Stephen and Amelia: A Grand Day Out

If there is one area in our married life that produces the most friction, yet also the most joy, it is the fact that I am a Do-er and Steve is a Chill-er.  The Chill-er won out over the Do-er this week when, in his great perception, Steve decided that we needed to spend some serious time away from our little house, little dog, and little work-a-day lives.  He bought tickets for us to see the Reduced Shakespeare Company perform at the Lied Center, I made reservations for a night at the Holiday Inn Express, and we popped into the Bronco for 36 hours of escape.

Highlights of the adventure include:

• Running into Target on the way to find an appropriate piece of maternity wear for the theater (since I have been wearing jeans and a shirt to most everything lately).  Steve actually found the perfect dress before I did, the helpful little stinker.
• Screaming out Part Three of the Steinbeck book over the grumbling of the Bronco and the roar of the wind on I-80.
• Stopping at Starbucks in downtown Lincoln for a quick change in the bathroom, and then going to Panera for a snack.
• Realizing that I forgot to bring the camera with us when we got out of the Bronco in the parking garage.  Wow. 
• Concluding that we were meant to live in a larger town and in warm weather.
• Seeing the Reduced Shakespeare Company perform all of Shakespeare's plays in 1.5 hours.  We sat in the balcony and there was no one in front of me (glory be!).  The play was very clever and well-performed, but it tended toward the raunchy side.  That was disappointing, but what do you expect from comedy these days?  We agreed that the condensation of Hamlet made it worth staying until the end of the show.  "OOB!"
• Finally finding the hotel (we bless the GPS, but it just didn't like getting us to Belmont Street) and discovering that I had accidentally made reservations for the night before.  Oops.  They were nice and straightened it all out, but I felt Really Stupid.
• Concluding that Applebees is the only restaurant open at 11pm on a Tuesday night, and is therefore a blessed sight.
• Wandering around Lincoln the next day:

We went to the Capitol.  This is such a fun old building.

Funny little statues.

Brown city of Lincoln, as seen from the top of the capitol.  It was really windy and creepy up there.

Windblown us.

Morrill Hall (science museum).  We just avoided the two busloads full of elementary school children.  

Steve: Well, now we have seen the demise of philosophy, and here we are looking at the demise of Marxist education.

There was a line-up of thrift stores and antique shops on O Street, so we kept sticking coins in the parking meter and spent about 3 hours perusing the junk.  It was so fun.

We kept coming back to this Starbucks over and over.  Like probably five times.

Only to be outdone by the Panera Bread across the street which saw our faces many, many times over the course of the day.  We weren't very adventurous in the eating department.

Home again, home again.  But only after doing the Baby registry at multiple Targets.

So the Grand Day Out ended, as they always must.  It's amazing to get away from Small Town USA to an only slightly larger town and realize how small and far away all of our every day stresses are.  It was also good to remember that God can use these escapes to restore our perspective on Himself, to allow us to enjoy each other and enjoy Him.

Now I wish that I could randomly give Grand Day Outs to other couples...or singles...or families...or grandparents or....