[CaliBoy]

We traveled by car to Omaha from Durham due to a family emergency we needed to tend to. However, we left Omaha with obvious impressions, though limited, I thought I would quickly share:

1. Driving into town from the south up 29 west to the 80 toward the 80/280 interchange, we we somewhat unimpressed with what we could see. Even more so checking into our hotel and visiting neighboring properties. Not that it was terrible, just didn't seem interesting at all.

2. The downtown area is just magnificent. Living there, I would be proud to call Omaha my hometown. It seems like the downtown area and areas surrounding it are going through a revitalization that's been happening for quite a while. Lots of interesting restaurants, people singing in the streets, and new structures (or revitalized old structures) abound. We walked the streets during the day and night and felt right at home. We even met a couple who invited us in for drinks at one of the loft developments. Just great!

3. Lots of highway construction. A good and a bad thing. Good for the obvious reasons, but bad because highway speeds seemed to change frequently and the lane markings were a bit confusing even for me. Lots of highway patrol preying on people. That's not always a bad thing either, but it just seemed like there were a lot of people getting pulled over at all times of the day and night, traffic or no traffic. We started getting paranoid after a while.

4. I was surprised to see so many medical facilities. It was impressive. We've been looking into RN programs here in NC... now, we're seriously considering the programs at various medical facilities in Omaha. A lot of RN's were quite knowledgeable and thorough that we witnessed... they were all trained somewhere in Omaha. Besides, that would put us closer in with family, too.

5. I've read some posts about Nebraska and Omaha being boring. I think it depends on the person and where they are in life that sets the degree of excitement. However, having a wide range of entertainment opportunities does make a difference. We don't know about all the music venues and outdoor activities that are available, but we did see that as far as everyday shopping is concerned, there doesn't appear to be anything lacking in Omaha that other cities have over it. Unless you desire places like Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills (that could exist in Omaha, but we didn't see or were looking for it), we found many familiar stores.

6. We were quite impressed with the number of vintage turn of the century homes NW of downtown. We walked the streets there too just to get a feel. Prices of homes weren't too bad either. Don't know much about the rents, but we would probably somewhere in that area to live should we decide to go to school there.

Of course, we did not visit every location in Omaha just like we didn't visit every location in Raleigh/Durham here in NC. Each city has it's good and it's bad parts. We found a lot of good parts in Omaha (that eclipsed our initial poor impression when we first drove into town).

Though in the long term, and it's too early to project ahead much based on a limited impression, we would prefer living in an area close to an ocean (preferable the Pacific), we know we would not want to ever go back to Los Angeles even though a lot of opportunity exists for us there. It really comes down to the people and the community that surrounds you. We are so impressed with how gracious and warm people are here in the South. It would be tough to leave that, for sure (and nothing solid is yet planned either). But the few people we met out in Omaha were quite wonderful too, even though they were actually transplants.

Unfortunately, it took a family emergency to bring us to Omaha. But we look forward to visiting again. Who knows, maybe our visit turns into a life changing course of action for a bunch of years. One never knows.

[mattpoulsen]

Just so you know the medical profession is one of Omaha's strengths. We have two medical schools and both are top notch. UNMC in particular is an excellent med school and research center and truly is world renown.

[Victor 13]

Please do come back and visit us when you are not so rushed.I do hope the situation with your family emergency went well.

Not far from downtown is our world famous Henry Doorly Zoo. You have to visit it, but it will probably take a couple of days!

[Raphael07]

I'm glad you liked Omaha. I hope your family emergency went well and you come back soon.

[ehenningsen]

I hope all went well for your family..

With that said, a few things to consider is reading up on our health-care facilities.. Without a doubt it is world-class, not just coming from me, but people from around the country and the world for treatments. Also, places rated almanac has us within the very top in the nation for best healthcare in the nation. With that said, and I am not joking either.. Every hospital in the city is seeing a massive expansion project and there are a couple of new hosptials being built. The Health-care facilities here is one of our many gold trophies, if you need any help with more information, I can assist you just let me know..

[CaliBoy]

Thank you, everyone, for the well wishes. The family emergency still persists, but the initial blow is over. Though my mother in law is still in the hospital, she is, at least, out of ICU and is making improvements. I appreciate all your nice comments.

As for the medical profession there in Omaha, as I mentioned I was impressed at how much of a presence there is in the city. And here I thought the Raleigh/Durham area had a great influence. It does, of course, but there was something about the expansions I did witness at a number of the facilities we either visited or drove by. But as I said, the proof is in the pudding and the RN's I interacted with were just top notch! We have a great number of good schools here in RDU, but there's something important to be said about the schools in Omaha, I'm sure.

Right now, we're looking at Creighton (since they have an accelerated program and the RN we were most impressed with was trained there) as well as UNMC (where my mother in law is staying). We'll probably focus on those, unless there are others we should look at investigating.

The people we met also spoke of some great hiking somewhere north of the city. I'll be writing them tonight and ask specifically what that area was, but he said that the hiking was very nice.

Btw, we did not know anything about the zoo, so that'll be a place we definitely visit next time.

As for any experience, good or bad, it is what a person makes of it. It took me a while to adapt to Durham, NC because of the contrast between Los Angeles (Orange County) and Durham. Two completely different cities, each offering much different experiences both on an entertainment and social level. It isn't until a person actually walks the street and dives right in to the local culture that they can make a true assessment whether a city works for them or not. I know we didn't spend enough time rooting around the city due to the circumstances, but we did see enough to discover enough "likes" that we would be comfortable living in such a city.

Of course, there are areas to avoid with just about every city and town, and that takes time to learn about those areas. Thus, if anyone has any recommendations on areas to live, feel free to contact me or post them here.

Of course, we so love the downtown area where warehouses are turned into lofts and living areas, but we haven't the foggiest what the costs would be for living there. I imagine the downtown area is one of the most expensive. And though we prefer owning a home, we would probably rent until school was over.

[Katarina Witt]

I know this is nitpicky, but. . .

Why wouldn't you expect RNs, no matter where they were educated, to be knowledgeable? It's kind of insulting that you were so surprised at this. And RNs are NOT "trained", like seals, we are educated.

Katiana
BSN, University of Pittsburgh

[Dave1215]

Originally Posted by CaliBoy

Of course, we so love the downtown area where warehouses are turned into lofts and living areas, but we haven't the foggiest what the costs would be for living there. I imagine the downtown area is one of the most expensive. And though we prefer owning a home, we would probably rent until school was over.

DTO_Luv on this forum would give you the best perspective... Downtown is booming and you'll find all price ranges... He lives and works down there, has no car so truly understands the Omaha urban enviornment... look for his comments.

[guy4omaha]

Originally Posted by Katiana

I know this is nitpicky, but. . .

Why wouldn't you expect RNs, no matter where they were educated, to be knowledgeable? It's kind of insulting that you were so surprised at this. And RNs are NOT "trained", like seals, we are educated.

Katiana
BSN, University of Pittsburgh

Geez, Lighten up Francis. The comments were nothing but glowing positive about the RNs and schools being top notch here and you SOMEHOW manage to turn that into a negative.

[Raphael07]

Originally Posted by guy4omaha

Geez, Lighten up Francis. The comments were nothing but glowing positive about the RNs and schools being top notch here and you SOMEHOW manage to turn that into a negative.

Well, in your words, Geez, Lighten up Francis. She was just making a small point.