RickTownley/DN
A COFFEE HOUSE WORKER prepares
a cup of Joe. The Coffee House,
located at 1324 P Street, is
“Lincoln’s only New York style cof
fee house,” said an employee of the
Coffee House.
Parks offers getaway
before school begins
FUN from page 14
and take a half-hour trip to Eugene T.
Mahoney State Park, which is teeming
with outdoor opportunities.
The park’s season runs roughly
from Memorial Day weekend to Labor
Day weekend.
Park spokeswoman Alice Veskema
said the park’s craft center is open
year-round on Saturdays, as is the
mini-golf course - weather permitting.
“We even have people come to
play mini-golf in January,” she said.
The park’s other year-round activi
ties include horseback riding, fishing
and hiking.
Mahoney also has cabins and lodg
ing that are available for rental
throughout the year. *
Of course, state parks aren’t the
only option for outdoor entertainment.
Downtown Lincoln is more than
an eclectic ensemble of bars, shops
and Greek restaurants. Nestled away
among the hubs of commerce are sev
eral beautiful paries and gardens avail
able to all to help escape the concrete
and racket of the business district.
The Sunken Gardens, located at
27th and C streets, is a former neigh
borhood dump site that was converted
to a botanical garden during the Great
Depression.
The park is most often reserved for
wedding ceremonies, said Julie
Watson, a spokeswoman for the
Lincoln Parks and Recreation
Department, and she added that on
average, about 50 ceremonies are per
formed there per year.
The garden is the largest flower
display in the city and blooms more
than 50,000 flowering plants. The
Folsom Children’s Zoo, near the
Sunken Gardens at 1222 S. 27th St., is
another option for outdoor fun in the
late summer.
With animals ranging from llamas
to lemurs to dwarf crocodiles, the zoo
offers the chance to see foreign
wildlife close to home.
Todd Logan, marketing and events
coordinator for the zoo, said many are
dissuaded from visiting because of its
name.
“I think college students would
really enjoy what we have here, but
they just don’t come because they
think it’s only for children,” Logan
said. “It’s really not that way.”
The zoo began in the 1960s as a
children’s zoo with a focus on farm
animals, but since then the zoo has
continued to expand its scope and now
includes larger, more exotic animals
such as baboons and leopards.
Most of the zoo’s activities are ori
ented toward families, Logan said, but
he thought focusing more attention to
college-aged people would be a suc
cess.
Lincoln is also a hot spot for bike
riding and has about 70 total trail miles
throughout the city.
Rich Rodenburg, owner of Bike
Pedalers, 33rd and B streets, said he
has seen trail popularity grow in recent
years with college students.
“Biking is a good recreational pas
time,” Rodenburg said. “When you’re
not in the bars, what else is there to do
but get on a bike and go ride?”
Students find it much easier to ride
a bike to campus than drive a car,
Rodenburg said. The network of trails
throughout the city makes it possible
for students to get to campus on a bike
much faster, he added.
The Billy Wolff and Rock Island
Trails join together at 30th and A
streets then continue north to 16th and
R streets, ending up near City
Campus.
The Murdock Trail, which begins
at 17th and Holdrege streets, is conve
nient for those who need to bike to
East Campus.
Rosenburg said the MoPac Trail,
one of the longest trails in Lincoln,
will soon extend all the way to City
Campus. y
“Biking is great transportation,”
Rosenburg said. “That makes it ideal
for students.”
Although none of these activities
are that unusual, they are fun, cheap
and close to campus, which makes any
of them ideal for one last dose of sum
mer fun.
Parents ■
Keep informed of activities at UNL while your son or I
daughter is here. Subscribe to the Daily Nebraskan, ■
UNL student daily newspaper. $35/one semester or ■
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