Things to Do in Council Bluffs

After a long stint in the Missouri Valley Conference, the Creighton University Bluejays will have a new home in 2013. Though the program is moving to the Big East Conference, its achievements in the MVC will live on. Creighton is the only school in conference history to top 200,000 fans in attendance for a season and the men's basketball team's reign of 15 consecutive postseason appearances, but the school's greatest sports moment may have come on the softball field. In an interview with White & Blue Review, Travis Sing—an alum and author of a book about the school's athletic past—gave his vote to softball player Kelly Brookhart for pitching a complete 31-inning game in 1991, followed by more than 20 innings in the second half of a double-header that went until 6 a.m. the following morning.

The athletics program's facilities are almost as much of a draw as the players. Built in 2011, the impressive TD Ameritrade Park Omaha houses the men's baseball team as well as the College World Series. Up to 24,000 fans can pack the park's trio of decks and bleacher seats, hemmed in by a spacious, 360-degree concourse and wormhole that transports fans to the 2114 College Galactic Series.

When the Joslyn Art Museum opened in 1931, more than 25,000 people lined up to see the exhibits. It had taken three years of construction and $3 million to create the splendid art-deco building, which was inlaid with more than 38 types of marble imported from around the world. The force behind this enormous effort was philanthropist Sarah Joslyn, who had the building built in honor of her late husband. But instead of standing front and center, Sarah quietly mixed in with the crowd. "I am just one of the public," she said to people who recognized her.

Sarah truly viewed the museum as a gift to the people of Omaha. And for more than 75 years, they've cared for it like one. With the 58,000-square-foot addition addition of the Walter & Suzanne Scott Pavilion, a sculpture garden, and other enhancements, the museum has grown with time. Visitors today find more than 11,000 works of art inside, with collections and exhibitions that include pieces of ancient Greek pottery, Renaissance and Baroque paintings by Titian and El Greco, and Impressionist works by Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Claude Monet.

After admiring the peasant portraiture of 19th-century French realist Jules Breton, guests can cartwheel over to a collection of 18th- and 19th-century American artwork, which includes portraits by James Peale and landscape images by Thomas Cole. Pieces from the 20th century from artists such as Grant Wood transition visitors into viewings of more contemporary works or attempts to find a 3-D Magic Eye picture in Jackson Pollock's Galaxy.

Even in the cold, blue stillness of a winter morning, the bike techs at Greenstreet Cycles can be seen locking up their cycles before opening shop for the day. Leading by example, they advocate eco-friendly commuting throughout the year and work to keep their customers' rides in shape for such endeavors by performing basic adjustments, seasonal tune-ups, and complete overhauls. The Greenstreet Cycles team also recycles old parts by donating to the Community Bike Project—an organization dedicated to equipping community members with bikes and knowledge on how to keep those bikes in tip-top condition and riding in straight lines as opposed to continuous circles.

When it was originally built as the Riviera in 1927, The Rose Theater played host to vaudeville skits, stage acts, and feature films in opulent surroundings of murals, oriental rugs, and a ceiling decorated with electric stars and clouds. However, the stock-market crash of 1929 forced the theater’s sale, bouncing it from owner to owner until Rose Blumkin and her family saved it from a giant wielding a wrecking ball as a mace. Renovated to its former glory, the theater is now a place where professional stage productions and drama courses give children the chance to enjoy and participate in the arts of the stage.

As an HGTV-featured glass artist and author of the short story collection An Extraordinary Life: …Once You Take Out All of the Boring Crap, Kristi Pederson encourages individuals to embrace creativity. Adult and kids' art classes at her studio, Adventure in Art, focus on fun over perfectionism as Kristi teaches beginner-level students to create projects such as fused-glass ornaments and custom jewelry. And during Paint N Pour sessions, adults sip goblets of vino as they fill canvases with color and learn how Leonardo Da Vinci invented red wine by cleaning his brushes in chardonnay.

Thanks to 20 hard-working snow-making machines, skiers and snowboarders of all levels can zip down nine different runs reaching up to 2,000 feet, and also enjoy night skiing at this western-Iowa resort. Although gravity will pull patrons inexorably toward the bottom of the slopes, two chairlifts return as many as 3,600 snow surfers to the top each hour, where they can take in views of the ski area's 50 acres, test their mettle on trails such as the challenging Double Trouble Chute, or make a snow-sculpted diorama of the entire cast of Happy Days. Afterward, skiers can warm their toes in the newly renovated two-story lodge and replenish their bodies with a drink from the Mountain Cafe & Bar. Guests can also rent skis and snowboards, take lessons, or conquer the slopes on an office chair.