Oh! Omaha: an outstanding zoo and other attractions lure visitors to this metropolis on the eastern border of Nebraska

Travel America, March-April, 2005 by Mike Whye

THERE ARE PLENTY OF GREAT PLACE VISIT IN Nebraska, but it seems fitting that when people enter Omaha from the east on Interstate 80, they encounter the biggest attraction in the state and the best in the city-Henry Doorly Zoo. Ranked as the nation's best zoo 2004 by Reader's Digest. Henry Doorly, like a leopard, has bounded past other zoos in the past decade with some world-class additions.

The zoo's latest crowd-pleaser, Hubbard Gorilla Valley, opened last spring. Glass-and-concrete corridors take visitors past indoor and outdoor exhibits that can hold up to 30 eat apes. In some areas, undulating glass walls give the appearance that the gorillas are mingling with the humans, and with apes above and below in some passageways, one might wonder who's watching whom. An expanded orangutan habitat opens this year.

The zoo's first national attention-grabber was the world's largest indoor jungle, which is divided into Asian, African, and South American spheres where colorful macaws preen themselves, tapirs relax near pools, and howler monkeys appear to have the run of the place. In one of the Midwest's largest aquariums, people walk through a 70-foot-long glass tunnel that passes through the waters of a coral reef, the home of colorful fish, dark sharks, and graceful sting rays.

Henry Doorly Zoo also boasts the world's largest geodesic dome, which shelters the world's largest indoor desert, with grazing animals, predators, and birds from America, Australia, and Africa. Under all that is the world's largest nocturnal exhibit, encompassing an underground river and waterfall, plus a quarter-acre Louisiana swamp with amphibians, fishes, reptiles, mammals, and bats.

Immediately west of the zoo is Rosenblatt Stadium, where baseball fans converge every June for the College World Series.

A short drive from the zoo and the stadium is the Old Market, a former warehouse district built during the early 20th century. The brick buildings house unique shops and galleries. Popular restaurants include M's Pub, Vivace's, the French Cafe, and Upstream Brewery.

Just north of the Old Market is Durham Western Heritage Museum, located in Union Depot, an Art Deco masterpiece. Nearby is the Gene Leahy Mall, a park with supersized slides and huge stepping stones to play on, and paths along a waterway that goes to Heartland of America Park. Gondolas and tour boats at Heartland take visitors across a peaceful lagoon that collects the mists blowing off a fountain that's colorfully lit at night.

Omaha's Joslyn Art Museum has a superb collection of 19th and 20th century American and European art. Of particular interest are the works of Karl Bodmer, who illustrated the Upper Midwest and its Native American residents in the mid-19th century. About three miles west of the museum, Shakespeare on the Green offers performances on summer evenings in a shady glen at the Omaha campus of the University of Nebraska

On the western edge of Omaha is Boys Town, although it's officially called Girls and Boys Town now because many residents are female. The place to stop here is the Hall of History, a great museum that tells the story of this famous home for orphaned kids.

If you're this far out in west Omaha, it's only another 20 or so minutes to Exit 426 on I-80 and the Lee Simmons Wildlife Safari and Conservation Park, an extension of the Henry Doorly Zoo. The park's woods and prairie are home to elk, coyote, bison, wolves, and other animals native to Nebraska. At the same exit are two other great attractions--the Strategic Air and Space Museum, which has about three dozen historic aircraft in spacious hangars, and Mahoney State Park, featuring a lodge, restaurant, cabins, horse riding, and miniature golf.

Contact: Omaha Convention and Visitors Bureau, (866) 937-6624; www.visitomaha.com.