we sat in our air-conditioned car watching these bison, Ryan said to me, "Um, I bet these bison could really do some damage to our car if they wanted to!" I agreed with him and then became thankful that none of these bison were fighting when we saw them.

I'm guessing the people who live around the same area as this safari park are glad they have large fences to keep these animals contained.

After we finished our safari, we went to the Strategic Air and Space Museum. {Same exit, just opposite side of the interstate as the safari park.}

We were admiring this missile on the way in from the parking lot and little did we know that this ballistic missile is actually named.....wait for it.....

THOR!

We walked inside and were greeted by this giant jet...

Ryan thought it was funny to go all paparazzi on me. Kids will be kids I guess.

They are currently in the process of restoring this bomber. {I can't remember which bomber this is as I forgot to take a picture of it's name...oops.}

Getting ready to head down into the first exhibit.

Flight simulator or a child's toy?

Apparently a flight trainer.

This bomber dropped...

...small bombs...

...medium bombs....

...and large hydrogen bombs.... {Okay, so I think it was capable to dropping these big hydrogen nuclear bombs but never actually did.}

Looking up into the belly of the bomber.

There were several more jets and there was a space exhibit as well. I didn't do as good of a job taking pictures after the first exhibit because it was muggy in this place and I was getting tired. So there were several more things that we saw and we also watched a movie call "Great Balls of Fire" about meteors and asteroids. On our way out of the museum, we noticed lots of out of state license plates in the parking lot. We drove through the parking lot and found license plates from 16 different states - pretty cool to see.

Before going home, we stopped for ice cream at ColdStone. Once we got home, we sat in the air conditioning for a little bit before hooking up some sprinklers outside and sweating our behinds off in the short amount of time that it took to do it. Ugh, this heat is awful. I'm so thankful so a house with air conditioning!

All in all, Ryan and I had a good day being a "normal" couple doing "normal" things.

~Ashley