One of the weekly items I used to do that I am bringing back is my Friday feature called Weekend Warriors: Daycations. It is where I share a bunch of info on one of my favorite places to visit in a day or weekend. 

I also told you I would be trying to connect my Weekend Warrior feature with my Where's Wes (Wednesday) feature. So, Wes was at Lake Zorinsky in West Omaha, Nebraska in the picture here.  

So today I am reposting my very most often viewed blog post EVER! The original Weekend Warriors: Lake Zorinsky post can be seen here, or just keep reading because I am posting it below as well! Enjoy!

As a reminder, I intend for this series of posts to give suggestions of good day trips you can make from various locations. Today is a great place to spend a day in Omaha. Some of the other places near Omaha I have covered in the past are:

• The Henry Doorly Zoo here
• Adventureland in Iowa here
• Eugene T Mahoney State Park here
• Shenandoah, Iowa here

Today, I want to talk about a favorite place for our family to visit any day of the week: Zorinsky Lake.  Check out the pictures I took of the sunset over the beautiful lake (this is from up on the trail):

Zorinsky Lake is located at 156th and F streets in West Omaha.

There is a HUGE lake with just over 7 miles of walking trails around it, a couple playgrounds, lots of picnic shelters, and a swimming area with water slides.

We LOVE to walk around the lake as a family and could easily spend all day there. In fact, we spent MANY days there when my husband was in residency. We lived right off the lake and spent a lot of time taking advantage of the great activities it has to offer!

If we were to spend the whole day there now, here is what I would do:

Pack up a cooler for lunch (or the makings of a BBQ), then  choose which of the following activities I wanted to fit in:

• The new pool (This does cost money, but not bad for a daycation-it is a really reasonable rate, but the pools in Omaha are only opened for a limited season each summer. The pools open Memorial Day weekend usually and they close when school starts which is generally around August 10th.)
• Walk around the lake (MY favorite thing to do!)
• Play at the playground
• If I had a boat (or a friend with one) I would happily just go boating all day!
• Fishing
• BBQ

Now, just as an FYI, you can reserve some of the covered shelters if you want to make sure you have a place to eat and hang out. You can find more info about Shelter rentals here.

AND I will add a few things: The water Park is AWESOME and inexpensive for what it is. You could spend all day there if you wanted to! Or spend part of the day there and enjoy the rest the Lake has to offer as well.

So, head on over to Lake Zorinsky and ENJOY!!!

Many of you know that my husband is in his last year of residency (no, we aren't done. We still have a year of fellowship after resodency). We have been married for 10 years. During that time, we both graduated from college in Utah (GO UTES), he went to medical school in Omaha, internship in Spokane, BACK to Omaha for Residency, and soon we will be off to Scottsdale for fellowship. That is an awful lot of cross country moves in 10 years, but we are happy to go on new adventures. AND one of my favorite things about moving is discovering all the new things unique to the places we live. And as we have actually lived 7 of our 10 years married here in Omaha so far, we have had lots of time to discover great hidden gems around our city.As with all cities, the holiday season brings lots of fun activities. and I am a SUCKER for a free family event! (I am also a fan of inexpensive ones!!) Visit Omaha has a great list of activities you can do over the holiday season and in fact has a site it launches just for the Holidays. This site covers events for families, kids, adults, well...for everyone! Free as well as costly and all kinds of options for fun! I was sent a few of the free and inexpensive upcoming activities to share with you (These are just ones coming up this week--near Thanksgiving. There are more I will share in an upcoming post!):

Holiday Lights Festival – The festival lights up Omaha’s downtown and has been an Omaha tradition for over 10 years. The Festival kicks off with a special lighting ceremony on Thanksgiving evening, November 24th at 6 pm. For more information on the Holiday Lights Festival, visit www.holidaylightsfestival.org.

***Cost Information: This event is free.

After the Thanksgiving lighting ceremony, you can go to the Nebraska Wind Symphony Concert at the Holland Center. This free concert – part of the Holiday Lights Festival - features more than 85 local musicians. The concert takes place on November 24th at 7 pm. To learn more, visit www.nebraskawindsymphony.com .

***Cost Information: This event is free.

***Cost Information: This event is free with membership and free to non-members on Sundays. For non-members, admission is $6 for adults, $3 for children between the ages of 3-12, and free to children under 3.

The Tree Lighting Ceremony kicks off Christmas at Union Station (at the Durham Museum). This event takes place on November 25th from 4-7 pm. A highlight of this year’s celebration will be a performance by jazz singer Camille Metoyer Moten, who will perform along with a Christmas carol sing along, cookie decorating, holiday crafts for kids and visits with Santa Claus. To learn more, visit: http://durhammuseum.org/about/whats-new/details.aspx?ID=230 .

***Cost Information: This event is free with museum membership. For non-members, admission is $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and $5 for children between the ages of 3 and 12. Children under 3 are free.

Please go check out the Visit Omaha holiday site to see the other fun upcoming events. Oh, and go check out The Visit Omaha Facebook page where you can enter a contest called the “Happier Holiday’s Giftaway.” The winner gets a two night “stay and play” at Midtown Crossing!!! That is awesome!! If I don't win it, one of you should!