Things to Do in Omaha

In addition to its 32 action-packed lanes, Mockingbird Lanes offers amenities for the entire family, including a newly renovated full-service lounge and snack bar, billiards, a large game room, and bumper lanes to accommodate little ones or the clumsy at heart. Pull yourself up by your bowling shoestraps ($2 rental value) and refine your strike skills during three fun rounds ($2.75–$3.60 per round). Each of the alley's long, lean, and athletic lanes comes with automatic scoring, so disbelieving opponents won't mis-mark your 7-12 split.

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.

Amid the lime-green and burnt-orange walls of Creation Station, an encouraging staff inspires visitors to follow their artistic impulses as they use pottery as their canvas. Seven days a week, experienced and casual artists alike can plunge their brushes into a rainbow of paints and let loose on a variety of mugs, figurines, and dishes. Once colorized to the artist’s content, finished bisque pieces visit a fiery kiln, where colors become more vibrant and snowmen melt into carrot-and-coal soup. Revelers can also gather at Creation Station to celebrate special occasions, such as birthdays, or make Christmas ornaments during the winter season.

At Busy Scrappin’, more than a thousand papers, albums, decorations, and kits surround a comfy workroom filled with hobbyists hard at work. The one-stop scrapbooking emporium is dedicated to fostering a community of likeminded craftsfolk by helping visitors learn new ways to memorialize family outings, little-league triumphs, and scrapbooking-competition victories. Guests drop in to socialize during Friday-night cropping sessions or learn new techniques at weekly, fun-filled workshops. And during regular hours, friendly staffers shepherd patrons through the selection of holiday-themed embellishments, card-making supplies, and paper crafts—eagerly giving suggestions for any upcoming project.

Throughout the week, Thunderbowl puts its signature twist on the classic game of bowling with a lineup of themed leagues and events. Orchestrated by the alley's staff, the league roster includes the Golden Agers senior league, the Ladies Night Out league, and the Have-A-Ball league, which comprises teams of one adult and one child. Events include a carnival day held in August, which includes revelry and a chance to win prizes. At Thunderbowl's snack bar, the kitchen crew fuels bowlers to prevent them from hiding marshmallows in the finger-holes of their bowling balls by crafting specialty burgers, pizzas, and sandwiches such as a patty melt with grilled onions and a chicken philly.

At That Pottery Place, the definition of an artist’s canvas expands to include everything from mugs to coin banks. The studio invites budding van Goghs to choose from more than 200 pottery designs and cloak their selection with lead-free paint from a rainbow of more than 50 colors. Stencils, stamps, and idea books stand ready to inspire artists who are facing creative blocks or giving their muse the silent treatment. After participants fully realize their visions, they entrust their work to the studio’s professionals, who glaze and fire each piece, readying it for pickup within a week.

In addition to pottery painting, That Pottery Place lets guests channel their creativity with mosaics, whose tiles and gems can be grouted or glued to mirrors and frames. Whatever the project, crafters can tote along their own snacks and drinks to fuel their creativity or throw at copycats. For more structured crafting, the studio organizes kids’ art classes and camps, and for celebrants seeking a hands-on event, they host parties.