a walk around the old market in omaha, nebraska

After visiting the Joslyn Art Museum, I went to the Old Market in Omaha, an area of redeveloped warehouses on brick streets with boutiques, clothing stores, bookstores, an artists’ cooperative and gallery, antiques stores, brew pubs, bars with live music, florists, coffee shops, record stores and live theater.

I happened upon the Fairmont Antiques and Mercantile: Omaha’s Ultimate Store.  It had every crazy thing you could imagine: movie posters, old diners, pencils and pens as a kind of 3-D wall decor, half cars, signs, fenders, m&m characters, popcorn vendors, an Elvis wax figure/mannequin, a pink Cadillac, albums, jukeboxes, table jukeboxes, pinball machines, candy, ice cream, lunch boxes, gumball machines, Cookie Monster, A Hollywood Pinball & Arcade Museum, metal signs, beer cans, old LIFE magazines, movie reels, trolls arranged by hair color, an old fashioned food truck advertising roasted peanuts, carnival pops, jelly beans, red vinyl counter stools, green apple rings.  It was a museum of all kinds of things that no longer exist in the world, vintage things, and I wondered who would buy that stuff.  It was all for sale.

I also walked past an ice cream shop and another fun shop with quirky iron yard ornaments.

Wandering around the Old Market, I stopped into shops that caught my fancy. I found a hat maker, and as I was hoping to find a hat, I stopped in to try on a few.  As I have a super large head, most women’s hats don’t fit me; they just perch on the top of my head precariously. I tried on a man’s Large hat and I liked it quite a lot, but it was $69, so I didn’t buy it.

In one cute little shop, City Limits, I bought a postcard that said “NEBRASKA…where you can hear the corn grown!” with a tractor pulling a huge ear of corn.  I got a good laugh out of that.  I was sorely tempted by five journals, but I couldn’t make up my mind, so I didn’t buy any.

After walking all around, I ate a very early dinner at Upstream Brewing Co.  I had an American Wheat Beer (with a hint of lemon and a “clean finish”) and a Firecracker Shrimp Pizza: Shrimp, tomato sauce, cream cheese, jalapeños, mozzarella cheese, onions and spinach. Normally $12.25, it was $7 because it was Wednesday night, and the draft was $3 rather than $5.  I sat on the patio in the shade with a cool breeze.  It was very pleasant, although it was way too early (3:30-4:15) for dinner!

What a fun and busy day I had in Omaha, but I was exhausted after all the places I went: Boys Town, El Museo Latino, the Gerald Ford Birth Site, the Joslyn Museum, and the Old Market.

The next day, I would leave Omaha in the dust as I made my way up the east side of Nebraska.

*Steps: 10,516, or 4.46 miles*

*Wednesday, September 4, 2019*