Omaha eats.

Now that I've shared my CWS adventures, let's get down to the important stuff.  Food.

The good thing about staying in a hotel room with no kitchen is that minus the continental breakfasts, we ate out every single meal for more than a week.  Lots of opportunities to try out the local fare.  As usual, D and attempted to stay clear of anything we could get back home.  For the most part we succeeded, the exceptions being a desperate trip to Taco Bell and a lazy Papa John's delivery.

The one criticism I have, overall, is that Omaha food is salty.  Especially foods that are known for being salty.  We didn't meet a fry that wasn't drowning in it.  My poor sweet potato fries weren't sweet in the slightest.  We thought it was just an errant chef at the first restaurant, but then the second place wasn't any better, or the third.  The pretzels at the ball games were—no joke—covered in salt.  From far off they looked frosted.  I don't know how the locals aren't chronically bloated.

Despite the salt problem—we all learned to stay clear of fries after the first couple of days—I had some fantastic meals.  Here are some of my favorites:

Korean tacos at Granite City Food & Brewery.  Brilliant.

D's chicken barbecue pizza was excellent as well.  If we ever make it to Omaha again we are heading straight for that place.  I wanted to try nearly everything on the menu.

Famous Dave's BBQ.  I had pulled pork with Devil's Spit BBQ sauce (their hottest sauce, but nowhere near Louisiana levels of hot), jalapeno mac & cheese (not hot to this Louisianian), coleslaw, and a corn bread muffin.  Amazing!

Another favorite was a steakhouse called The Drover.  Highly recommended by the locals.  The place was so dark I didn't bother to snap a photo of the food.  I snapped the exterior instead.  I had a house salad with a yummy poppyseed dressing, steak on top of a thick slice of bread (genius!), and coleslaw. 

I was remiss in taking photos of any of the game food.  But who knew baseball food could be so good?  TD Ameritrade Park does not play around.  Some of that food was restaurant quality.  I had the most delicious spicy italian jumbo hot dog and an equally tasty philly cheesesteak. 

The bad thing about staying in a hotel room with no kitchen?  I gained a good 5 pounds from all that face stuffing!  

Baseball for the bored.

Unlike D and the in-laws, I am not a baseball fanatic.  As I mentioned in a prior post, at most I enjoy a game from time to time.  I tend to get bored 30 minutes in.  Unless my alma mater is playing, in which case I can usually manage to corral enough attention to last the duration.  Unfortunately, my blasted alma mater missed the CWS by one game.  So what's a girl with a short attention span for baseball, but without a team supposed to do?  People watch, naturally.

I found it interesting that each game had a different personality.  You could gauge a crowd by how many beach balls—and a lone walrus—there were and how people reacted to them being thrown during mid innings and in between innings.  At some games there were only a few balls bouncing around and people were adamant about them not disrupting plays.  At others there were dozens of balls and it took glares from a couple hardcore fans to stop them flying.

At one game I got hit in the head at least 4 times by balls.  A guy behind me heckled other nearby fans throughout the entire game and by the end practically everyone in our section had a delightful nickname.

At another game there were so many balls six of them ended up on the field at the same time, from the same section.  That crowd was also serious about the wave.  It went completely around the stadium at least ten times.  Those folks employed styles of waves I'd never seen before.  There was the double wave, the reverse wave, the freeze wave, the slow motion wave.

It was obvious that the CWS is a summer hang out for the local teenagers because they never dressed appropriately—butt cheek baring daisy dukes, too much makeup and jewelry, sparkly see-through tops—and clearly couldn't care less about the outcome of the games.  They chatted and texted on their phones, played musical chairs, and couldn't go twenty minutes without buying a snow cone or a hot dog.

Most of my fun was had taking photos of beach ball spiking.  And eating, but I'll save that for another post.

 

 

I was stuck with my camera phone since large cameras are not allowed in the park.  It is no easy feat capturing beach balls mid-air without a zoom and no way to adjust the shutter speed. 

Rosenblatt.

While in Omaha we got the opportunity to visit Rosenblatt Stadium on the last day it was open to the public.  Although my alma mater has won several national championships there in the last twenty years, I've never particularly felt a sentimental attachment to the place.  At least not until that final day.  The sight of a field full of weeds, chipped and faded paint, and the seatless concrete benches made me sad.

Rosenblatt, I hardly knew ye.

CWS

I'm back from my yearly trip with the in-laws.  Last year we rented a house on the beach.  This year we traveled to Omaha for the College World Series.  That was D's idea.  I enjoy a baseball game every now and then, but attending several a week is hard core.  

I have lots to share, but I'm still recuperating so for today I'll just leave these photos.

 

 

We had a rainout.  Of course it was the day we had the best seats.  Right behind home plate.

Thankfully, the weather was perfect, albeit hot, the next day.

After each game we would walk past these cool statues in front of a building across the street.  

My apologies for the blurry photos.  I took these quickly and meant to take better ones another day, but never got the chance.

Frazzled.

I've felt kinda like this the last couple of weeks.

A wee bit frazzled.  For no other reason than I've just been busy.  Nothing photo worthy, unfortunately.  Mostly, organizing and spring cleaning.  

The blog is likely to continue being quiet the rest of the month.  I have a few adventures coming up later this week and into the next, but sharing will have to wait.

Above is my nephew, btw.  He tends to frazzle easily.