I miss a lot of my favorite places around my home state, and I imagine a lot of you do too. Since most places are closed, or it’s too hard to maintain social distancing if you do visit them. What’s a family to do? Virtual tours and virtual experiences. And maybe, if we’re lucky, live cams. Here’s my guide for some of Nebraska’s virtual experiences.
Virtual Omaha: Tours & Videos
My hometown, Omaha, is the city I know best. If you follow me on any social platform, you know I’m usually out exploring, so these days are tough for me. So, I started looking around to see where I can find virtual experiences of the city. Here’s what I’ve got so far:
Virtual tours in Omaha
I’m not sure how frequent these will be, but Bemis Center For Contemporary Arts had a live virtual studio tour today on Facebook with one of their resident artists.
Omaha Children’s Museums’ “Diggin’ Dinos” special exhibit which is currently at the museum (which is closed through March 31). You can see some of the museum’s past exhibits’ virtual tours, too.
Joslyn Art Museum has a virtual tour of its temporary exhibit, “Fact and Fiction in Contemporary Photography.”
Ever wonder what “the vault” at The Durham Museum is like? There’s a virtual vault tour for that.
Daily videos and activities with Omaha institutions
Miss Omaha’s zoo? Yeah, me too. Each day at 2 p.m. CST you can visit the zoo’s Facebook page and watch a live, interactive video from inside the zoo.
Omaha Children’s Museum has daily programming geared for kids ages 8 and younger. Stay tuned for daily videos on the museum’s Facebook page. Recent ones have been a story time, game suggestion, and a tinker challenge.
Do you know of any Omaha businesses or museums doing virtual tours or interactive videos? Leave me a comment so I can add them to the post!
Virtual Nebraska road trip, anyone?
Outside of Omaha, you have other virtual options.
Iain Nicolson Audubon Center in Kearney, Neb., has a live crane cam, which is perfect timing to see the impressive sandhill crane migration.
Head to Lincoln, Neb. (virtually, that is) and take a virtual tour of the Capitol and Governor’s Residence. While you’re “in” Lincoln, you can also take a virtual tour of Lincoln Children’s Museum.
Lincoln Children’s Zoo has a fun program going on each day on Facebook. Each day at 3 p.m., the zoo shares a new Keeper Corner Facebook video and a fun activity to go with it. They even have an activity punchcard that you’ll be able to bring into the zoo someday and get a free ice cream cone.
Ever been to Red Cloud, Neb.? You can go there virtually and tour four of the town’s most important sites linked to Willa Cather.
Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer has been doing some live Facebook videos around their facilities.
More online entertainment and resources
If you’re looking more for activities and educational resources, I have a few posts to help:
Educational Resources For Nebraska Families – These are downloadable materials related to Nebraska history, Nebraska wildlife and nature, and other helpful links to museums and local teachers.
25+ Free Online Resources For Bored Kids – This post contains a ton of links to free sites, including celebrity storytimes, printable Madlibs, and children’s museums with DIY projects for kids.
