Photograph a Midwest State of Mind traveling home

Born In Los Angeles, yet Raised in Omaha, Nebraska, you could say that is quite the dichotomy of culture and geography. Yeah, pretty much polar opposites .  Instead of beach, you get rolling farm lands, and black hills. Instead of dolphins and whales migrating, you get loads of deer and even some buffalo out west.  Instead of perfect weather you get hot and sticky humidity that you can cut with a picnic knife in the Summer. Or temperatures so cold in the Winter, your car engine block can freeze faster than your eyelids.

Fun Fact:

Before it was legal to claim land in Indian Country, William Brown was operating the Lone Tree Ferry to bring settlers from Council Bluffs to Omaha (across the Missouri River).  A treaty with the Omaha Tribe allowed the creation of the Nebraska Territory, and Omaha  was founded on July 4, 1854, and then incorporated three years later.

The area of Eastern Nebraska once was home to the Native American tribes: Pawnee, Otoe, Sioux, the Missouri and Ioway. Unfortunately westernization, building of the railroad and European settlement saw the desecration and extinction of these tribes. 

The First Transcontinental Railroad, known originally as the "Pacific Railroad" and later as the "Overland Route") was a 1,912-mile continuous railroad line constructed between 1863 and 1869 that connected the existing eastern U.S. rail network at Omaha with the Pacific coast at the Oakland Long Wharf on San Francisco Bay.

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Omaha is also the long time home for NCAA baseball championship each June.  The city of just under 1mil population is gearing up for the College World Series, where over 150,000 fans will descend upon the city for 10 days of play.  

Omaha is also home to one of the worlds most elite Zoo's. The Henry Doorly  Zoo & Aquarium 

n August 2014, TripAdvisor proclaimed Henry Doorly Zoo the "world's best zoo", leading San Diego Zoo and Loro Parque, of 275 major zoos worldwide.  It is nationally renowned for its leadership in animal conservation and research. Evolving from the public Riverview Park Zoo established in 1894, today the zoo includes several notable exhibits. It features the largest cat complex in North America.  The world's largest nocturnal exhibit and indoor swamp; the Lied Jungle is the world's largest indoor rainforests, and the "Desert Dome" is one of the world's largest indoor deserts, as well as the largest glazed geodesic dome in the world. The zoo is Nebraska’s top paid attendance attraction and has welcomed more than 25 million visitors over the past 40 years.  

I suggest going at least once.