Another Year Older!

We usually visit the family in Omaha around the Memorial Day holiday but this year, we decided to make the trip around my birthday in July.  At my stage and age, birthdays can be as ‘memorable’ as the birthdays we celebrate with children who are 5 or younger.

Part of the celebration involved our exploration of Harold Warp’s Pioneer Village in Minden Nebraska.  Then of course, as is our practice when the family gets together, there are more dining experiences.  With my birthday in mind, the primary food focus was on places of interest or food that I really enjoy. 

For breakfast, the family took us to Vidlak’s Brookside Cafe…a large ‘diner style’ operation that is only open for breakfast/brunch/lunch until 1:45 PM daily.  We’d eaten at Vidlak’s before and our breakfasts had been very satisfying.  Breakfast is my favorite meal to eat out.

I’m not going to describe everyone’s meal… Suffice it to say, our group had eggs, scrambled plain or with vegetables, or poached with béarnaise sauce.  Hash brown potatoes were popular as was sausage and bacon.  Toast, an English muffin and a bagel rounded out the entrees.  The plate of biscuits and sausage gravy was shared.

Everyone was content with their food…with the hash brown potatoes being consistently crispy as we like them.  The only ‘downer’ was the sausage gravy.  It lacked any real sausage flavor or 'kick', but the biscuits were fine.

This was my breakfast…2 over-easy eggs with a nice order of hash brown potatoes and a country-fried steak smothered in the sausage gravy.  I added a ‘kick’ to the sausage gravy with a sprinkling of Tabasco sauce.  I also had rye toast…not pictured. 

The menu at Vidlak’s is oversized for sure.  It features 8 pan omelets, 8 types of pancakes plus potato pancakes, French toast, a breakfast burrito, 6 ‘scrambles’, 6 breakfast casseroles, 2 breakfast sandwiches, 4 different eggs benedict options and 9 ‘old fashioned’ favorites.  And then again there are the lunch/brunch/early dinner offerings.

Vidlak’s Brookside Café is located at 15668 West Center Road in Omaha Nebraska.  Phone: 402-330-0914.  Website: Vidlak's Cafe in Omaha, Nebraska (vidlaksbrooksidecafe.com).

Either Laurie or I took this photo of our happy crew before we had breakfast.  From the left, David II, Emmett (our youngest grandson) and Amy.  David III was off somewhere else…

Another activity during our visit was a trip to the movie theater.  Pictured above are David III, Amy, Emmett and David II.  The movie was the latest/7th of the ‘Mission Impossible’ series starring Tom Cruise.  This one was titled “Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One”.  The follow on…Part Two…won’t be released until 2025. 

I am notoriously difficult to buy presents for and David II works hard to figure out something new and different as a present or presents that he can give to his old dad.  I do have most of what I want or can use…at least most of what I want that doesn’t involve hundreds or thousands of dollars.

In one of my blog posts I’d mention that we’d visited the lair of author James Oliver Curwood on one of our trips…this time it was to Michigan.  I’d also commented that I’d have to buy a couple of Curwood’s books.  Well, as you can see by the pile in my lap, I now have a plethora of Curwood’s books. They should keep me busy for quite a while!  

My age is a secret…or it was until my lovely wife took this photo of yours truly with my birthday pie.  FYI, it was a banana cream pie, an all-time favorite of mine!  Luckily for y’all, I didn’t record the family’s rendition of “Happy Birthday”!

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by as we continue to wander through our life together, documenting it was we go.

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave