Wicked Comes to the Orpheum Theatre

Just happened to notice the truck parked in front of the theater. The driver must have just pulled into town. Normally, they park in the back. -gs-

Street Construction - Summer 2008

It's Summer and the street construction crews have come out of hibernation. It seems like most of the major roads are under construction.

The traffic slowdowns can be annoying, but they also give you time to enjoy the beautiful Summer skies.

See more photos Caught on the Street at GeorgesPhotos.net.

-gs-

Giant Olympic Swimmer at Mutual of Omaha

Mutual of Omaha installed this 14-story banner to promote the 2008 Olympic Swim Trials and the four-day Swimvitational event. According to a story in the Omaha World-Herald, the banner is 245 feet high and 60 feet wide. So – how many megapixels do you need to make a print that big?

The Olympic trials will be in the 5-year-old, 17,000 seat, Qwest Center Omaha. The Mutual of Omaha Swimvitational is both a shakedown event for the trials and a qualifier and warm-up event for the swimmers.

Sorry about all the clutter in the foreground of the photo. Mutual of Omaha is located on one of the busiest streets in town. I pulled over for a quick shot through the car window.

Here are more photos Caught on the Street.

-gs-

Spring 2008

What better way to welcome Spring than to pay mother nature a visit. In this case I visited the drive through version. No reason to leave the climate controlled comfort of the car just to commune with nature.

The Wildlife Safari is a great family attraction located a few highway minutes south of Omaha, Nebraska. It's run by the same people that handle the world class Henry Doorly zoo.

The standards are just as high at the safari park, but the atmosphere is quite different. Where the zoo is obviously a man-made construction designed to look natural, the safari park is a natural area modified to accommodate the slow moving autos.

Here are a few photos from my visit on the park's opening weekend. Not pictured are the aviary or the valley that is home to bears and wolves.

You can can see other photos of the Henry Doorly Zoo and older photos of the Safari park here.

-gs-

Railroad Days - 2007

The Durham Western Heritage Museum, Lauritzen Gardens and the Union Pacific Railroad Museum joined together for Railroad Days - 2007. A single ten dollar admission fee granted the entire family admission to all three locations for the entire weekend. Buses carried patrons from site to site.

A few locomotives were on display at the Western Heritage museum. Photos of these and the permanent railroad displays are here.

The new garden railroad was open to the public for the first time at Lauritzen Gardens. The large locomotives at Kenefick Park were available as usual. Here are photos a few photos.

I didn't make it to the UP museum during Railroad days. That will have to wait for another time.

-gs-

Downtown Clouds

Late one afternoon in June these clouds suddenly appeared in the sky.

No storm followed. Just the clouds.

Click here for more photos and larger images.

-gs-

Aquila Court Wrap-up

Just one more photo to wrap up the Aquila Court face lift.

This shot was taken a couple of days after the work on the front of the building was complete.

Quite a bit of furniture was delivered that morning.

Click here for more photos of the construction work.

-gs-

Coal Train Leaves the Tracks

The Fourth of July was exciting for the crew of this train.

Several hoppers of coal jumped the tracks and dumped their contents on the embankment.

More photos here.

-gs-

The One That Got Away...

This is one of those shots that might have been great.

It was just after sunrise, the morning after a light snow. When I looked down at the street from my office window I saw tire tracks leading in and out of the empty parking spots. It only took a minute to retrieve the camera from my coat pocket. In that short time the Cox truck rolled into the forward spot.

Winter's not over. I'll be watching.

-gs-

Snow on New Year's Eve

We received the first snow of the season on New Year's Eve. There wasn't a lot, but it was combined with freezing rain and wind. Travel was possible, but difficult.

I don't know the story behind the fellow on the bicycle. The temperature was about 20 degrees and the winds were still quite high. Definitely not Bicycle weather.

Click here to see a few more snapshots.

Always Prepare the Surface Before Painting

The secret to a good paint job is good preparation of the surface. At least, that's what they always tell us.

Evidently the pros take a few shortcuts. The fellow that painted the lines on the street must not have noticed the dead pigeon.

-gs-

Woodman Tower 9-11 Memorial

During the week of September 11, 2006 the owners of the Woodman Tower in Omaha, Nebraska created a memorial to those lost in the destruction of the World Trade Center.

Flags were displayed on the East and West Faces of the building and spotlights projected twin beams into the sky.

The display ended mid-week when high winds tore the West facing flag. The remaining flag was quickly removed to avoid further damage.

Here are a few photos taken early in the week.

-gs-